Horse Training Tips: It’s the Little Things

“It’s the Little Things”

Willard Marriott once said,

“It’s the little things that
make the big things possible.
Only close attention to the
fine details of any operation
makes the operation first class.”

How true it is.

Marriott, as you likely know, was the
guy who created all those hotels known as the
Marriott Hotels.

And what Marriott said about paying
attention to details applies to everything
in life…even us horse owners.

Paying attention to details with your
horse creates a magnificent horse….if you
know what to look for.

For instance, when riding a horse and
his head raises, he slows down, and he’s looking
a certain direction,…something is happening
in his mind.

That something is likely that he is
being inspired with fear.

The first sign I gave you…”his head
raises”…is one of those “little things” to
be aware of.

Why?

Well, knowing your horse is spooking
then you can help him through it.  What’s more,
knowing he’s fearing something, you’ll be
careful not to “push” him too hard to suffer
through his fear and make it worse.

If you push too hard then the horse
could be overcome with fear.  He may then rear up
or worse….take off running and you can’t stop
him.  That’s a bad place to be when those fence
posts are whizzing by you.

But knowing the “little things” you
could have prevented the mishaps.  Knowing
the little things, you could make him “whoa”
at will instead of bolting out of control.

Not knowing the “little things” you
could also inadvertently create a second fear
in him.

For instance, if the horse spooked at
an object…and he got punished for not moving
(ie. spurred in the ribs and chastised) then the
next time he sees that object or one like it, he’ll
fear the object and fear being punished.

Pretty soon, his mind is controlled with
fear and he won’t even know you are on his back
asking him to do something.  His instincts will
take over and he’ll do whatever he needs to do
to protect himself…unless you know what to do.

Knowing what to do is one of those

“little things”.

To load a horse in a trailer the big secret
is teaching him to move forward.  That’s knowing one
of the “little things”.

To teach a horse respect, making the horse
move is a big secret – it’s one of the “little things”.

In truth, knowing a lot of “little things” is
the secret to seeing the big picture.

Knowing how your horse thinks, why he does what
he does, what his instincts tell him and why, etc.,
etc., etc.,…is knowing a lot of the little things.

We filmed Brad Meyers, one of our featured trainers,
who has an excellent message abou the “Little Things”.

His DVD is titled:

“How To Eliminate And Prevent Deadly
Horse Riding Accidents Using
The Power Of The Little Things!”

Brad is a very gifted trainer that can
communicate well.

He grandfather was a legendary horseman and blacksmith.
Brad has also worked with a number of the famous people
in the horse world such as Buck Brannaman, Marty Marten,
Kathy McClarrinon, and Craig Cameron.

Read more about Brad by clicking the link below:

Get Your Own Brad Meyers LITTLE THINGS DVD

Brad shows you many, many valuable tips that
will make your handling, training and riding
much more enjoyable.

Brad is becoming rapidly famous for his well-known
horsemanship clinics called “Wisdom of the Horse”
which shows us humans what the horse can teach us
about ourselves and about our lives.

Filming Brad was an extraordinary opportunity
because his information is astonishing and effective.

Get Your Own Brad Meyers LITTLE THINGS DVD

Ok…that’s it.  have a great weekend.  Stay safe out there!

Charlie

Posted in General, Horse Training Tips, Horse Training Videos, Horseback Riding | Leave a comment

Horse Training and SUPERWEEDS?

“Horse Training and SUPERWEEDS?”

Did you know that herbicide has
created a very BIG problem?

It has created….

“Superweeds!”

They’re “Superweeds” because they are
resistant to chemicals.

Nothing can manage them except getting
rid of them by hand.

Even that is a daunting task.

It’s the ol’ cause and effect thing in action.

Horses can be like Superweeds.

They can get the wrong treatment and they
can’t be managed either…except by someone
who really knows their stuff.

This is the reason you want to do something
right the first time with your horse.

To undo something that’s done, takes f-a-r
longer than to do something right the first time.

Honestly, that’s one of the things
that keeps trainers in business and that is
undoing something in a horse and changing
the habit to a desirable one.

One of the most common mistakes made is
getting the horse mad.

It’s easy to do.

And it’s easy to forget your horse is
getting mad.

In fact there’s a good way to tell if you
pushed it too far, too hard, too much.

In his DVD, J.J. Rydberg said this:

“If you’re mad, your
horse is already mad!”

So what’s the big deal?

Heck, he’s a horse.  If he’s mad then by
golly he’s just gotta get over it cuz he’s
gonna do what I say, right?

Hold on Buckwheat.

Here’s another valuable tip J.J. reveals.

J.J. said, “You could get a horse so mad that
you could whip him and he wouldn’t care.”

Now THAT’s mad!

Of course J.J. wouldn’t actually whip a
horse.  He’s merely demonstrating how important
it is to keep them in a good frame of mind.

If you think about it, that’s not much
different than you and I.

We can’t do much when we’re mad.  We’re
mad and we don’t care about much but bein’ mad.

Pretty hard to do anything else.

So teaching a horse something when you’ve
made him mad is not gonna work.

How do you know if you made him mad?

As I said a minute ago, if you’re mad
then your horse is already mad.

The problem with that is you already
went too far.

You should’ve backed off before this happened
because now you have a battle on your hands.

And it’s a battle you don’t wanna take on.

Not only that, horses are friendly creatures.

They’re easy to teach various things
but you can inadvertently set out to teach
them to be mean.

You don’t want a horse that argues.  You want
one that willingly does or tries what you ask.

So how do you tell your horse is on
his way to getting mad?

There are various signs.

Tail swishing is a sign.

A horse swishing his tail is kinda like a kid
getting mad, making a face, and sort of growling.

But be careful to take tail swishing in
the right context.

After all, it could be fly he’s trying to shoo.

But if you’re riding him and trying to
get him doing something and it’s not working out
and he’s not getting what you want,…

“you might hear
his tail swish”

If you do, there’s a sign.
Does that mean you stop doing what
you’re doing right there?

Not necessarily.

One tail swish doth not a mad horse make.

That tail swish is your warning signal.

It merely says that he got a little put
out at that moment.

You can keep pushing him to do what
you’re after but now your awareness kicks
in a little and you tell yourself to be
careful about pushing and pushing and pushing.

The secret is this.

If after a few more tries you don’t
get what you want, then back off totally.

Ride him around and guide him and let him
have his face.

This is called “talkin’ him out of bein’
mad.”

It’s one of the many gems J.J. teaches
his students.

J.J. has lots of good info if you’re
gonna show your horse anything.  To see
more about J.J., click the following:

http://www.horsetrainingresources.com/dvd-jjrydberg.html

Here’s an extra tip.

While talking your horse out of bein’
mad, replay in your mind what happened with you
and the horse.

Why wasn’t he doing what you wanted?

You’ll be surprised to find it’s likely
because he didn’t understand what you wanted.

Rarely is it because he won’t do it.

As I said a minute ago, horses are friendly,
tractable animals.

They’re typically willing to do what you
want…as long as they understand what to do.

So the trick is this.

Ask them in a way they’ll understand what
you want because, perhaps, you weren’t explaining
in a way they could understand.

http://www.horsetrainingresources.com/dvd-jjrydberg.html

And there you have it…stay safe around your horses!

Charlie

P.S.  If you’re new to horse training and need help
fixing all those troublesome bad habits your horse
has then check out the most respected course that
the most respected horse trainer in history put
together years ago.

His methods have been proven by thousands of
horse owners and there’s no reason they won’t
work for you, too!

It’s not fun handle a horse who won’t behave or
do what you want.  And it’s not safe, either….
thousands get hurt and many get killed
riding horses that get out of control each year.

Check it out for yourself:

http://www.horsetrainingresources.com/beery.html

You can get the course as a printed book, PDF downloads,
on PDF on CD and as MP3 Audio books.

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Horse Training: Controlling Your Horse’s Shoulders

“Controlling Your Horse’s Shoulders”

When it comes to riding a horse,
shoulder control is a must.

Control the shoulders and you can do
amazing things.

Any time you’re riding your horse,
you want his shoulders up and square.

This goes for virtually any activity
you do with your horse.

A big reason to have this is so his
hips stay balanced.

If his hips aren’t balanced, he’ll
move out of kilter.

If the hip is out of kilter, it won’t
move right with the forequarters.

For example, if his left shoulder is
leaning inward, it will put pressure on his
right hip and cause it to move outward.

Then his front end will slow down and
his hip will rush outward.

A way to tell if your horse is dropping his
shoulder is by riding a circle.

If it gets smaller and smaller as you
ride, then chances are he’s dropping his
inside shoulder.

On the other hand, if the circle got
bigger or oval, your horse may be dropping
his outside shoulder.

Another consideration is how we sit
on the horse.

If we’re not deep in the saddle and upright,
we might otherwise be leaning to one side.

Even though the horse is quite strong to carry us,
leaning to one side will cause him to compensate.

If you ever carried a child on your
shoulders and he leaned w-a-y over to one side,
you would know how difficult it was to stay
upright and balanced.

You would move the direction the child
is leaning to compensate for being off balance.

Anyway, all this translates into having your
horse broke to ride.

To have a horse that’s good and broke to ride,
you must somehow have an Operating System.

By far, one of the best explanations we have seen
was presented by Sam Burrell – one of our featured
trainers.

Sam shows how to divide your horse into sections
(not literally, of course) and how to get them
moving independently and then in unison as needed.

He has four zone exercises to do with a horse that
complete the Operating System.

Zone One exercise begins with walking a circle.

When you do, you’ll use the inside rein and leg.

The circle should be about 12-15 feet.

You want to be able to see your horse’s eye outline
but you don’t need to see the whole eye.

Then you’ll follow Sam’s instructions
to get the horse doing what you need to do.
(I can’t write it all down because you should
really see it to get it right)

The important thing to remember is to
do this at the walk first.

When he has it at the walk, then you
can go to the next gait.

The Zone Exercises have precise instructions and purpose.

Once you get through them (which doesn’t take
all that long) and do them properly, you’ll have a
very responsive and fun to ride horse.

Before you know it, you’ll be doing all kinds of
neat things like counterarcs and such.

Anyway, if you haven’t read about Sam’s video,
you can read about it by clicking the following:

http://horsetrainingresources.com/dvd-samburrell.html

I might add that not only does Sam show you how to
do this, he also reveals the mistakes often made
and how to correct them.

That’s good because if you’re having trouble,
these may be the very reason why.

Stops a lot of the frustration factor.

http://horsetrainingresources.com/dvd-samburrell.html

Ok… that’s it for today.  Stay safe around your horses!

Charlie

P.S. I’ve decided to help make you decision to get any DVD
easier.  Let me pay for the shipping!  Use Coupon Code
FREESHIP  and I’ll pay for Priority Shipping to your address.

Sam Burrell is one of my favorite trainers.  He has a
real down-to-earth character and is an excellent teacher.
I urge you to try this DVD and see if you don’t agree.

P.P.S. We still have the Beery specials going and have a
special page you can see all the Beery-related products
on:

http://horsetrainingresources.com/Jesse_Beery_Horsemanship.html

Everything is 15% off – even the heavily-discounted bundles!
Use coupon code BEERY15 soon.

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