simply waving him away and clucking at him a
few times. Once he has had a chance to explore
(and probably roll at least once), you can start to
actually work.
Stand in the center of the round pen with your
horse still loose. Use your body language to push
him to the rail and then ask him to walk. Use
voice commands, followed by some encouraging
noises and movement of your feet. Make sure
you stay in line with the horse’s shoulder. If you
are in line with his head or hind quarters, he will
naturally stop or turn and face you.
Once you have him walking, give him lots of verbal praise and keep him going.
Once your horse has made a couple of walking
loops around the round pen going one direction,
it is time to stop and go the other way. To stop
your horse, since he is not on a lead or lunge
line, stop moving your feet, raise your hand, and
calmly say “whoa”, it may take a time or two
before he stops. When he does, he will either
just stop where he is, facing the direction he has
been going , or, he will turn towards you. Turning
towards you is ideal, because it signifies his confidence. When he has stopped, give verbal praise,
calmly approach, giving him a treat and a gently
pat or two. Then, turn him around the other way
and get him walking again. As soon as he does,
give verbal praise. Have him do the exact same
number of loops as he did going the other direction. It is important to do this so that the horse
develops the same on each side.
When the loops are complete, stop the horse
again, and stop training for the day. Give him lots
of praise and reassurance that all is well, even if
it didn’t go as well as you hoped it would.
Day 2:
Today, you are going to start by repeating the
second part of Day One. Once your horse has
walked both directions, you are going to ask him
to trot. As with the walk, you need to ask verbally
by saying “trot” and follow it up by clucking and
moving your feet (move your feet fast, almost like
you are jogging in place). Once he starts to trot,
give lots of verbal praise. If he starts to canter,
slow your foot movement and calmly repeat “trot”
until he starts to trot, then praise. Once your
horse has trotted two complete loops around the
round pen (without walking or cantering), then
ask him to stop, turn him, and repeat going the
other way. Once he has successfully trotted twice
around the round pen going each direction, stop
for the day and hand walk the horse for a few
minutes to start a “cool down” routine.
Day 3:
Repeat day 2, walking and trotting for 5 minutes
(10 minutes total for each gait) each direction
and walk cool.
Day 4:
Today, we are going to introduce canter. Repeat
Day 3, but after the horse has completed his trotting, ask him to walk for a few minutes to make
sure he is not breathing heavily. Once he has
recovered his breath, ask him to trot, as soon as
he starts trotting comfortably, ask him to canter.
As with walk and trot, ask verbally with supporting body language (stomp your feet) and noise.
As soon as he starts to canter, huge praise and
keep it going! After two times around, stop him,
and repeat the other direction. After two times
around without breaking canter, stop for the day
and walk him cool with lots of praise.
Day 5 and 6:
Repeat Day 4, building up to 5 minutes per gait
in each direction. Remember to praise your horse
for each thing he does right, no matter how
small.
It is important to always end your training session
on a positive, even if it means cutting it short.
This will help your horse to develop a positive
view of training.
For the duration of this program, each week is
6 days. The 7th day is your horse’s day off. It
is important for them to recover physically and
mentally from training. This is their chance to “be
a horse” and to do their own thing for the day. A
day spent turned out is the best so that they can
roll and move freely while enjoying the fresh air.
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