Horse Riding Instruction

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"How Do I Get My Horse's Attention?," Issue 1, part 2 of our FREE monthly newsletter

From our Ask a Horse Trainer Series:

"I could walk by my horse all day and he doesn't have to even recognize that I'm here – and it would be a waste of my time to ask him to do anything. But if I took a stick and started poking him, then all of a sudden it becomes a whole lot more important to the horse that "I'm here." When you ask a horse to do something, a lot of other things are going to draw his attention and it's important that you become more important, no matter what it takes. The horse has to fully recognize that you're there. That's important, otherwise, you can't get to the next step: You can't get him to respond in a certain way.

"You've all heard that you want to get your horse's attention first. That's nonsense. We don't care about the horse's attention; we really don't. I don't expect the horse to think about me before he does something. Have you ever been on a trail ride with your horse when the horse did everything you wanted him to do? What were you doing? You were looking around, talking to people, enjoying the ride. Did you care for even one moment what your horse was thinking? No, you didn't, because he was doing exactly what you were asking him to do. You didn't care what he was thinking because…"

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Lyons Training 101 Issue Number:  Five If Your Horse Ain't Broke - Fix It! written by Josh Lyons & Keith Hosman

Issue Five, Part 2 of 4

Slowing Your Horse

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To help slow my horse, I hum. I hum because it naturally changes my seat. So when I'm practicing loping, and my horse is going faster than I want, then I sit down and I count or hum. So, I'll pick up speed and I'll say go faster, then I'll sit down and hum. If I change my seat and the horse does not slow down, then I'm going to stop them. I'm going to say "No, you missed your cue to slow down back there." I'll go forward and do it again. I'll speed him up, then I'll sit down and hum. I can slow him down with the same "seat" I used to speed him up. Sometimes when were having trouble getting our horse to go, we're not riding forward enough with our seat. It's natural for the trainer's seat to actually cause the horse to slow down by sitting down too much or relaxing a little too much.

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End of Issue Five, Part 2
 
 

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