Training Exercises: First Ride
Day 1: First day moving with a rider in the saddle See Jeffrey’s Method of First Mounting. See Fancy Britches – Surrogate Rider
Day 1: First day moving with a rider in the saddle See Jeffrey’s Method of First Mounting. See Fancy Britches – Surrogate Rider
I was introduced to this method for first mounting through Clinton Anderson. It flew in the face of all of my self-preservation instincts. BAREBACK on a horse that had not been mounted! Sounded really scary. But at the time I saw the method demonstrated, we had TWO horses that were ready for their first mounting… Read More Training Exercises: Jeffrey’s Method of First Mounting
A horse’s first saddle experience can be difficult or easy, depending on how much ground training he has and how solid he is when it comes to pressure situations. We do not introduce a saddle until a horse can lunge in hand properly and has had a lot of desensitizing. He should have no “untouchable”… Read More Training Exercises: First Saddle Experience
In my early days of horse training, I was less experienced and less sure of myself. My angst expressed itself with a great deal of work on safety exercises. Paramount among those were disengaging the horse’s rear early so that he never showed that part of his anatomy to me and teaching him to stop… Read More Training Exercises: The Verbal “Whoa!”
The Goal A horse that respects his handler will back away when his handler moves into his space in an authoritative way. The only time a horse ever backs up in the pasture is when a more dominant horse demands it. Therefore, it is a natural way to gain respect from your horse. Used frequently,… Read More Training Exercises: Back Up
Equipment Needed: Stiff Rope Halter with Nose Knots, a Training Stick (without the string), 14′ to 15′ Lead Rope Training Needed: Backing Up and De-Sensitizing are necessary pre-requisites 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… Read More Training Exercises: Disengage Front
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
A horse must learn how to “keep his head” in novel or frightening situations. He must learn to use the left side of his intellect that is logical and thoughtful to reason a response and not the right side that is emotional, reactive and uncontrolled. He must “learn to learn” (See Two Brains.) And he… Read More Training Exercises: De-Sensitize
Liberty Longing takes place in the round pen without the lead and is practiced on the rail at different gaits. Liberty longing differs from round penning in the intention and intensity. It should be done in a relaxed way. It’s goal is not to take control from a horse or to establish a leader position.… Read More Training Exercises: Liberty Longe
Halter training for a domesticated colt