I’m sure many of you have seen Stacy Westfall’s amazing bareback and bridleless riding. If you haven’t, then check out this video, it will BLOW YOU AWAY.
Now I’m sure you’re impressed-but what’s really amazing is anybody can be riding bareback and bridleless. It’s a great way to get in tune with your horse and improve your riding skills. We don’t have to be as crazy and bold as Stacy is, but you can make progress if only someone would teach you how. Here in this video, Eric Bravo teaches you from scratch the basics of learning (and teaching your horse) about riding bareback and bridleless.
My name is Dave and with my friend Eric Bravo I’ve made a few “horse training” videos I’d like to send you.
If you’re already a pro, then you won’t need these… but if you’re having problems with your horse then make sure you enter your email below (or to the right side) and I’ll send you some new videos over the next few days. These videos cover:
How to catch any horse using only body language
Leading a horse and eliminating pulling, invading personal space and pushiness problems
Lunging a horse to train him to listen to cues for riding
Round pen training and signs to look for to “break” any horse gently
Beginning saddle training (horse rider training)
Plus I’ll give you some quick and easy tips that I wish someone would have shared with me when I first got started to help you deal with problems like bucking, biting, trailer loading, plus you’ll understand horses better and build your confidence
Look, Eric’s been training horses for over 20 years and REALLY wants to help you get started. But you gotta take a little action to get off the ground.
Enter your email below, watch these free videos and start learning. You can thank me later!
I’ll send your videos here:
Written by admin on April 5, 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
You’re ready to start working with your horse. Now find out how to teach him effectively with these horse training tips.
1. Don’t let the horse dictate speed in the round-pen
Round-pen training is a great way to establish leadership, but we need to make the decisions. Don’t let him decide how fast to go-you decide.
2. Let horse rest
Rest is a reward for a working horse. When he does what you ask, let him rest.
3. Look for communication signs
Part of becoming a leader for your horse is recognizing signs he’s communicating with you. These can include a head down, looking at you with both eyes, licking of the lips.
4. Make everything your idea
When he does something you don’t like, turn it around and make it your idea so that he sees you as the leader. An example: if you’re trying to him while he’s loose in the pasture and he decides to run off, don’t try to corral him or stop him. Let him move off. But make it your idea by pushing him. Put pressure to make him run off even faster.
5. Use body language for leadership
Think about horses in the wild. The stallion and alpha mare don’t have treats, buckets or grain or use crops or whips to try and get the other horses to do their bidding. They use body language and energy to direct the herd. Do the same with your equine.
6. They learn from the release
Apply pressure to request movement and then reward with release at the right moment.
7. Teach him to be light
When you begin teaching a new movement, you may have to apply a lot of pressure to get what you’re asking. But with practice, the response will get better-at that point begin asking with less and less physical pressure until you can just use energy. But, you want to use energy and contact, because you will use contact when riding.
8. Drop the head and flex during all groundwork training
Dropping the head helps put the horse in a relaxed state. Flexing helps him become light in response to the reins and teaches the one-rein emergency stop. Flex both sides at every opportunity.
9. Work both sides of the animal
Remember, a horse has two sides. We need to practice each exercise on the right as well as the left.
10. Don’t let him dictate where he wants to be
Tell him where to go and don’t try to compensate for him positioning himself where he wants to be. The leader of the herd tells the other horses where they should be and you’re the leader of the herd.
Ever since Parelli burst on the scene everyone’s abuzz about horse training games. The idea behind the games is to play with the horse doing things he already does naturally. In short they are an encapsulation of how horses interact with each other, essentially designed to get humans to interact with horses correctly. Horse training games aren’t really about training equines, they’re about training humans.
While the following exercises might not exactly seem like playtime, they are based on the same basic principle. Interact with the horse in a natural way. We’re going to set up the following behaviors to interact with the horse in a way he naturally understands. Doing so builds communication and establishes leadership.
1. Round pen training “at liberty”
Round pen training can be used to establish leadership without even touching the horse. Eric shows how in this video.
2. Circling
After you’ve established yourself as a leader, the next of our horse training games is to turn lunging into an exercise that sets up communication between you and your horse. That communication isn’t for giggles or new age bonding, its to build a foundation for riding. In this video-which shows lunging with two different horses- Eric illustrates how to perform this exercise.
3. Leading a Horse
Next, turn your leading from simply dragging a horse from A to B and use it to gently establish leadership.
For more information see how Eric can teach you about horse training games for leadership
In the old days horse breaking was a process by which you got a horse trained by forcing him to submit. Now we have a better understanding of how horses think, act, and behave, and have sensitivity to cruelty and force. Using modern methods, horse breaking can be accomplished in a completely gentle fashion that speaks to the horse in his own, natural language. An effective way of doing this is by establishing leadership and by controlling or directing the movement of the horse.
Eric has a complete set of horse training videos that cover everything from catching a horse for the first time, to horse back riding to riding bareback. Learn more about Eric’s horse training videos
Written by admin on February 2, 2010
Posted in Horse Breaking
Safety around a horse takes place on the ground and in the saddle. On the ground, horses can be extremely dangerous simply because they’re big and fast animals. A horse can injure you even when there was no intention to do so. To build safety with your equine, start on the ground.
The foremost concern on the ground is maintaining personal space. A horse must respect your personal space and not enter it. You can go in his personal space, but he can’t come into yours. A good way to teach this is with leading exercises and backing up. Follow the leading exercises shown in this video clip to begin teaching about personal space:
Establishing leadership can help owners involve other problems on the ground with horse safety. One of the most dangerous things a horse can do is kick. Its important to know why the horse kicks. Is it out of fear or disrespect? In either case, the first thing you should do is make sure your horse knows how to disengage the hindquarter on the ground. Don’t go around a kicking horse without your tools (lead rope, carrot stick/riding crop). Keep the hind end away from you by disengaging the hind. This will move the hind end away from you. That’s the basics. Beyond this, dealing with kicking means establishing your leadership and gaining respect and trust from the horse. Round-pen training and groundwork will do this for you. If he kicks, you need to double the time invested in your ground training.
Here are some tips on round-pen training for respect:
Here are some tips on groundwork and disengaging the hind:
Biting is the third key to horse safety. Biting is extremely dangerous and is unacceptable. In the midst of a bite don’t be afraid to be firm with the horse, otherwise you could be facing a bruise or broken bones. Biting also comes down to trust and respect. The head area should be desensitized, use approach-and-retreat to get the horse used to you touching his ears, face and mouth. To build trust and respect, use the same ground training exercises you would to deal with kicking.
Horse rider training is nothing more than a continuation of groundwork but conducted from the saddle. If you’ve taught your horse to respond to the basic yields and have him paying attention to you, then he already knows what to do when you’re riding him. You’re just directing him from a different vantage point.
The first step in horse rider training is preparation. Before riding, engage in a groundwork routine with your horse. This routine can be as short as 5 or 10 minutes, but it should cover every aspect of groundwork: back-up, move the forehand and hindquarter (both sides), flex, drop the head, a little bit of lunging and making sure the horse is paying attention.
Next we work on mounting. Being able to mount a horse safely is important. You want your horse to stand still during mounting. In this sample video, Eric talks about some aspects of mounting.
Another important topic is flexing while in the saddle. If you’ve been flexing on the ground, moving to flexing while in the saddle should be a snap. Don’t cut corners on flexing, however-its one of the most important aspects of horse training. Flexing forms the basis of a one-rein stop, and in dangerous situations, of an “emergency” stop. In this sample video, Eric talks about flexing.
From here, the temptation might be to just take off and ride, but that would be a mistake. Practice basic movements in the arena first. This means making sure your horse will walk out and stop on cue, turning the forehand, moving the hindquarter, and backing up. When you can do these exercises flawlessly, which all follows directly from groundwork, then you can start learning to walk trot, and canter.
In this video, Eric gives some basic riding instruction:
Horse back riding can be dangerous, but you can reduce your chance of injury by taking a few precautions. Some of them involve having the right equipment, while other things you should do are related to training. Here are 10 tips for horse riding safety.
1. Establish leadership on the ground
Before you even get on a horse, you need to be his leader. Its safer to do this on the ground first. Practice round-pen training, leading your horse properly, and teaching basic yields.
2. Make sure your horse pays attention
If you have two eyes, you’ve got the whole horse. If you’ve got one eye, he’s distracted. When riding a distracted horse is a dangerous horse. He’s more likely to spook or run off. So attention is key to horse riding safety. Teach your horse to pay attention on the ground first. When doing your groundwork, if he’s not focusing both eyes on you, bump the rope to encourage him to keep his attention pointed in your direction. Ears toward you is also another attention cue
3. Do groundwork immediately before riding
If you’ve got a horse you’ve been riding for years and know well, you don’t have to spend as much time with it, but its always good to run through your groundwork routine for 5-10 minutes prior to every ride, to reinforce in your horse’s mind who’s the leader.
4. Drop that head
A horse with his head up high and with a tense neck is a worried horse. Get him in a relaxed and submissive state of mind by asking him to drop his head. Also be aware for other horse body language signs like a tense tail. If your horse is feeling tense and nervous, its probably not a good idea to ride.
5. Have good equipment
Don’t cut corners when it comes to your reins, saddle and other riding equipment. Equipment failure can lead to trouble.
6. Do an equipment check before riding
Check your cinch and other gear before getting on.
7. Practice mounting
Train your horse to be relaxed when mounting, instead of having the inclination to just take off. In this video clip, Eric talks about mounting a horse:
8. Flex, flex, and flex
Your horse should be nice and light, and should flex. The one-rein stop not only makes for better riding, but can help you shut down a horse in an emergency. In this sample clip, Eric talks about the one rein stop.
9. Wear good riding boots
You wouldn’t want to get your feet stuck in the stirrups and get dragged by a runaway horse. So wear good riding boots with a heel.
10. Wear a helmet
Horse back riding is one of the most dangerous outdoor activities there is, and a large share of the injuries are head injuries. One study even found on an hours ridden basis, horse back riding was more dangerous than motorcycle riding. Wear a helmet to reduce the risk of death or serious injury.
Do you understand horse body language? Horses can’t talk, but they live in herds and communicate gobs of information with body language. Understanding horse body language is key to understanding your horse. Here are some tips on not only understanding horse body language, but using your own body language to communicate leadership.
1. Recognize when your horse is paying attention
If your horse is paying attention to you, he’ll have both eyes on you. He may also have one or both ears pointed in your direction, listening for what you’re going to say next. If he has one eye on you but another eye looking off in the distance, he’s not seeing you as a leader and might decide on his own what’s a threat and what isn’t.
2. Ears pinned back
Of course a horse with ears pinned back is ready for action. That’s an angry, hostile horse that might bite or kick.
3. Head up high and ears forward
A horse that has his head up high, his neck tense and ears forward probably senses a threat. He’s about to enter self-preservation mode. That’s a horse that might suddenly take off.
4. Head lowered
Horse is relaxed and calm, where you want him to be. A lowered head also signals submission. As part of your training, you should ask your horse to lower his head to help reinforce the viewpoint that you’re the leader.
5. Tail clamped tight to his body
Go behind your horse and try and lift his tail. If its all tight and hard to lift up, he’s feeling fearful, tense, and nervous. If you can lift it up easily, he’s relaxed.
6. Tail Swishing
If a horse is swishing his tail, he might be warding off a flock of flies or he might be indicating he’s upset about something. Often a swishing tail means he’s agitated.
7. What about YOUR body language?
Horses live in herds and communicate using body language. This comes natural to them so they can read you like an open book the minute you enter the pasture. Its important to project confidence and strength. Walk upright with your head up and eyes looking where you’re going. When passing through a gate or barn door, you go first and let the horse follow. When you’re in the saddle, sit straight and look out where you want to go, instead of down at the reins hoping the horse won’t buck you off.
The body language you communicate works on two levels. You’ll also want to avoid looking like a predator. A few things that help here: if a horse is fearful, avoid eye contact. Look down at the ground as you approach. Don’t walk straight on toward the horse, approach laterally. Back off when a horse shows signs of acceptance.
