From John Lyons Trainer Keith Hosman

Round Pen First Steps
A Downloadable Book

A sample from Day 5:

"Straight talk time: Before tackling today's topic, make absolutely sure that your horse has been thoroughly sacked out to your touch. If that little voice says there is any way your horse is going to react negatively (flinch, freeze up, pull away, try to kick, etc.) to your touch, especially when working around those back feet, then... you ain't ready. Conversely, if that little voice says "All systems go," then you should have an easy day of it.

You can teach the following very simply without a round pen - but the round pen offers two significant advantages: 1) You don't have to juggle a lead line in one hand, and 2) Should the horse need a little extra motivation to play along, you can send him around a few rotations.

Simply put, the better we can control the hind end of the horse, the easier it is to control the front half of the horse. So, we start with the back feet. Standing on the horse's left side, you'll ask the rear of the horse to move away. Ask him to take a step or two and when he stops, look at the back leg closest to you (the one we'd like to pick up). Does he have any weight on it? We want to keep asking him to move, then pausing, then asking him to move until, by chance, he stands with that nearest back leg cocked up. You've seen this stance a million times. They'll stand there with weight on three feet, the fourth resting, slightly turned up, toe to heel."

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- 5 Days, 5 chapters
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Available Downloads:
"Stop Bucking"
"Rein/Speed" (for Nervous Horse Owners)
"Round Pen First Steps"
"Trailer Training"

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"How Far How Fast How Little," from my FREE monthly newsletter

From the How to Train a Horse Series:

"The following example is appropriate for horses of any discipline. Let's say we have a reining horse - and we want to make his spin better. We have a recipe to improve his performance and there are three ingredients in this recipe. They are "further," "faster," and "less." To begin, I don't worry about anything except "further." I do whatever it takes to make something go further. (In this case, the spin "action.") So I look at his front feet and I see that the step they take covers a distance of, let's say, two feet. I make it my goal to go further, maybe to two and a half feet. I'll then spin my horse; I'll kiss or kick with both legs or do whatever it takes to make that step bigger - and that's all I'll concentrate on. I'll only work on that for about thirty seconds, just till that one step is "further." (That is, maybe it sweeps and covers three feet.) Then the next part is "faster." So now I keep the "further" - and I make it "faster." As soon as he gets faster..."

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Pat Parelli
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Richard Shrake
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