Show-Me Trail Ride Outfitter Full-service trail rides near Kansas City, Missouri

Training a horse is all about pressure and release. Pressure to a horse is perceived as the command, and the release of pressure will be the reward.

You will want your horse to respond to pressure to move forward, backward, and side-to-side. Start training for this on the ground.

Example:  Moving back – get a training stick or rod (I use the sticks they sell for working cattle with a rubber tip on it); halter your horse and bring him to a safe place like the round pen; with you on one end of the stick and him on the other, apply pressure to the horse say ”Back”; hold the pressure until you get the response. DO NOT escalate the presser!  Use one steady application until he steps back. When he does, release the pressure and praise him like he just conquered the world!

Trust…it seems like a no-brainer, but it is the foundation of all interactions with a horse (or any animal, for that matter).

It is just as easy to teach a bad habit as it is to teach a good one!  Be careful how you handle your horse and above all, think before you act!  Have a plan and follow through.  When training a horse, it is all about repetition and doing it the same way every time.

Always try to set your horse up to succeed; if he is struggling with a new skill, let him perform something he has already mastered for a while.  If you do this you will have a confident
horse and you will be his hero. He will get to know that if you ask it of him, it can be done, and this will be powerful later on in the times when you need his trust.

Never let the horse get hurt on your watch (especially by you). It’s hard to guarentee there’ll never be an accident, but if he gets hurt he may not trust as easily or as much again.

Remember:  the brush is mightier than the whip!

Ropes are a great training tool .

Some folks ask, “I am not going to rope any thing with this horse, so does he need to get used to ropes?”  Well the simple answer is: yes.   You will be using lead ropes, halters (maybe
not a rope, but close!), reins, cinch straps dragging all over the horses body, and if you are around any kind of group ride your horse will see a lot of rope.

Getting a horse used to ropes of all kinds is just part of training him to be responsive and to keep his cool in any situation.

One final word on ropes:  always wear gloves when handling a lead rope with a 1000-pound animal at the other end!

To follow up with last week’s training tip, this week is about Ground Work:

What is ground work?  Simply put it is everything you do with a horse on the ground. (As in, not in the saddle.)

For example, right now I am working with a young horse that is spooky - jumps at his own shadow - so I need to get him over that and get him comfortable with all the other stuff going on around him!  Through ground work,  he will be exposed to a HUGE range of experiences in a non-threatening way that will make him more confident in training as well as the rest of his life.

Owner and founder of Show-Me Trail Ride Outfitter, Jeff Strahle, has compiled some training tips that we will be sharing with you on a weekly basis. For those of you who have had the privilege of riding one of Jeff’s trail horses, you know that he puts hours of training into his horses to keep them at top performance!

Jeff has a no-nonsense method of training that requires no gimmicky props or special rope-throwing techniques; it’s just good hard work and consistancy with the horses. For more information about Jeff’s horse training, check out the Horse Training page!

Today’s Training Tip:   Go slow and easy.  The BIGGEST mistake you can make while training is to rush the horse into something he is not ready for … Ground work, Ground work,
GROUND WORK!