Horse Training

Horse Training for the perfect horse

A horse that just responds to your thinking, that bonds with you and trusts you.
But how do we get there?

There is a wealth of different training techniques out there. I personally don´t subscribe to a particular method. But having a close look at them is well worth it. I just pick out whatever I find useful for working with my horses.

For effective horse training you need to understand horse behavior . The knowledge about how they perceive the world and how their mind works is the key for successful training.

Horses are prey animals and we are predators. We look at the world with totally different eyes than they do. What seems logical to us can be very confusing for a horse.

We have to learn to think like a horse. We can´t expect a horse to think like a human.

Horses are social herd animals. Their skill to read body language is way better developed than ours. We are often totally unaware of the signals we give our horses and in turn often misread their response as bad behavior.

Intelligent horse training doesn´t only teach the horse something. If you are open-minded and willing to tune into your horse, it will teach you an awful lot about yourself! Your self-awareness and communication skills will improve greatly.

My Training Philosophies:

• The horse never makes a mistake!

  If something goes wrong, I have made a mistake. Maybe I have to break it down into smaller steps. Maybe I am asking too much and he is not ready for it.

• Don´t go working/riding a horse when under stress or time pressure.

  9 times out of 10 it will go wrong!

• Consistency in your work, aids and cues make training easier and more successful.

• Self-control: negative emotions and anger have NO! room in horse training.

  If you have to discipline your horse i.e. because he tried jumping on top of you, give him a clear and prompt message once. Continue as if nothing happened. Bear no grudge against your horse. You only confuse him.

• There is no need to ever beat up a horse.

  Fear is a bad learning environment. It is always counterproductive and horses never forget.

• Patience!

• Avoid boredom.

  Keep work varied: groundwork, lungeing, riding, hacking out, tricks,...

• Know when to stop!

  Don´t keep repeating exercises till your horse gets sick of them. Always finish on a good note.

• Every horse is an individual!

  What works with one might not work with another horse.

• Most important: Have fun and enjoy working with your horse!!!

Look here for a horse training guide for women . (opens new window)

How Horses Learn

Horses learn through positive or negative reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement uses a reward like food or praise as a reaction to the correct behavior of the horse.

The horse will try to do different things to find out what you want him to do. This training method has proven to be very motivating for horses. It also encourages the horses to think and they learn quicker. Clicker training is a form of positive reinforcement.

Negative reinforcement uses an unpleasant stimulus like pressure or pain. Once the horse shows the wanted behavior the pressure/pain will be removed.

Whichever reinforcement you chose (I hope it´s not pain!), it needs to happen within 1-2 seconds of the reaction of the horse to have the wanted learning effect.

In reality it is very hard to use only positive reinforcement. As an example: You are asking the horse to go and give a little pull on the halter. The horse moves and you release the pressure. That is negative reinforcement.

Can a human really be the Alpha for a horse?

In my opinion this is highly questionable! Why should a horse accept a human as their alpha?

We can be so confusing to them and then we all of a sudden disappear out of their lives for hours or days again.

I think the alpha-theory gives people with bad training practices the wrong arguments for their actions.No horse will learn if in fear!

It will produce submissive and confused horses that just give in to their fate because there is no other way for them. That is also called learned helplessness. Sad!

Mark Rashid´s concept of passive leadership (opens new window) appeals much more to me. (Mark Rashid "Horses never lie")

Horses trained that way are more reliable in difficult situations because they trust you. You are their chosen leader because you are dependable and consistent.

This requires a thinking and intelligent horse trainer that respects the horse as a partner. It might be very challenging at times. But in the long run it will be a lot of fun and very rewarding!

It will also teach you to question yourself and not blame the horse for our mistakes.

You can train your horse to do lots of different things:
dressage, horse jumping (opens new window), driving, tricks or liberty work. Miniature horses can even be trained as guide horses.

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