FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAINING

The Three Keys to Unlocking your Horses Potential

Most horse-people can appreciate a well-trained horse. They are beautiful to watch, comfortable to ride and safe to work with. A practical goal for all of us should be to maintain the existing training of our horse and recognize what can be improved. Then, using a simple series of three steps, you can expand your horse’s education. You might want to keep notes of your progress.

The three key steps to training a horse are:

1.Cue: communicate with your horse exactly what you want it to do.

2. Response: your horse chooses the correct action or incorrect action in response to your cue.

3. Reinforcement: If your horse responds with acceptable behavior, you give him positive reinforcement. If your horse responds with unacceptable behavior, you give him negative reinforcement. (This must be done without pain or fear)

You can simplify it like this: cue -> Response = correct -> positive reinforcement

cue -> Response = incorrect -> negative reinforcement

Let's get into more detail. To be able to properly ask your horse to do something (cue) , depends on your communication skill. Do you understand how horses communicate? Do you know what your different body positions mean to a horse? If not, your horse may struggle with your request.

Often a horse may seem stubborn, when in reality he has no clue of what you want! For example: You want to lead your horse up to a mounting block. Your horse refuses to come forward. You stand in front of him, glare at him and pull at the reins. He continues to stand like a statue and you think "why?". Because you made full eye contact with your horse, he backed off. Direct eye contact among horses is an aggressive act meant to intimidate. Whether you realize it or not, eye contact and your body-positions send distinct messages to your horse. Learning to understand and use equine body language is a must for successful training. (There are many fine books and videos available on this subject.)

Another good training practice is to break down your lessons for the horse into simple steps. For example: If you want to ask your horse to turn on the haunches or pivot, teach him first to give to the bit, then ask him to shift his weight back. Finally, move his shoulders over to a leg yield. After the horse can accomplish these three tasks he is prepared to pivot. Breaking things into small steps will help the horse remain calm and willing as he learns.

Once the horse understands what we want, he chooses how to react. One of the most important factors to affect his decision is the dominance issue. Horses see their relationship with you as either dominant or submissive. This is how horses handle all relationships. If the horse sees himself as dominant he will not want to follow your lead. He will think he has to make the decisions for you. He will not respect your body space. This can result in dangerous behavior such as dragging you, running over you, kicking, rearing or spooking.

To prevent these situations, you need to establish your dominance as you relate with your horse. Using correct body language will enable you to do this. When the horse responds by making the correct choice, he must be immediately rewarded with praise and stroking. If he makes the incorrect choice, you should respond with negative reinforcement to make him uncomfortable.

For example, you may ask your horse to stand still while grooming or tacking. If he moves around, give him negative reinforcement by keeping a lead rope on him and shaking it when he moves to irritate him. Eventually he'll find it more comfortable to be still. When he does, give lots of positive reinforcement so he knows the correct behavior.

Positive Reinforcement can take many forms. If a cue consists of tapping the horse with your leg, positive reinforcement begins when you stop the tapping cue. Add stroking, massaging and praise for additional reinforcement.

Treats may be given as a reward, and the horses appreciate this. I don't like to recommend this as some horses may become aggressive waiting for their treats and may pick up bad habits such as nipping. In cases like this giving treats by hand is a no-no and should be reserved for the feed bucket.

One of the greatest rewards you can give your horse when he responds correctly is to end your session and give your horse his freedom (turn-out) to play, eat and roll.

Negative Reinforcement also takes many forms. Continuing the cue (tapping of leg, etc...) and increasing its intensity is one way to make a horse uncomfortable. Create irritation by shaking a lead-rope on the horses halter, or by using a lead with a chain.

Giving the horse more work can be very effective. For example, if you ask your horse to back and he refuses, make him canter a few circles instead. A few treatments like this will certainly make backing a few steps easier.

With consistency and repetition, the horse will learn that when he responds correctly, there is comfort. When he responds incorrectly, there is irritation. Remember, reinforcement needs to be immediate, fair and must not involve pain or fear.

Never wait ‘til later to punish a horse. He won't know what it's for and may become confused and mistrustful. Timing is essential. The quicker you can reinforce the horse's choice, the quicker he'll understand what you want.

Remember, use the three keys of cue, response, & reinforcement correctly. Break down your requests into simple steps. Only ask the horse to do what he is able to do physically. This will help you unlock your horse's potential for a fun, safe, cooperative relationship and a willing attitude!

With your horse in mind, refer to the chart below. What's your horse’s response?

ACTION	ACCEPTABLE	UNACCEPTABLE
Approach	Allows approach, Meets you ½ way, Comes and greets you	Runs away, Charges at you, Turns hindquarters to you
Haltering	Holds head still, Drops head	Jerks head up or to the side, won't stop eating, Runs off if you fumble, Tries to bite you
Leading	Leads willingly at your side, Keeps pace, Respects your body space	Refuses to go, Pulls and drags you, Crowds you, steps on you
Tieing	Stands quietly	Moves back and forth, Pulls back, breaks ropes, Calls to stable mates, Paws ground
Grooming	Stands quietly	Tries to turn and bite you, Refuses to pick up feet, Kicks at you when you clean belly
Saddling	Stands quietly	Moves around, Kicks at you, Swings head around to bite
Bridling	Lower head, Keeps head still, Accepts bit	Jerks head up or over, Tries to dodge you, Won't open mouth for bit
Mounting	Stands still, Accepts mounting block, Waits until you're set	Moves away, Won't go near mounting block, Rushes off before you're ready
Riding	Waits for your request, Responds quickly, Cooperates, Relaxed pace, Ignores other horses	Starts trotting off without cue, Needs 10 cues before responds, Whinnies to stable-mate, Rushes off, spooks, runs away, Pulls to other horses, Charges other horses, Pulls to gate, or barn-sour
Trailering	Loads willingly, Remains calm in trailer, Unloads quietly	Struggles and refuses to load, Paws and kicks sides, Scrambles out of trailer wildly

These are just a few fundamental basics that all horses should be trained for. The list can go on and on as does the training process. This chart can serve you as a general guideline in assessing your horse's training. Hopefully it will inspire you to identify and correct unacceptable behaviors before they get out of hand. To those of you owning or riding horses who always have acceptable behavior, congratulations! I hope you realize how fortunate you are!