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Training Tips

Training Tips
November 5, 2013

Training Tip: Hold The Soft Feel Longer

  Vertical flexion is something that you’ll build on with each give. First the horse has to understand that when you pick up on the reins and apply pressure with your legs he needs to maintain whatever gait he’s in and give to the pressure. As soon as he understands that concept, then you can […]

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Training Tips
October 29, 2013

Training Tip: Choose Your Horse’s First Trail Wisely

  When you ride your horse outside for the first time, I’ve found that it is best if you can give him a path to follow so that you can just put some steady miles under his feet. Ideally, I like to take my horses out on a wide dirt road where I can walk, […]

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Training Tips
October 22, 2013

Training Tip: The Concept Lesson

  When you first teach a horse something, it’s a concept lesson. In the concept lesson, your goal is to get the general idea of the lesson across to the horse. When you first ask a horse to do something, he won’t automatically know what to do. In fact, he’s probably going to do everything […]

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Training Tips
October 15, 2013

Training Tip: Practice Parts, Not The Whole

  If you show your horse in an event with patterns, like reining or dressage, don’t practice the pattern from start to finish during training sessions. Doing so is likely to cause your horse to anticipate the next maneuver and get ahead of you. Taking your horse through the same patterns over and over is […]

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Training Tips
October 8, 2013

Training Tip: Anticipation Isn’t Wholly A Bad 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. […]

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Training Tips
September 24, 2013

Training Tip: Two Eyes Are Always Better Than Two Heels

  What does a respectful horse do when you walk up to catch him? He turns and gives you two eyes, and even walks up to you. What does a disrespectful horse do?

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Training Tips
September 17, 2013

Training Tip: Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back

  If you talk to any good horse trainer about how they got to where they are, they’ll admit they’ve made some mistakes along the way. And if they’re worth their salt, they’ll probably tell you that the lessons they learned making those mistakes were invaluable. I often tell my Academy students, “If you haven’t […]

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Training Tips
September 10, 2013

Training Tip: Practice Patience

  If you want your horse to wait for your cues and be patient, you have to practice. Whatever you practice with your horse is what he gets good at. I literally include periods of waiting into my training sessions.

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Training Tips
September 3, 2013

Training Tip: Horse Hurries Back To The Barn

  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 […]

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Training Tips
August 20, 2013

Training Tip: Beating The Spook On The Trail – Redirect Nervous Energy

  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 […]

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