The purpose of this exercise is to catch, restrain, gently control, and release the baby every day so that he gets used to giving to pressure from the very beginning. This lesson will also reinforce his earlier contact-imprinting as you enlarge your rubbing, stroking, and manipulating of his body, legs and feet. All of this… Read More Training Exercises – Foal 3 Days Old
So you can’t catch your horse. Why do horses run away from their owners? 1. Wild or untrained horses are intimidated or afraid. They need an owner who understands how they view the person approaching through an instinctive prism of fight or flight and they need de-sensitizing training. 2. Horses in a group take cues… Read More Horse Problems: The Difficult to Catch Horse
Equipment Needed: Stiff Rope Halter with Nose Knots, a Training Stick (without the string), 14′ to 15′ Lead Rope Training Needed: De-Sensitizing is a necessary pre-requisite for this exercise A difference between pushing and driving. Pushing is a steady pressure that a horse can push back against. Driving is a rhythmic pressure that demands movement… Read More Training Exercises: Disengage Rear
Disengaging is a fancy way of saying that you want your horse to move away from you with the slightest touch. Teaching him (on the ground) how to disengage his rear, disengage his front, and back up prepares him for many, many more maneuvers further in his training program. We spent quite a bit of… Read More Training Exercises: Disengage
Halter training for a domesticated colt
This is Part 2 of a two-part Lesson. Part 1 is Round Penning The object of Joining Up is to confirm that your horse has accepted you as his leader. By “joining” he affirms his respect and friendship. Watch the short video of the Caspian stallion as he “joins up” and follows his trainer as… Read More Training Exercises: Join Up
Here are three of the basic psychological principles of learned response training. Pavlov’s Paired Response Conditioning: The now-famous story of Pavlov’s dogs demonstrates dramatically how one stimulus can take the place of another to elicit the same response. When the hungry hounds were fed their delectable meals, they salivated in anticipation of the repast. While… Read More Training Theory: Reinforcement Theory