Horse Riding Training

Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 11:47 pm

Horse Training Essentials – Horseback Riding

Most horse riders and owners have at one time or another thought that they would like to train their own horse. It is especially tempting to build up a special relationship this way when your own foals mature to a riding age, if you are breeding them.

However, horse training is a complex process that involves more than just giving instruction to your animal, followed by a reward. You really do need to know what you are doing to gain the results you seek. Properly teaching your charge how to follow your commands, each and every time, involves building a strong relationship with him/her.

Horse training is available for riders/horses wishing to further their education at a huge number of establishments nowadays which reflects the great popularity of horse riding. Many also have horses for sale that are currently in training and you may fall for one of these and be tempted to take on the completion of the training for such a beast. However, we would like to give you a word of warning: horse training is inherently dangerous, and much more so than riding a trained horse.

Horse training at first is teaching your horse and yourself foundation skills. I use the statement ‘and yourself’ with emphasis here if you are going to try training your steed yourself then when you start you will need to be a very competent rider already, but each horse will be different and train you as well in some way.

horseback riding training

A serious service business has built up around the horse riding establishment. Many courses are offered where you can attend for your own training in horse breaking. The relationship works when both parties take their obligations seriously, it is as simple as that. Each training session should be seen as performing an art, not a science. Your technique will need to be capable of adapting to the particular wants of your charge. This is what works successfully for me in my situation most of the time.

The idea of horse training may seem very romantic especially when trainers talk of horse whispering empathies, and you may decide to develop your own business. In truth though it is like any other business. Success depends not only on the trainer’s horse training skills, but also on their business management expertise. Running a horse training business isn’t all that hard once you start getting into it. It may suit you, and enables many to work with horses successfully.

Within a few hours of birth, a foal still being imprinted to recognize its mother will have a human touch it all over, pick up its feet, and introduce voice and body language. By doing so, the foal will learn that humans will not harm it, but also it will be shown that humans must be respected.

I have heard it said that if you can relate to a young 4 or 5 year old child, then you can learn to relate to a horse. Experts have assessed their mental age as around that in equivalent human development terms. Think of your untrained young horse as if it were a child like that, and it should help you get onto their wavelength and communicate with them effectively. If you do this well the horse will want to just to obey you as their trainer, indeed many suggest that a horse trained expertly by these methods will soon start to pre-empt your commands. Horse whispering techniques can help with this, and help to bring you into the horse’s mental range.

If you have trained dogs though and you think that if you can do that you will be able to train horses, that is not necessarily true. Dogs are reputably significantly easier to train because they recognize us as fellow predators and we have a similar pack mentality. This is not so for horses.

Surprisingly, many do say that the most difficult part of equestrian training is to convince the horse that you are not intending to eat him/her. This would not occur to dogs. Dogs being pack bred, easily accept the role of helper to human associates quite naturally. In addition, we humans have elaborated this tendency by, as Charles Darwin suggested with usual amazing insight, selecting them to return our favors, plus some!

Horses have no highly co-operative ancestral DNA involving an inbred helper gene in quite the same way. Dog training, and horse training, is not rocket science but with a horse there is a much greater need to get into their mindset in order to motivate them.

There are many horse training courses that you can buy on the internet, and buying and using the best of them can be a great way to get started. However, do take care to do your research well before you buy.

We see it happening all the time, trainers from more traditional disciplines trying to capitalize on the newly rekindled interest in novel horse training methods, creating wonderful sounding internet books and video instruction products.

But, will they produce the results you seek? Do make sure that there are good honest testimonials for these courses before you buy. Read reviews from past users and analyze their statements with care, before you part with your hard earned cash.

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Natural Horsemanship at its best! Pam Tanner is an up and coming clinician and training dedicated to teaching horse owners how to develop a willing and trusting relationship with their horses.

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By: Steve Evans

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Steve Evans has produced his own Horse Training Course Review site at the Wild Horse Info Site. This site also includes articles and leading horse training insights and information.