Training A Horse

How have you gone about training your horse?

Posted on November 25, 2009 at 2:13 pm

what steps should you go about for training a green hunter starting with a horse who is learning bending and the correct frame. what shoud they know by now and what should be the next few steps?
plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me I rly want to be successful with training my horse.

Okay this reply might be long but here it goes.

If your working on framing, use draw reigns. But if you dont want to use those this is what you do to get a nice, low, hunter frame.

Use a "see-saw" motion with your hands, like a half halt in time with his stride, almost like your squeezing a sponge, alternating hands so "left, right, left , right…." and dont stop or lose contact ever, and when he puts his head down squeeze alot with your leg so he knows to stretch and move forward. keep doing this and he will lengthen out :)
The most important thing to remember is, when he gets his head where you want it, although you can stop see-sawing, dont lose contact and dont take off your leg!

Bending:
A really helpful tip with bending is stand in the middle on your horse, pull lightly to make him turn to your foot, and do the same with the other. Then, eventually he’ll know to do this with just you sticking out your foot :)

When riding, do little half halts on the inside reign before you come to the bend. With some horses, the "pull and give" might have to be exaggerated "pull, pull, pull…give" till they get it. What some horses will do is TILT their head, so theyre nose will be to the inside, but their outside ear will be to the outside. If this happens, pull up on the outside reign so they correct it. You can work on bending to the inside all the way around the arena with constant pull-gives =)
CIRCLES CIRCLES CIRCLES
help SOO much starting big and then getting smaller and smaller and then back to getting bigger and bigger, all the while working on bending. Whats important with circles is inside leg is pushing your horses bum out, and your outside by the girth pushing his shoulders in, making him bend almost around your foot and so hes not drifting out. ALso, make sure your square to your horses shoulders, not falling in to the circle.=)

One more thing that helps is figure 8’s from corner to corner. Your horse has to change his bend in the middle and it helps him realise when he needs to bend in what direction. There are so many other techniques you can use as well, weaving in and out of pylons, etc.

Sorry this was so long! >.< I could probably go on but ill save you the reading :) if you want any other info just email me! The most important thing to remember is you give back as much as you take and you’ll have a happy horse!

Keira

Training a horse how to stand still when mounting?

Posted on November 14, 2009 at 5:42 pm

My seventeen y/o quarter horse is a perfect horse, except for the fact when you try to mount her (get on her), she backs up, turns towards you, anything but stays still. She stands fine when someone whos standing holds her by the reins right underneath her chin, while I get on, but it’s quite annoying to ask someone to hold her. I’ve searched the internet (even youtube) for some advice on training your horse how to stand still, but I havent found any of them very helpful. Can anyone help? Thank you:)

Have you tried putting her in a corner? Are you accidently digging your toe into her? Are you short and her tall?

You might try snugging one rein so she can’t go forward. If you think you might be bumping her use a mounting block. Make sure you’re not bumping her mouth even if it means grabbing a handful of mane. When you get on and she’s reasonably still praise her. If she backs up put her rump in a corner. If you can block her from walking that’s part of the battle but make sure you’re not making it uncomfortable for her. :-) Sometimes we do things without realizing we’re doing it.
If you’re still stuck try barnmate.com

How would you go about training a horse to bow?

Posted on November 4, 2009 at 5:18 pm

I’ve always been really curious as to how they trained horses to bow. Do any of you know? Thanks! :)

lure his head down with a treat

How can I learn more about horse training?

Posted on October 27, 2009 at 6:15 pm

I’ve read a lot and watched many videos and training in person, although I’ve never had much experience with actual training. So while I’m very knowledgeable I haven’t put it into practice yet.

Right now i definitely don’t feel prepared to buy and train my own horse. Are there other ways I cant get hands-on? In a few years I hope to buy an OTTB and train it myself. To do that I need to be very experienced in training obviously.

Tips?

Does your instructor also train? Maybe you could ask her if you can shadow her for a while with her current client, and maybe even help out a little.

After shadowing, maybe on the next client you could co-train, where maybe you try training as you saw and helped the last horse get trained, and your instructor sticks around to help you out or give you pointers. It should be any easy, laid back client though… you don’t want to dive head first into training a horse with lots of vices or one that is completely wild.

What is a good price for horse training?

Posted on October 20, 2009 at 7:07 pm

I have a friend who’s a very good horse trainer…trained horses basically all her life. Anyway, we live in Idaho, & I was wondering what a reasonable price would be for training a horse, say for a month.?

Thanks in advance!
She trains western only. Breaks the wildest of colts, & does it really really well.

She trains from roping to reining, to basically everything western.

If she’s good, has nice facilities, and known in the area for being good, $400-700. Depending on boarding and all the other things.

Saddle breaking should be more. Dressage, reining, and cutting, even more. Barrel racing, other speed events, jumping, team penning, roping, should be a tad less.

What is a good price for horse training?

Posted on October 20, 2009 at 7:07 pm

I have a friend who’s a very good horse trainer…trained horses basically all her life. Anyway, we live in Idaho, & I was wondering what a reasonable price would be for training a horse, say for a month.?

Thanks in advance!
She trains western only. Breaks the wildest of colts, & does it really really well.

She trains from roping to reining, to basically everything western.

If she’s good, has nice facilities, and known in the area for being good, $400-700. Depending on boarding and all the other things.

Saddle breaking should be more. Dressage, reining, and cutting, even more. Barrel racing, other speed events, jumping, team penning, roping, should be a tad less.

what is the best way to sell horse training equipment?

Posted on October 13, 2009 at 10:24 pm

ok back when i was 8, i won the grand prize of $1000 worth of horse training stuff so now i’m trying to sell it. Any suggestions on how to? i only want like $500 for it

Craigslist in my favorite. It’s free!

Ebay is good, but the fees are getting crazy.

Dreamhorse.com also allows for tack sales, but pictures cost; ad is free.

Personally, it is always easier to deal locally and cash only!

Also, some local auctions have tack sales, but there is usually a fee from 10% to 30% commission charge.

Is mule training that much different than horse traing?

Posted on October 6, 2009 at 10:32 pm

I have two weanling mule colts and was wondering if there are any major differences in the way a person would teach them to lead and do other basic things compared to training horses.

yes and im sure mule will give you a more detailed answer but mules and donkeys are very unique. With horses you can convince them very quickly that what you are doing isworht there while. Mules on the other hand are very intelligent creatures. If you think you have patients for horses you need triple that for mules/ donkeys. Sicne mules intelligence is greater than horses they need to think about there options. I trained some mini donkeys to pull a cart and i once sat there for ten minutes waiting for this jennie to make up her mind that she wanted to go forward. After a little coaking and some food she moved forward and we never had a problem with walking forward since then.

You can not force them with whips and "special devices" you must be VERY patient and really try to look from there point of view on what options you could take.

They also don’t like change. For example if you start riding the mule in a say Circle Y western Trail Saddle and a egg butt snaffle don’t plan on changing tack without some discomfort. Once they find tack they like they will want to stick with it. I met a woman who bought a Mule who was ridden western and she rode english. When she switched saddles to english she got some bucks out of that guy.

What is the recommended horse training age?

Posted on September 29, 2009 at 9:14 pm

OR, preferably, what is the youngest horse training age? Like I want to get a horse, and my parents are thinking about it? and i saw this mustang mare for 1500. She’s only 2, so she needs to be trained. How old would i have to be to train her?

horses usually train at about age 2.

idk, if ur a teen and old enough to have responsibilities, u should be able to train the horse. tho, i think it might be best if ur at least 14 years old. if u want to break in the horse (to ride on it), u might have to be an adult, for horses can be really violent like bulls against cowboys!

Training a horse to kneel for the rider?

Posted on September 15, 2009 at 4:10 pm

Hello! I was wondering if it was possible to train a horse to kneel down for the rider to get onto it. If it is, how should I go about training him to do this?

Train first for the bow trick (look at website- there are plenty of them with different methods- find one that works for your horse). Ask for a deeper and deeper bow, and ask them to stay down there longer.
My friend’s horse faceplants himself on the ground, and basically does the splits with his front legs, and will hold it for 5 minutes (provided he always gets a treat afterwards).

the shorter the horse is, the easier it would be. My 17.2h mare will have nothing to do with bowing- it upsets her balance too much being so tall.

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