8 Ways to Improve Your Dog Training
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This is a very broad question, just like caring for dogs, it takes lots of work. I agree that maybe taking a few lessons would really help you to get comfortable. Horse training is different than dog training, it can be very dangerous, and should be handled with someone that knows how to care for a horse. So lessons would be a great thing to get into. Also, do all of your research to learn behavior, care, can even history of horses. Hope this helps!
Dog Training - How to Handle Outdoor Dog Training
- As much as I would like to help you this is to broad of a question. If you email me I would love to help you. Here are some basics though-
Ground Manners
Ground Work
Getting Saddle/Bridle on and off QUIETLY
Getting used to being touched everywhere
Leg Yeilds
Canter Leads
Flying Lead Changes
Etc...
Way to much to list! If you get a job as a trainer, I would consider taking lessons just so you can get a better idea :) - well in training them you normally start with ground work such as leading, lungeing, and theaching them walk trot and ext. wile lungeing then trying lungeing with a saddle on and also a good idea is to ground drive them so they already know what eveyrthing is before you get on them and as far as careing for them there is lots of things to do like feeding watering grooming takeing them to a farrier and a vet makeing sure they have negative coggins and utd on shots and lots of stuff like that
- Ypu should probly ha ve a perfessional help you. My friend broke her last horse, and she got kicked, thrown off, reared. It is safer to have a professional.
- I start out in free rein. No saddle or bridle. I don't work in a round pen, it's to boring for the horse.
Now the masters like you to start in a round pen, which is fine. a lot of ground work, teaching the basics of forward. Back, and stop, and to turn, than they also desensitize by using a flag, though I don't always agree with the masters. I have trained over a hundred of horses in my life time, and I find that even with a halter on, and take your horse out grazing, practice leaning on him, than slowly getting up on him. The way i do is lay on him, than I get off, and do it again. Showing him I mean no harm. When I do start him, I will start to bend him, getting a nice forward motion, always reward, and be soft with his mouth. Using your legs, soft talking tone, and some loving. Most of this on bareback. Move all over his body. Sometimes on a nice day, I'll even take a Horseman Magazine and read on my Welara Mare, while she is grazing.
I'm not saying you should start this way, en less you have been around Horses a long time, and your a good rider.
Now on the feeding- My two Mares, and that is all I want because it is much easy er taking care of two than some do with ten.
The cost for me and that is at my home. is over four hundred a month.
Their diet is Beet pulp, and hay cubes soaked in very hot water, with dried molasses mixed in. 14 percent Grain- 10 percent of body weight, and corn, plus my fly feed program for the summer, and dayle vitamins. That is morning and night.
Worming every two to three months. Shelter from the sun, and from the cold winter months.
Their hay manger is always kept full with 2nd cutting alfalfa, which they don't always finish.
These are two happy Mares, never bred, and love to go riding. Although, since I trained my Welara, she won't let anyone else on her.
She has my trust, and I have hers. We are best friends.
I forgot to add, she kept throwing off the last trainer whom was a Master Trainer, and said no one would be able to ride her. Well, was he ever wrong, with her Arabian blood, she was just overly smart. She went for me, because I'm tiny, and I dumped the saddle. I never use it, until we are into training at least two to three weeks.
I hope this helps you some.
If you do hire a trainer. Please watch him, her, and you will later have to ride the way he has trained her.
That is why it is better when we train our own horses!
And they love us for it.
Always use kindness, just like your dogs, and plenty of rewards!
You will have a friend for a life time!
I wish you luck with your new Horse. - (This is going to be very long...sorry!)
Well, I don't mean to burst your bubble, but training horses take a LOT more time and skill than training a dog for two reasons (there are probably other reasons, but these are the main ones).
1. Horses are Prey animals, we are predators until we prove other wise. In other words, a dog (assuming he has not been abused) will learn very quickly to trust/ respect you because he is also a predator by nature, so...it comes more NATURALLY that he can trust you.
2. You don't ride a dog, and a dog is very easy to manipulate, being that most dogs are less than half our size/weight, aside from a few really big dog breeds.
It's easy to teach a dog to sit on command, because of he doesn't listen you can "Force him to" by grabbing his collar, and pushing his rear down. If you try to force a horse to do much of anything...well, I can promise it will be much more complicated to do, and will usually result in injury and an unhappy horse/ human. That's where the trick is. You know you can not "make" a horse do anything. So what you need to do is SUGGEST that you can force them rather then displaying it (using your energy, and simple exercises to gain respect and dominance, (NONE of which btw should cause the horse pain or fear...that would break the trust and instead of building a nice relationship, and you end up building a fear based dictatorship, which almost always backfires!) and use things like body language, lunge whips and such (again SUGGESTIVE! You should never actually touch the horse with this, just snap it behind him when he gets too slow, and he will/should move forward. If he is totally ignoring you you can TOUCH him with it just to snap him out of it, but you never want to hit him with it. Some times when you are using say, spurs of a crop to urge a horse forward you may have to used them ONCE so he knows they are there, but after that he should respond better by you just suggesting the use of the crop/spurs. NOTE: Crops and spurs also have many other uses besides urging the horse forward, such as refining certain cues/ moments...but that is another topic..) that can reach the horse while you are far away to suggest you are larger than him.
Many people think that the biggest horse ion a group is always the most dominant, or that the horse is always a male. Both of these are wrong. it is equally likely that a Shetland pone mare could be the head honcho, as this is a game of vibe and leadership, not size and looks...
In the wild, all herds are led by the lead MARE, not the stallion. the stallion forms the herd and breeds the mares, to help the family grow, but the lead are is higher on the "tree" so to speak. She can boss him around, and it;s her job to keep the family from danger, and to find food and water. she is the one you walks in front of the other horses, leading them to safety/a good meal. The stallion usually takes up the back making sure no one falls behind, and that no new threats appear from behind. Anyway, I am getting off topic, but the point here was to explain leadership, and that the dominant position should be won over mentally, meaning you prove to he horse that you are he boss WITHOUT physically breaking his spirit. For this reason, i will refer to "breaking" as "teaching" instead.
Now, how to teach a horse to be ridden. Well, there are many many ways, some of which make more sense, but no matter how you put it, you will not get a good horse in a day. Some people can get on a horse in one day, but the only way to make sure it is going to be a positive, safe experience for the horse, is to properly prepare him for it with weeks, even months of groundwork. Explaining exactly how to teach each of these things to a horse would take far too long, so I will just write a check list of things a horse must know before I will get on him. If you want to know more, send me a message...I would be THRILLED to explain!
Before the first ride,a horse must know:
How to walk, trot, canter, whoa, and back up (usually taught on a lunge line)
How to stand patiently tied for over an hour
How to stand while he is haltered, and know how to lead properly (best when done as a foal)
He must give to gentle pressure (such as move his head down when I pull lightly down on his lead rope, and also know how to move his hip/shoulder away from me when I press his flank/ shoulder.)
He should accept a bit, and let me put a bridle on hm. he should learn to give to bit pressure..basically re-learn everything he does in a halter with a bit.
He should allow me to put a saddle and saddle pad on him.
He should learn to be comfortable with me touching him all over, and swinging a rope all over his back/belly
he should allow me to tighten/ hold a rope around his cinch area (called his heart-girth) where the cinch will be.
He must be comfortable walking on a tarp, walking next to cones/poles (which are often used in the arena when riding) and he must let me rub him all over w
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