Saddle training is the ultimate goal for riding, but the groundwork must be laid first. You will first need to lead your horse from the trailer, for example, to the tack area in order to tack-up and then 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. Then you’ll need to lead your horse about with a halter and a lead rope.

The primary objective in teaching a horse acceptable behaviour is safety for both of you. He will need to be taught that his natural tendency to pull against the lead rope, for example, is not allowed. Your horse should also know that he must not invade the personal space of the human leader on the other end of the rope. Accidents can easily occur if proper consideration to teaching basic safety manners to your horse is not given 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. Having already accomplished haltering, it is likely that you have already discovered the effectiveness of the three Ps.

Beginning lead training when the horse is still a foal is the easiest plan. Although you won’t need to cover saddles and riding with a very young horse, it’s important to get an early start when teaching basic ground manners. 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.

If you’re lucky enough to have the dam on site, the foal will copy the behaviours of the dam. Don’t worry if the dam is not present, as it works as well with any horse which the foal spends time with. A young horse will naturally learn from his elders. 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 by watching the others. If your student is older, you can still use another horse’s example by haltering and leading the other horse first. Horses notice everything that goes on around them – particularly if it involves other horses within the herd – so you can be sure that your student will be paying attention.

Begin by leading a more experienced horse or dam along with your young student horse, walking side by side with you in the middle leading both at once. The safest place for you to stand is to the left of your student’s shoulder, with the older horse to your left. A young horse could suddenly decide to bolt or to kick his heels, so make sure that you don’t wrap the lead rope around your hand or anywhere else that makes you vunerable. 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. Using a longer lead rope and simply tow the young trainee behind the more experienced horse. Since it’s natural for the young to follow the elders behaviours, this is actually a quite natural method for teaching the lead.

If you don’t have the luxury of having other horses close by from which your student can learn, you will need to rely heavily on your skills of patience, persistence and positive reinforcement. You will get there in the end but it will probably take a bit longer for the horse to understand what is required.

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 your horse he’s doing something right.

After you have him walking with you in straight lines with success, try turning slightly to the left, maintaining the space bubble 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. Reward him each time he takes a step in the right direction by releasing the pressure on the lead rope.

Lead training can be a testing time. Stay with it and you will see great improvement. To get yourself closer to the day you can saddle up for a ride, you’ll need to put in the work; little and often (every day if possible) works best and will soon give you great results.

Horse riders will of course see saddle training as the ultimate goal, but first it’s necessary to complete the groundwork. You will need to take your horse from trailer or barn to the tack area, tack up, and then you’ll 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?. Your horse will need to cooperate with you so the two of you can act as a team. This cooperation begins with your ability to approach, catch, and halter him first. Then you’ll need to lead your horse about with a halter and a lead rope.

With the primary objective of safety in mind, your horse needs to learn what is acceptable behaviour. Pulling against the lead rope, for example, is natural behaviour for a horse which you will need to teach him not to do. Whoever is leading needs to be secure that their personal space will not be invaded by the horse. Many an accident has occurred as a direct result of inattention to the importance of teaching your horse basic safety manners before attempting anything more advanced. 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!

The three Ps of horse training – patience, persistence and positive reinforcement – come into play when leading your horse. Having already accomplished haltering, it is likely that you have already discovered the effectiveness of the three Ps.

Ideally you need to begin lead training with your horse when he is still a foal. Don’t leave it too late to begin teaching ground manners – a very young horse doesn’t need to know about saddles and riding yet, so you have time to focus on these important basics. 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.

If you’re lucky enough to have the dam on site, the foal will copy the behaviours of the dam. Don’t worry if the dam is not present, as it works as well with any horse which 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 watch the other horses to learn these things. If your student is older, you can still use another horse’s example by haltering and leading the other horse first. Your student will be watching, as they do notice everything that happens around them, particularly if it involves other horses in their own herd.

A good place to start is to lead a more experienced horse along with the foal; lead them simultaneously with you in the middle. The safest place for you to stand is to the left of your student’s shoulder, with the older horse to your left. A young horse could suddenly decide to bolt or to kick his heels, so make sure that you don’t wrap the lead rope around your hand or anywhere else that makes you vunerable. 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.

You will need to fall back only on the three Ps of horse training in the absence of other horses to help the youngster learn what to do. It will still be viable, but may take a bit longer for your horse to understand what you’d like him to do.

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.

After you have him walking with you in straight lines with success, try turning slightly to the left, maintaining the space bubble 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. Remember to release pressure on the lead rope and reward him every time he shows a step in the right direction.

Lead training requires large reserves of patience. Stick with it and you’ll soon see big improvements. Do a little work every day if you can and this will put you closer to the day you can finally saddle up for a ride.

This is basic ground manners explained. In it’s simplest form, good manners means your horse doing as he is told. Your horse should be able to perform each task or movement safely regardless of ease or complexity. The very basics include not pushing, stepping on or otherwise endangering you whether intentionally or not. These may seem like simple annoyances, perhaps, but you can see that there is definitely potential for someone to be seriously hurt. Since horses outweigh you by a ton, literally, a misplaced hoof can break your foot. Better not to find out the hard way whether your equine insurance will cover you for this! If you first establish and then maintain an area of personal space, this can be avoided.

Allowing your horse to nuzzle into your pockets in the search for crunchy treats could land you with a nibble in a rather inconvenient place. These love nibbles will not feel as such when made by teeth as big as those of your horse. Horses in a herd treat each other differently than they must treat us. Often they will bite, nip and crowd each other, but they are somewhat more robust than we are.

Unfortunately, the space bubble lesson has been learned by many the hard way. My first, and subsequently the last, experience with the concept of crowding occurred when I bought my first horse years ago. My wonderful new four-legged friend liked to “help” me with the paddock cleaning. As I shovelled and filled the manure cart, he would come and put his nose into it. Then one day he actually lifted his front hoof and put it into the cart when I put a rake full of manure in. He knocked the cart over, which spooked him, which in turn spooked the other three horses in the paddock. There was a furore of hooves and tails a-flying and I was stuck amongst this. Thankfully I was not hurt, but this could have been a mild or even a serious disaster – and may have even necessitated a claim on my horse insurance.

This was in the basic learning curve time period for both of us. I was so amused at his trying to help me with my chores that I didn’t think about the potential consequences. I learned about the importance of safety manners that day. From that moment on I taught him how to respect my space when going about my tasks within the paddock and with the other horses. There was still plenty of time to be cute during our training time.

The three Ps of horse training success can be utilized to teach basic safety manners to your horse. The relationship which you have with any horse – be it your own or one you are training for someone else – is largely dependant on the use of patience, persistence and positive reinforcement.

Patience. Remember that your horse doesn’t yet know what is expected of him. You will go a long way in building trust by showing patience with your horse when showing him what to do, and letting him try and try again until he gets it. Allow your mind to become clear of stresses and strain before you start a training session. Take a deep breath and relax. It is part of the natural learning process for your horse to test the waters. He needs to check and see if what he thinks you want is correct. This can occur several times before the horse has confirmed his correct assessment of the task.

Persistence. Don’t simply give up when things don’t happen quickly. At first it is hard to communicate. You will both need to learn how to speak the same language! Stay with it and be consistent in your cues. Horses are very perceptive to even the slightest cue. Your horse will only cooperate when he has learned what the cue means.

Positive reinforcement. Whenever your horse does something correctly, show him a signal. The best reward for a horse may not be those tasty treats. They love to be released when they’ve done their job. Imagine the “whoa!” or “stop” cue. This is a pull on the bit within his mouth. When the horse exhibits the signs that he understands that you want him to stop, release the bit immediately. That tells him he’s doing the right thing.

Horses need to know their limits. How close can he stand to you before you feel crowded? Can he pull on the lead rope if he doesn’t want to go the way you are leading him? If he doesn’t feel inclined to pick up his foot, will you allow him to get away with this? For a horse this is not natural, even though to us it may seem like common sense. A correctly and carefully trained horse will forever be both a most pleasing companion and could also represent a lower liability when it comes to renewing your horse insurance policy.