Starting today you can listen to John Lyons' son Josh explain the Lyons methods. When possible, each online article will now feature a quick audio clip that either explains the exercise in greater detail or simply "adds a layer of understanding."
Visit the audio archive anytime and check it out for yourself. It's at Horsemanship101.com/audio. The clips are short (or they'd take forever to download) and address popular topics like:
- bucking, rearing and jiggy horses
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what "giving to the bit" is supposed to feel like
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make your horse stand still or get moving
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how to teach "straight," pre-cues and more!
Note that the recordings were made live and informally and therefore contain pops and clicks. Putting that aside, I feel that the clips are invaluble to your study, each serving to enhance existing articles.
Training on Horsemanship101.com features the easy, proven methods of John Lyons.
"It's not a matter of "if" your horse spooks, it's "when." It's not a matter of how broke your horse is. Sooner or later it will see something that makes it spook. You can't control your environment so you can't blame your environment. If somebody comes up and throws something at your horse or drops something in front of your horse, and your horse spooks and you get bucked off, it's not their fault and it's not the horse's fault. The first thing you do may be to blame that person – but it's not their fault that your horse bolted or spooked. It has nothing to do with them. It has to do with the fact that you lost control of your horse. It's your fault. Because if you put your safety in their hands, you're guaranteed to get hurt. It's your responsibility to train and ride your horse correctly. Too many things can happen...."
Read the entire article when you visit Horsemanship101.com/Articles. You'll find it listed under "Riding Training."
"Horse trainer or not, I could walk by my horse all day and he doesn't have to even recognize that I'm here – and it would be a waste of my time to ask him to do anything. But if I took a stick and started poking him, then all of a sudden it becomes a whole lot more important to the horse that "I'm here."
When you ask a horse to do something, a lot of other things are going to draw his attention and it's important that you become more important, no matter what it takes. As the trainer, the horse has to fully recognize that you're there. That's important, otherwise, you can't get to the next step: You can't get him to respond in a certain way.
