Four Lessons to Teach Your Horse

What are the four most important lessons in horse training? According to experts, you need to teach your horse about motivation, spot, direction, and reward.

Horse trainers who find it hard to handle horses will need to teach these four lessons to their horse. It doesn't really matter if you’re training a performance horse or a colt because these lessons are essential to the training program. Don’t let your horse control you; you need to act as the leader of the herd.

Horse training is also about proper control. Training horses can be compared to building a brick house. It takes some time before you can finish building it. So you need to give your horse time in learning the various lessons of the training program. The different body parts of your horse should be easily controlled; you can start by controlling one part at a time. While doing this, you need to be an active rider, not a reactive one.

Motivation

This is the first lesson to introduce to your horse. Horses are wild animals by nature. They eat, play, groom, and sleep. However, they are also known as herd animals and a mare controls the whole herd. In order to effectively train your horse, you will need to act as the leader of the herd. Since you’re going to train your horse, it’s like asking your horse to work for you. You need to think of something that will motivate your horse to follow the training program you've set up for him. Horses don’t want to be led and that’s one fact that you should accept. But it doesn't end there. You should not give up yet.

Spot

This is where ‘spot’ comes in. You need to find a particular spot that you can control so that your horse will follow. This may take time but just keep on trying to identify the right spot on the horse’s body.

Direction

After you've found a spot, you need to decide on the direction. Each part of the horse’s body can go in different directions – left, right, forward, backward, down, and up. Choose only one direction. Make sure that your horse understands your aids or signal so that he will not be confused.

Reward

This is the last lesson. When your horse follows your signals, don’t forget to give him a reward. You can give him a treat or you can simply pat him lightly and say ‘that’s a good boy/girl’.

The four lessons seem very easy but it’s different when you’re already on the training ground. Stubborn horses are difficult to handle and you will need a lot of time and patience. If you lack experience, don’t hesitate to consult the experts. Don’t be discouraged because not all horses are stubborn; there are also those who are easy to work with. The secret is to teach the four lessons one at a time. When your horse is familiar with the lessons, you will encounter fewer problems.

Identifying a motivating factor is not as easy as you think. Start out early. You should also be a good rider so that you won’t be confused in interpreting the horse’s moves. Learn all that you can about proper horse training. You must study the horse’s behavior and personality. Try to learn how to incorporate these four lessons to your training program and best of luck to you.