Training a Horse is fun but quite challenging, especially for a beginner. More so, young horses are so unpredictable and will require time, patience, and consistency.
These tips will help you in training your horse:
- Get the right Horse: The success of any horse training starts with the type of horse you purchase. The breed, temper, and feistiness will contribute to the outcome of training. If it is your first time, it is advisable to get an already broken horse to make it easier.
- Get a professional trainer: You will always need the help of a professional in the training process. The experience of a trainer would help out in difficult moments.
- Create a plan: Highlight the endpoints of your training. List them out and follow a step-by-step plan of the goals and commands you want your horse to learn.
- Bond with the horse: There is no training if your horse can’t trust you. Befriend your horse and spend quality time till it feels comfortable, safe, and secure around you. Regular feeding, brushing, grooming, and giving treats will help to bond.
- Groundwork exercise: This training is to ensure your horse sees and acknowledges you as the leader. They include leading, trotting, standing still, ground tying, moving the shoulders, and reacting to pressure.
- Desensitize your horse: Horses are known to be animals of fright and flight. They have phobias about strangers, loud noise, and fire and they respond by fleeing. Train your horse to be less sensitive to sudden and unexpected actions and people.
- Use the right equipment: Make use of a simple bridle, saddle, and lunge line. Avoid complicated equipment but go for pieces that you can easily use and remove on the horse.
- Do not use food as reinforcement. Instead, make use of verbal appreciation.
- Mind your body language: Non-verbal communication is an integral part of horse training. Watch out for your gestures, body postures, and hand movements because they communicate a message to your horse.
- Create a routine: Horses are animals of habit. Choose a preferred time for training, feeding, exercise, and other activities and strictly stick to it every day. If you will introduce a new activity, it should come after the already familiar and scheduled ones