Having a horse who doesn’t want to stand for fly spray can be very frustrating. I had tried different methods of teaching my horses how to accept the spray and found that clicker training worked best for them and me. Here I will give you an overview on how to train this behavior using positive reinforcement.

I saw a dog agility competition recently and it gave me a lot of ideas about horse sports. I loved how happy the dogs were to be doing the course. I want to have horses be that happy about their work. I think it’s possible for horses to show as much joy as the dogs do (in their own way). So I just talk about thoughts I have about making this happen in the horse world.

In this episode in the ground driving series I’ll discuss how to get the horse used to having the lines over his hocks and then actually driving him on a circle. Once all of the desensitization had been done at the stand still, you can move on the getting the horse used to the rope touching him while he is moving. After this, we will start the beginning of ground driving by teaching walking and steering in the round pen.

Protected contact is a great resource for when you are training horses. I love using it to introduce clicker training to most horses. It is also beneficial to use for aggressive, muggy, or scared horses. Having a barrier between you and your horse allows you both to feel safe, let’s you set your horse up for success, and helps you make less mistakes in your training.

Once your horse is accepting of the ropes, you can start to teach him to move off of rope pressure. This lesson is super important in teaching your horse to steer and not be afraid of the ropes while ground driving. Don’t move on until your horse does this step well. Once he can do this lesson in a relaxed manner, he is ready for two reins and the beginning of actual ground driving.

I wanted to cover some safety issues with leaving halters on horses. Horses are large prey animals and will react violently to being stuck on something when the horse realizes that he is trapped. We can’t change a horse’s natural instinct, but we can help set up a safe environment.

Before you start ground driving your horse there are a few things to make sure that your horse knows first. Ground driving can look easy but there is a lot of desensitization, rein management, and skill that goes into it. In this episode, I cover all of those important details to make sure you both stay safe and successful.

In this episode I explore all of the reasons why training a horse by using traditional training or natural horsemanship techniques to load in the trailer don’t always work. The root of both of these ways to train horses is negative reinforcement. By using negative reinforcement you are putting pressure on the horse. When using this technique you have to be really careful not to put too much pressure on the horse or too little. Oftentimes people have a hard time doing this correctly and because of this the horse has issues loading. I will cover some ways to fix these common issues and help you understand why they sometimes don’t work.

At some piont in time your lead rope will probably fall on the ground, and when it does you want your horse to stop and not react if he were to step on it. The goal with this exercise is to teach the horse that the rope isn’t scary and to give to pressure just in case this happens. It is also a good desensitization lesson for a horse that is fearful of ropes.

Some times we get so caught up with training, riding, or showing that we forget how beneficial it is to just spend time with them. Exercises such as taking your horse on a walk, siting near him while he eats, hand grazing, etc. are great for building a bond with your horse. These and other ways to just be with your horse are great for teaching him that it isn’t always time to work when you show up.