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Of primary importance, if you are training your horse yourself, is to get and keep the right frame of mind. You must stay calm and composed at all times and you must not allow yourself to become impatient or angry. Decide that if you do feel yourself becoming frustrated with the horse, that you will STOP immediately and give yourself and the horse a long break.
The next important thing is to understand that you must break the training sessions down into very short parts. It is better to train well for 10 minutes than to train badly for an hour.
Horses form associations very easily. We can say that their brains are only as big as a nut and we can say that compared to primates or canines, that horses are comparatively unintelligent. That would be in error, because it wouldn't be giving them enough credit for how quickly they can learn. And once a horse forms an association, whether "good" or 'bad", it can be very difficult to train it out of them!
Decide exactly what you want the horse to learn to do, before commencing each training period. Divide your goal into many much smaller goals. The idea is to build upon each small goal until you have a fully trained show, horse!
There is more to the horse's mind than his brain, as well. Each horse has quite an individual personality and is capable of most of the same feelings that we have, such as love, fear and anger. As prey animals, they are very acutely attuned to the world around them.
The horse does not seek love, at least not like dogs. Merely giving a horse love isn't going to persuade him to do our bidding in and of itself. You must also provide the horse with leadership; you must be, as I tell my horseback riding pupils, "the herd boss." It is said that where leadership is lacking, someone will fill the gap and nowhere is this truer than in a herd of horses. If you don't provide the leadership, a horse will, and you could get yourself hurt as a result.
However, your leadership must be fair! Horses need to feel respect for you but she also needs to know that you are trustsworthy.
Horse training is like making a contract with the horse, "Perform this desired action, and you will receive a reward. If you do not perform the right choice, the pressure will continue."
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Lil Peck is a horse trainer from northeastern Kansas. Horses have always been an important part of her life. Her parents insisted that 'horse' was her first word. She has won many awards at horse shows with horses she has trained. She enjoys helping other horsemen learn how to ride and train horses.
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A Fundamental Philosophy of Training Horses
