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Tag: training tips

There’s Always a Warning

May 13, 2019
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| Categories: TRAINING TIPS

As I reach between my shoulder blades, I can still feel the results of a missed warning— “a shot across the bow”— from a few weeks ago in the Netherlands.  I’ve replayed the video a few times for friends to show that the missed signal will always develop into something bigger! In my daily activities of working with horses both from the ground and under-saddle, I don’t know of a time the horse didn’t give me a clue of what might happen next if I didn’t take their concerns with some level of importance.  Horses are no different than people

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The Big Green Horse Eating Machine

March 5, 2014
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| Categories: TRAINING TIPS

Our question this week comes from Ducka Kelly.  She asks, “How do I get my horse past the bulldozer that is blocking the trail that we wish to ride?”  Great question, Ducka! We’re going take this in stride as any object or obstacle that the horse views as threating. First, as we have in all responses to the previous questions, we want to look at it from the horse’s perspective.   As the horse looks at the bulldozer he figures it as a threating obstacle that he could easily avoid by going the other way.  To condition the horse to accept

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The Big Green Horse Eating Machine

March 5, 2014
| 1 Comment
| Categories: TRAINING TIPS

Our question this week comes from Ducka Kelly.  She asks, “How do I get my horse past the bulldozer that is blocking the trail that we wish to ride?”  Great question, Ducka! We’re going take this in stride as any object or obstacle that the horse views as threating. First, as we have in all responses to the previous questions, we want to look at it from the horse’s perspective.   As the horse looks at the bulldozer he figures it as a threating obstacle that he could easily avoid by going the other way.  To condition the horse to accept

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Stand Still, Please

February 28, 2014
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| Categories: TRAINING TIPS

Here's the question we're answering this week: "How do I get my horse to stand still while I am mounting on a loose rein without flexing his head around?" First, lets understand things from the horse’s perspective. I know, we say that a lot, don’t we? But our good friend Tom Dorrance said that you have to work the horse from where he is.  Having said that, understand why the horse may be moving.  Have we taught him to stand still without mounting?  Are his feet equally spread out to insure balance on his part as we pull ourselves up

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The Odd Couple: Part Two

March 19, 2013
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| Categories: TRAINING TIPS

Last month we talked about the difference between predators (humans) and prey (horses), and why a horse might have concerns with a predator-prey relationship.  This month, we want to further that understanding; we’ll explore how we can adapt the horse’s perception of humans to foster a training style reminiscent of the herd dynamics he’s familiar with. First, it’s important to understand the horse’s brain and the difference between the two sides—the responsive side of the brain, which responds to external stimuli in a thoughtful, calculated manner, verses the reactive side, which provides instinctual, knee-jerk reactions. As humans, we are already

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The Odd Couple: Horses as Prey and Humans as Predators

February 20, 2013
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| Categories: TRAINING TIPS

At Bar T Horsemanship, we’ve started over 30 feral horses, or mustangs. Having worked with so many undomesticated horses has given us a very unique perspective on horses as prey animals, in their purest form. We’ve all heard them referred to as prey animals before, but do we really have an understanding of what that means and how we can work together? The Prey Did you know that horses’ minds and bodies are constructed in a way that aides in their survival as prey animals? Take for example their eyes. Horses have monocular vision, which means that each eye is

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The Odd Couple: Horses as Prey and Humans as Predators

February 20, 2013
| No Comments
| Categories: TRAINING TIPS

At Bar T Horsemanship, we’ve started over 30 feral horses, or mustangs. Having worked with so many undomesticated horses has given us a very unique perspective on horses as prey animals, in their purest form. We’ve all heard them referred to as prey animals before, but do we really have an understanding of what that means and how we can work together? The Prey Did you know that horses’ minds and bodies are constructed in a way that aides in their survival as prey animals? Take for example their eyes. Horses have monocular vision, which means that each eye is

Read More›