Training a horse is pretty simple. It's four things: motivator, spot, direction, reward. That's all training a horse is. First, motivation. Do you have a job? What if I asked you to quit your job? What if I said I was going to hire you and give you two bucks an hour. Would you do it? Working with a horse is very similar. You're asking the horse to quit his job and come work for you. His job as you begin training is to get out of that arena as fast as he can, or to get back to that stall or to a buddy horse or find food. They have all kinds of jobs – and their jobs keep changing.
Our job is to create a motivator that causes the horse to quit his job and come work for us. Quit trying to get out of the gate; quit trying to get to the other horse. Quit trying to pick up your left lead and come work for me. Some horses you can hire for two bucks an hour and some will cost you forty. That's just the way it happens. Some horses you really gotta motivate; you gotta say, "No, I really want you to come work for me."
Any time we add speed, we up the horse’s emotion level, right? We’ll use that to our advantage here to create a situation that mimics the anxiety the horse feels in the show arena or when separated from his buddies on the trail. It’s not comfortable for the horse to spend his time being scared any more than it is for you to feel the same way, perhaps more so, him being a prey animal and all. Get him agitated and there’s nothing he’d love more than to not be. Believe it or not, he doesn’t want to stay excited - he wants to munch grass and snooze. It’s just that some horses have learned that acting like a jerk scares you off - and that’s the quickest way he’s found back to the barn.
When we continually raise his emotions - just barely so that we retain control - by asking for increased speed, then shut him down again (slow down to walk, pet, relax) it won’t take him long to figure out that simply staying calm is a whole lot easier. The trick is to do each increase in small increments. Recall the “move the green chair one inch at a time” analogy from Day Three.
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To train your horse correctly you first need to know what a "give" feels like. To do this you have to raise your expectations. A horse can only ever be as good as we expect it to be.
Take your halter attached to your lead rope and throw the halter portion away from you onto the ground. Throughout this exercise imagine yourself on your horse's back: You're going to pretend like you are riding.
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Take your left hand and hold the as if it's the left rein. Pull the halter slowly toward yourself.
Concentrate. Remember, pretend you're actually training your horse. Feel in your hand how much pressure it takes to bring that rope toward you. You should feel in your pinky how many ounces it takes. Throw it back out and do it again. This time close your eyes and really concentrate. If you get this lesson, horse training gets a whole lot easier. Really focus on what it feels like. How many ounces is it taking to bring that back to you? Think of a specific number now - and then later when you're training that horse. How many pounds? How many ounces? One or two? 5 pounds or 5 ounces?
How would you like your horse to be that soft? A pound or two from your horse doesn't seem so bad, does it? Actually, if you're training a horse, it's terrible. Having to put a pound or two of pressure on the rein to get the horse to "come back to you" is just terrible. Take the halter off the lead rope now and throw the rope back out, snap end first.
Do the same thing, drag the snap back to you. How does that feel? It feels pretty light, right? You feel a big difference. But that's still terrible. Now take the lead rope back in hand and throw the opposite end out, the end without the snap. That feels really light. It feels like nothing. It's still terrible.
The reason it's terrible is because when the horse really gives to you, there is no pull, zero. And it's not just neutral that you feel, but energy and movement coming back to you.
Now take the snap end of the lead rope in your hand and throw it back out. When it hits the ground, add as much pressure as you can to the rope – without moving the snap. Now a "give" is when you feel energy come up that rope. You don't pull back, you wait until energy comes up that rope. You feel energy come up that rope, and you let go. That's what you're waiting to feel when you're riding or training a horse. You'll put pressure on your horse and when you feel energy come back to you, when you see a loop in that , that's when your horse is really giving - and your training is really working - and you let go.
To make my point, think of it this way: When you reach to shake somebody's hand, what's the first thing the other person does after you put your hand out? They put their hand out. What if you asked somebody to raise your arm, to raise it up and down, away from your side – but you resisted? Is the exercise tough? The exercise itself isn't tough. The "toughness" is caused by the resistance. The exercise and the training is easy. Keep that in mind when you begin an exercise - or your training - your horse is going to be stiff.
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There are certain products that every long-time Lyons fan carries in his equine tool kit. They're the "gotta haves." Here are a few essentials - as recommended by this John Lyons Certified Trainer, Keith Hosman.
