Where to Begin when Leading Your Horse
03.January, 2010
Horse riders will of course see saddle training as the ultimate goal, but first it’s necessary to complete the groundwork. Your horse will need to be led from his stall or pasture to the tack area before you can tack-up and ride. Not much point in teaching your horse point B, the saddle riding part, if there’s no way to get there from point A is there?. When your horse learns to cooperate with you, you can act as a team. This cooperation begins with your ability to approach, catch, and halter him first. After that you can use a halter and rope to lead your horse.
The primary objective in teaching a horse acceptable behaviour is safety for both of you. You will need to address behaviours which come naturally to him, such as pulling against the lead rope. Your horse should also know that he must not invade the personal space of the human leader on the other end of the rope. You put yourself at risk by not taking time to teach your horse basic safety manners before moving on to more advanced training. Whilst a good equine insurance policy may cover you for accidents that happen in training, it’s obviously far more preferable not to have to find this out!
Leading your horse requires that you use the three Ps of horse training: patience, persistence and positive reinforcement. If you have accomplished haltering, then you have most likely already discovered how effective the three Ps of horse training are.
It is a good idea to begin lead training when the horse is still a foal. A very young horse will not need to know just yet about saddles and riding, but basic ground manners training should begin early on. The young horse will need to cooperate for farrier and vet visits, as well as for the various people moving about the yard, stables or paddock.
Having the dam - the foal’s mother - on site can help dramatically when beginning training as the younger horse will naturally copy her behaviours. In fact this works with any horse that the foal spends time with. Young horses naturally learn from the older ones in the herd. For example, you don’t need to teach a horse in the pasture how to graze or go to the water and drink. They learn to do this by watching the other horses in the herd. If your student is older, you can still use another horse’s example by haltering and leading the other horse first. As you do this you will notice your student watching and paying attention to these events occurring around him.
Start off by leading two horses - the foal and either it’s dam or a more experienced horse - side by side with you in the middle. Stay to the left of your student’s shoulder area as it is the safest spot for you, with the older horse to the left of you. Never wrap the lead rope around your hand or anywhere else, just in case your student bolts or otherwise kicks up a fuss. The last thing you need at this stage is complicating the process with an injury for which you may need to claim on your horse insurance.
If you have a calm horse which you think the foal will follow you could also use the pony method. This is done by simply towing the student horse behind using a longer lead rope. It makes sense in fact to teach the lead in this way, as it’s natural for a young horse to follow an elders lead.
With no other horses nearby, you will need to rely solely on your patience, persistence, and positive reinforcement skills. It will probably take longer for your horse to understand exactly what you’d like him to do, but by following the three Ps rule you will get there in the end.
After satisfactory progress, it’s time to try it alone. Again, standing to the left of your young horse’s shoulder and with both of you looking straight ahead, gently walk forward and as you step out, tug very gently forward, then release any pressure on the rope as soon as the horse makes any motion to go forward. Understanding that release is a reward to your horse is a valuable tip used by professional trainers. It tells him that he’s doing things right.
Once he has mastered walking with you in a straight line you can then attempt a small turn to the left while still maintaining the space between you. If he crowds you, use your right hand to push him out away from you and hold your arm out to the appropriate distance. Then try turning to the right with the same safety distance between the two of you, still using your right hand to guide him into the correct zone. You will need to reward him by releasing the pressure on the lead rope each time he steps in the right direction.
A large amount of patience is required to successfully complete lead training with your horse. Big improvements will soon be made if you can just stick with it. You’ll need work little and often; if you can manage every day this will give you great results and in no time at all you’ll be ready to saddle up and begin riding.
Respond