Getting Your Horse to Come to You (PART 1)

As a follow up on my last post, I am writing an example of how to cure the problem that I proposed there. It is important to remember that not every strategy will work on every horse. Pay close attention to your horse and make adjustments to its particular needs and personality.

The first priority you must have is to get respect from your horse. You need to create a situation where your horse wants to be with you as much or more than it wants to be with the herd. In all training, it is important to understand that you have to have patience. You must work on the horse’s schedule, because if you try to rush the training you will inevitably have to repeat it.

What you need to do before you start anything is break your problem down into individual steps that you can then use to create an appropriate training strategy.

The first step will be to get your horse to come to you. I like to start in the round pen. If you do not have a round pen or access to one, you can do this in a corral or the pasture you keep your horse in. Remember to remain open in your thinking, and understand that you may have to adjust your techniques to suite each individual horse and situation.

Without a halter or any other restraint, start your horse moving around the pen. Stand just behind the shoulder, and apply pressure. Always start with the least amount of pressure, and work up to just the amount of pressure it takes to get your horse moving. Some horses will start moving with just the pressure of your presence, if that doesn’t work raise your hand toward the horse. You can hold a whip, a coiled rope, or just the halter in your hand for a little added pressure. If that doesn’t get your horse moving add a little more pressure by shaking the whip, rope, or whatever you may have in your hand. If it is needed you can throw one end of the rope toward the horse.

It is important not to hit your horse in this exercise. You are just trying to get him moving, you don’t want to create any fear.

As he is moving around the pen, have him stop and change directions every couple of turns, always observing his expression. Observing his expression does not just mean watching his face. You need to pay attention to the whole body. Is his tail relaxed? Is his body curved to match the round pen, or does he exhibit a defensive posture with his jaw or rib cage pushed out to you?

You will be able to tell when he is looking to hook up when his ear is pricked toward you and he will start licking his lips. When that happens, you want to back off the pressure. Take a step back and open your leading shoulder by turning slightly away from him.

Your goal here is to get him to stop and turn to you, but initially you will want to reward even the slightest look. Eventually he will turn to you and walk right up to you. We will finish the round pen training in the next post, so come back as we learn to have our horse” LOVE TO BE CAUGHT”.

TO BE CONTINUED......

Focus on Training.

If you talk to any ‘Life Coach’ or ‘self help guru’, they all tell you the same thing. You will achieve what you focus on. It doesn’t necessarily matter what you WANT to achieve, what matters the most is what you focus on. For example, you may want to be a successful business person and make lots of money, but if you are always focusing on how poor you are and how much you hate your life, that is where you will be.

This same principle applies with horse training as well. Instead of focusing on all the things your horse does that you don’t like, it is vital that you concentrate your focus on what you want the horse to do.

You start by envisioning the behavior that you want your horse to exhibit. You need to break this down into the specific movements and correct sequence that your horse will have to make in order to accomplish your goal.

An example could be; my goal is to be able to call my horse from the gate of the pasture, have it run to me, stick its head out for the halter, lower its head so that I can fasten the halter.

This goal describes plainly the precise actions that I want the horse to perform. Having a clear definition of what you want your horse to accomplish will help you to lay out a proper training program, or sequence, so that you can realize your goal. It will also make it easy for you to identify all the steps that you will need to train for.

Conversely, “My stupid horse always runs away from me, and never lets me put the halter on!” A statement of this sort automatically places a negative process on your thoughts, and is counter-productive to your end goals. This style of focus and attitude is not conducive to finding training solutions, or creating strategies.

Analyze the previous statements, how might they each influence your ability to train your horse effectively?

Always strive to ask better questions, establish clear goals, and don’t forget to appreciate every effort your horse makes.