So you want to get a horse and train that horse? Believe us when we say it is not all black beauty or The Horse Whisperer, it takes a lot of dedication and time to correctly train a horse. Yes some people are naturals with horses, but for the mere mortal non horse whisperer, we give you some basics to get you started before the intense higher level training efforts.
Before starting the training, remember horse care – as we have discussed before, a health horse is a happy horse. So make sure you get the basics right, like shelter, feed and grooming. This simple basic of making sure your horse is as healthy as absolutely possible, will greatly assist when trying to train the horse.
The top two basics to focus on before intense training starts:
Groundwork – Before jumping on your horse and riding off to the sunset, you should start with groundwork. Meaning you do not even get on the horse! Just like you’d practice before playing online roulette NZ games for real money, do some research, or hire a professional to train you and start out with your new adventure in horse training.
Try getting these basics of groundwork training done before moving on:
Leading – lead your horse from point A to B
Touching – touching your horse acclimates it to being around you and being touched all over by you. Start with stroking the horse with both your hands and move on too grooming your horse. Grooming is essential to creating a friendship with your horse, and horse love good grooming.
Pressure – training your horse to yield to physical pressure when applied to certain body parts. For example pushing backwards on the horse’s nose so that the horse yields and moves backwards. Or applying a small amount of pressure to the chest to make the horse take a step back.
Indirect pressure – this is training your horse to respond without apply pressure. The movements are similar to the direct pressure training but requires more energy from you to enforce your direction on the horse. This takes patience and skill from both you and the horse, so take your time.
Groundwork can be extremely challenging but also very enjoyable, so start with basic groundwork skills and conquer them – then move on to the more advanced groundwork skills.
Horse manners are similar to groundwork; there are a few basic manners a horse should be taught in order to ensure the rest of the training goes as smooth as possible.
– Enter a trailer – this goes in hand with being lead, as a horse needs to put easily in a trailer safely for travel or for emergency situations
– Stay – Getting a horse to hold position is part of indirect pressure and is relevant to both your and the horses safety. If a horse does not listen to commands and stay as ordered he could hurt both you and itself.
– Allow them to be caught – You need to train your horse to be caught when called, as a horse that will not allow itself to be caught is basically impossible to train. This is also urgent for emergency situations like evacuations.
– Stand for hoof inspection – as a horse’s hooves should be trimmed every 6 to 8 weeks, it makes life a lot simpler if a horse is trained to allow its feet touched anytime.