Dear Friend and Horseman,
Welcome to another Horse Training Tips Insider.
In this issue, I want to talk about a topic that I feel you should be aware of.
It could make your horse’s training go a whole lot better.
Okay, lets get started.
A few days ago, I received an email from one of my members.
Here’s the email:
Hi Larry,
Just wanted to say I’m really enjoying your videos. There’s a lot of good stuff in every one that I’ve watched so far.
I do have a question though.
In what ORDER should I watch the videos?
Does it matter?
Please let me know.
Donna
Here's my reply:
Donna’s question is a good one and to tell you the truth, I should have clearly addressed this issue a long time ago.
The SEQUENCE OF THE TRAINING can be really important.
First, I’ll touch on the obvious.
And then, clue you in on some insights that are NOT so obvious.
If you're dead serious about learning to train your horse from the ground up, here is the order to watch the videos.
1. Western Riding Know How. This video will give you the “why, how and what-to-do” of riding a performance horse. Or ANY horse for that matter. I highly recommend it. It’s especially important to riders who want to know the correct cues to use to get their horse to respond right.
It also demonstrates how to get CONTROL of your horse in a BAD SITUATION.
2. Training the Foal and Weanling… Yes, this is the video I suggest you watch next… even if you don’t have a weanling and never plan on having one.
Why?
Because this video, details some of the most important training that EVERY horse should have… regardless of age.
It doesn’t matter if your horse is a 2-year-old or 13 years old. He could benefit from the GROUND WORK TRAINING shown in this dvd.
3. Foundation Training Package. I think most people realize, every horse has to have a solid foundation to build on or nothing is going to work right.
That’s true for young horses but it’s also true for OLDER HORSES that need to be re-trained, fixed or advanced to a higher level.
Skipping this part of the training will only lead to frustration down the road.
4. Performance Training Package. This where the advanced training begins.
Each of these videos give a detailed review of the foundation training needed and then take you step by step, advancing through the training process.
These performance videos have literally taken many people to success, even championships in top competition. I suggest watching each one many times.
Some Training Secrets
Here are a few training secrets in relation to the training “sequence” that will save you some grief.
When training your horse, teach the things that require DRIVE and IMPULSION, FIRST.
In the beginning stages, DRIVE and IMPULSION are the secrets to good turns, circles and spins.
Teach the HARD STOP and FAST BACK UP, LAST.
Here’s why…
FORWARD MOTION is necessary to teach turns, circles and spins.
Drive or impulsion in the spin is what gets the horse to cross-over in front and plant his inside pivot foot.
The “stop and back up” are REVERSE MOTION maneuvers.
If you get your horse highly responsive to reverse motion before he thoroughly knows how to spin, you’ll have trouble getting the horse to cross-over correctly in front.
He’ll want to suck back too much, resulting in the front legs crossing UNDER and banging together, slowing the front end down and causing him to hop or swing his rear end out of gear.
The other reason to put the BIG stop on last is because to get it really right, the horse needs to be really listening for it.
If you have to do too much training on other things, the horse can’t listen closely for the stop.
Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do ANY training for the stop in the early stages. You most definitely should.
Just don’t do the “ultra-fine tune” until the horse has a good handle on everything else.
Here’s another tip…
If you are having some difficulty with your flying lead changes or your spins, I recommend you watch my side-passing dvd.
It could make all the difference in the world.
Also, it would be a good idea to invest in the neck-reining dvd.
The training exercises, the bitting process and the head positioning in that dvd will do a bunch more for your horse than just teach him to neck rein.
Just about everybody gets great results from watching it.
A Recipe for Failure
If you decide to try the training techniques I show in my videos… do it EXACTLY the way I show it.
In the beginning, do NOT add any of your PRECONCEIVED ideas about training.
To do so, could cause the training methods I show in the video to NOT work.
Here’s a good example of that…
In my Rollback and Spin dvd, I make a big deal about how important “drive” and “forward motion” is to get a horse to spin correctly and use the correct pivot foot.
Despite the explicit instruction, many people ignore it and try to pull the horse “BACK” on his hocks.
Of course, all that does is cause the horse to bang his front legs together so he can’t turn and causes him to kick his butt out of gear.
Why do people do this?
Because right or wrong, they have it in their head the horse needs to be pulled back on his hocks in order to spin.
Plus, they’ve heard it from all their riding buddies so they figure it must be true.
Hopefully, you won’t make the same mistake.
Do the training exactly like it’s demonstrated in the videos.
Once you have some SUCCESS, then you can EXPERIMENT with additional techniques.
There are two more things that cause riders to have poor results.
One, is not getting the horse light and supple enough right from the start.
The other is they don’t use their hands, legs and body the way its demonstrated in the videos.
They only THINK they are.
Unfortunately, their old muscle memory causes them to use their body in the same old way it’s in the habit of doing.
Hopefully, you will pay close attention to the way you are using your hands, legs and body. If you’ll do it the way I demonstrate in the videos, you’ll have great results.
Well, this wraps it up for this issue of the Training Tips Insider. I hope you liked it.
Until next time, have fun training your horse.
Larry Trocha
Larry Trocha Training Stable
HorseTrainingVideos.com
