1. “Building Trust: Walking Your Horse Through Obstacles”
2. “It Really Works!”
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1. “Building Trust: Walking Your Horse Through Obstacles”
I’ve talked about this many times before.
Does your horse have faith in you?
Would you know it if he did?
For most of you who have handled horses
for years you most likely have learned to
develop a trust with your horses.
This is an important subject, so here’s a
few things I want you to know.
First, I need to back up a little.
If you don’t know what your horse does
when he spooks, you should.
In other words, you should be able to
tell when he’s about to.
You should know the signs and how to
deal with it. You should learn to
anticipate it.
Why?
For your safety…and your horse’s safety.
Your horse should have faith in you
because he will look to you much like a kid
would to their parent.
If the parent is calm and cool, so will
the child be.
Same goes for the horse, more or less.
Thus, you must teach your horse to look
to you.
Plus, you need to know what his body
says and does when he gets spooked.
You learn this by watching him from the
ground and from the saddle.
I think the best way to do that is set
up an obstacle course.
It should be controlled.
It should start out with the most minimal
threats possible.
When we filmed Vickie Weigel doing this
she started with only poles on the ground.
She laid them roughly 30 feet apart and
had the rider and horse serpentine through them.
Carefully, she watched the horse’s reaction.
Was he scared?
Could he handle it?
Should the poles be farther apart?
Then what about you – the rider?
Are you looking forward and not down.
Here’s a good Rule of Thumb:
“Look Where You Want To End Up”
If you don’t want to end up on the ground,
then don’t look there.
Onward.
Now before you start riding your horse through
the poles, just let him look at them.
Give him a moment to see they exist.
You relax in the saddle.
If your horse gets tense between poles you
can kinda tell by his ears working back and forth.
Also, the jaw often tightens.
So…focus on where you want to be and go
there.
If that’s to the other end of the poles you’re
walking through, then that’s where you focus and go
to.
Remember, don’t look down – you’ll end up there
if you do.
Again, this is the very stuff that Vickie shows
in her DVD on helping your horse conquer his horse-eating
monsters.
If you want to know more about it, click on the
following:
Get Vickie Weigel’s Horse Eating Monsters DVD
Here’s another sign to look for in case you
think your horse thinks the poles are too close together.
You may see signs of anxiety like his tail coming
up.
Also, his ears may do some flaky things.
If this happens, the solution is easy.
Put the poles farther apart.
It makes it easier for the horse to walk through.
He doesn’t feel as confined.
Who knows – you may have to put the poles 50 feet
apart.
Depends on the horse.
The idea is to NOT scare the horse. If you have
to put them 50 feet apart at first, that’s okay.
As he gets more used to them, then you can bring
them closer together again.
Vickie does an excellent job of showing this using
just poles and then adds other scary things like
balls, coats, etc.
You can learn a lot from Vickie’s coaching techniques she
uses with her student as she advances through more
difficult situations – all the time building trust
between the rider and horse. This is something
you should consider doing with your horses to
take that spookiness out of them.
Get Vickie Weigel’s Horse Eating Monsters DVD
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2. “It Really Works”
I got this note from Marilyn last week. She likes the email tips
and has been using them. However, she also has the Beery course
books and has been applying the techniques. Needless to say, she’s
thrilled – I’ll let her tell you why:
“Dear Charlie, I have been receiving your emails for some time
now and appreciate every one. And have been able to apply some
of the tips to my horse who I describe as having ADD. But what
I have really learned is he is a type 3 dominant with type 2 added
in for good measure. This has proven to be challenging to work with.
However, everything I have tried from your tips have worked wonderfully
with him. But I hadn’t really applied any of these tips to the
other more cooperative horses.
I have a copy of “Illustrated Course in Horse Training” by
Prof. Jesse Beery. I have been working with my 9 yr old son
and our Miniature Horse/Mare of 9 yrs getting them ready for fair.
Tootsie is usually cooperative but when her the Mare in her is acting
up she can be difficult.
Yesterday, we were working on riding with a saddle – something she
hasn’t had for some time as Isaiah rides her bare back, usually with
and adult leading her. Any way this was one of these mare days, at
one point the saddle slipped and Isaiah came down sending the rest of
the saddle under her and she going nuts and running off kicking and
bucking all the way to the back field.
[Editor’s note: Our Diana Quintana DVD shows an excellent method
to cure this problem as well using an old inner tube.
Get Diana’s “Want To Train Your Horse” DVD ]
I went and collected her and put her back in the training pen,
tied, and removed the saddle. Left to come in and go back to
Book 1 Colt Training. I applied the lessons there using the
War Bridle. Within less than an hour not only did I have her
leading with out pulling but she let Isaiah lead her as well\
AND she listened to him. She also allowed him to ride
her all the way back to the barn which is a good distance from
where we were working in the training pen. I was never so
impressed and amazed in my life.
I can’t wait to put some of these other techniques, listed in
this book to work on that ADD kid of mine. I would recommend this
book to anyone who has problems with their horses. Especially the
problems he talks about in these books. Oh and the personality
traits based on heads really is quit accurate. I have four horses
and I would agree that the personalities definitely fit the head
forms listed.
I am sooo glad I found this website! It has been a blessing!
Sincerely,
Marilyn K., Wausau WI”
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Folks – it’s notes like this that keep us going. Thanks Marilyn!
Here’s a link to the Jesse Beery course:
Prof. Jesse Beery’s Illustrated Course In Horse Training
That’s it for today – stay safe on your horses!
Charlie
P.S. You can still get your own Beery 4-Way Bit free when you
order the Jesse Beery Course.
P.P.S. We have a 2-DVD set by Cole Briggs on The Horse Library
right now that isn’t for sale. The title is “Get 100% Improvement
Using Simple Reining Techniques”. Cole is an excellent trainer
and instructor.
We’ll be offering it in the future but we don’t have the website
page built for it now.
We’ve had many members who have seen it remark about it, though.
We also have the Sam Burrell “Operating System” DVD and
Sue Robertson’s “Trick Training” DVD on The Horse Library
right now as well. Again – the Library is an excellent
bargain for those interested in training and working
with their horses. Check it out at by clicking this link:
