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Training Tips

Training Tips
January 3, 2017

Training Tip: Your Imagination is Your Greatest Tool

When it comes to training your horse, your imagination is your greatest tool. The more creative you can be in your lessons, the more interested your horse will be in his job. You’ve heard me say, “Consistency is your greatest ally and inconsistency is your greatest enemy.” And that’s absolutely true.

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Training Tips
December 27, 2016

Training Tip: What’s the Rush?

If you notice that your horse is in a hurry as you’re heading back home, do plenty of transitions with him to get his mind on you. When you do get back to the barn, put his feet to work. Spend ten minutes trotting and cantering him around the barn or in a nearby arena. […]

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Training Tips
December 20, 2016

Training Tip: Introducing Your Horse to Trail Riding

I prefer to ride a horse out by myself so that it’s just the two of us. When you get two or more horses on the trail, they have a tendency to want to race one another and get reactive. And, when you do ride your horse outside the first time, you want to give […]

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Training Tips
December 13, 2016

Training Tip: Your Horse Anticipating You Can Be a Good Thing

Anticipation is a common problem that plagues horses in all disciplines, particularly horses that are hot-blooded and sensitive. Horses are great at predicting our behavior and learning our habits, and it isn’t generally too hard for them to do so. As predators, we tend to follow the same routine, day in and day out. It […]

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Training Tips
December 6, 2016

Training Tip: Avoid These Trail Riding Mistakes

If you want your horse to be an all-around broke mount, it’s important to ride him outside the confines of an arena. Riding outside the arena will expose your horse to a brand new environment filled with strange objects, and most importantly, allow you to put some steady miles under his feet. Here are two […]

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Training Tips
November 29, 2016

Training Tip: Don’t Drill on Backing Exercises

When you first introduce the Fundamentals Backing Up exercises to your horse (Method 1: Tap the Air; Method 2: Wiggle, Wave, Walk and Whack; Method 3: Marching; and Method 4: Steady Pressure), spend just three to four minutes each training session working on each method. Backing up is not natural for horses (think about the […]

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Training Tips
November 22, 2016

Training Tip: Troubleshooting a Spook

If your horse does spook at something, put his energy to good use. If it’s an object you can ride around, circle your horse as close as you can to it, and every one and half circles, turn him into the object and head off in the new direction. Horses can only think about one […]

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Training Tips
November 15, 2016

Training Tip: Understanding Cold-Blooded Horses

While the Method works on all types of horses, every horse will require you to vary your approach slightly. I break horses into two broad groups – hot-blooded horses and cold-blooded horses. Cold-blooded horses are generally docile, laid back and relaxed. This category is made up of most draft breeds and some bloodlines of Quarter […]

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Training Tips
November 8, 2016

Training Tip: It all Starts With Lateral Flexion

Long before I even think of teaching a horse how to give vertically to the bit and collect, I teach him how to flex his head from side to side. Whenever a horse’s body is straight from his head to his tail, he’s practicing resistance. With that being said, once you start to teach your […]

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Training Tips
November 1, 2016

Training Tip: Warm Up With Groundwork Before Hitting the Trail

Before hitting the trail, be sure your horse is in the right frame of mind, meaning he’s calm, using the thinking side of his brain and focused on you. Most of the time, horses spook because they’re fresh and using the reactive side of their brain. Don’t just pull your horse out of the pasture, […]

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