Before riding and after riding or working your horse, always pick out his/her hooves. If a rock or something is caught in their hoof, it could make them lame to the point of significant damage. Picking out the hooves before and after working with your horse will prevent all sorts of possible hoof damage and time laid up in a stall because of lameness. So heed my warning....always pick out your horse's hooves! One time I turned Prissy out to pasture and when I brought her back in, she was walking funny....she had a HUGE rock stuck underneath the bars of her shoe, at the back of her hoof! It took me about ten minutes to get that sucker out. It was stuck, but GOOD. Even if it took a long time, though, I'm glad I went to the trouble, because that horse would have been in a lot of pain had I not bothered to check her hooves.

Don't, under any circumstances, demonstrate anger to your horse through your hands. Don't strike him if he's only misunderstood your commands. If he's being physically aggressive towards you and threatening you, then by all means defend yourself! But if you're schooling your horse and he does something wrong, don't start beating on him and sticking him really hard with your spurs merely because you're perturbed that he doesn't understand what you're asking him to do. I am guilty of this, having responded in this way in the past. However, I have to get over it really quickly because if I jab Priss with my spurs, she pins her ears, squeals, and kicks. This is an immediate wake-up call: I'm being far too harsh. Usually it's possible to just calm down and try again.

Don't ever let your horse get away with threatening you. Even if it's just pinned ears or a stomp of a hoof, don't let him/her get away with it! This is very important....if you let them get away with pushing you around one time, they're going to do it again and again...until it's an uncontrollable habit. Eventually your horse will realize that he can control you, and therefore lose all respect for you as his owner and handler. If your horse pins his ears at you, raise your hand quickly. This works for my horse quite well as a deterrent. She stops her behavior immediately. She knows she did wrong! And usually she won't do it again, at least for a couple of weeks or months, depending on what it was. The key is to stop the action before it starts. Nip it in the bud before it blossoms uncontrollably.

If you fall off your horse, get back on as soon as you can gather your senses, provided that neither you nor your horse are injured. If you don't get back on right away, you may build up a fear in your mind that prevents you from ever getting on your horse again. The horse will learn, too, that when he throws his rider, they won't get back on him again....they'll just put him away and he won't have to work anymore! So the best thing to do when you fall off your horse is to get right back on! Don't be scared!

When riding your horse, don't be too concerned with "pushing" him into the correct frame, the one deemed by the AQHA or APHA or whatever association you belong to, if any at all! If you're riding your horse correctly, he will naturally carry his head correctly. If he's collected nicely, his head will naturally be carried on level with his withers. Remember, horses cannot see straight in front of them or straight behind, so they have to sometimes lift their heads to see something. Don't punish your horse when he lifts his head up in order to see something better. He is more vulnerable when his head is down. It means he's completely placed his well-being in your hands; he trusts you totally.

If it's really windy outside, lunge your horse before riding, especially if your horse has been in his stall for several days. Let him run and kick for a little while, to get the kinks out. Ten minutes is usually long enough. Make sure you make him trot before he canters, or he could end up tying up. If you get up on him and he starts acting skittish, it'd probably be a good idea to get off and lunge him a bit more until he's worked the rest of his skitters out. Trust me, it'll make the rest of the workout that much more pleasurable for the both of you. Let him loosen up before you attempt to ride.

Don't just ride your horse....interact with it! Next time you go over to the barn, instead of riding, spend some leisure time grooming your horse. Brush with a couple of different brushes: hard, softer, softest. Brush the mane and tail out nicely and put some leave-in conditioner on them. Pick out the hooves and put on some polish or moisturizer. Then take your horse out and hand graze him/her. Go on a walk, providing the ground isn't icy. Walk in the woods, or just around the farm. Visit other horse friends. Teach your horse a trick or two! Turn him out in the pasture while you clean his stall and fluff up his hay. Remind him that he's not going to have to work EVERY time he sees you!!

The cold winter months are upon us...don't you just love January and February, slogging through the snow to the barn, slipping and sliding on the ice outside, and not being able to ride because of the cold and ice? However, despite the inconvenience the winter offers horse owners, there is still training we can do that will prepare our horses for better performance when the days warm up a bit more to our liking. You can train your horse to stand still, ground tie, teach him not to be afraid of clippers, blankets, strange noises, or anything else he may be afraid of. Valuable lessons can be taught to your horse just from time spent with him. Be patient, and remember that just like you, it takes him time to learn new things. Most likely he won't pick up what you're trying to teach him right away. The key is small increments, lots of times. And patience!

Make sure you are warming your horse up properly before riding. You can do that either by lunging him or doing groundwork, or by doing light riding until he's sufficiently warmed up. I usually warm Prissy up by hand-walking and trotting her around the outdoor arena. We'll go over jumps and over a wooden bridge and poles and stuff and work on stopping quickly and lateral work on the fence. If you warm your horse up correctly before working him, he'll be much better for riding, and his stride will flow that much more freely. Warm-up is a must, just like the stretching that we do before running or jogging or something like that.

Some horses stop on a dime with a mere shifting of weight, some with a light touch of the reins. These horses are a break from reality for most of us. However, if you have a horse like Prissy, you're in for a heck of a time stopping them. My horse is every bit as willful as I am, and does not want to stop. Sometimes I can get her to stop really quickly, but that's usually with spurs. Otherwise I have to almost fight her to get her to slow down. It's not graceful of beautiful, not even in the least. When asking your horse to slow down to another gait or stop, sit deep in the saddle, sink your weight into your heels, and bring your hands back towards your hips. The horse should collect himself and slow down. If he is heavy on his forehand, he will have trouble stopping. Ultimately, you want him to use his hindquarters to stop.

Never yell at your horse. Never hit your horse in anger. End of story. If your strike your horse when it does something wrong, it doesn't learn not to do that thing. It just learns to fear you. Next time your horse makes you angry or frustrated when they won't do what you ask, take a moment to calm down. Loosen the reins and let your horse walk. Relax. Think about how you could maybe do something differently, then when you're thinking clearly again and are calmed down, chances are your horse is, too. Remember, we transmit our moods to our horses through our aids and movements. They know what you're thinking. If you're tense, they're going to be tense too. Learn to relax and think things through.

When riding a circle, make sure you're riding so that your horse actually bends his body to encompass the turn and dows not go around with his body stiff like a board. He should be sort of banana-shaped; that way, the tighter the circle, the greater he has to bend his body. He must keep his balance and rhythm, as you must do also. You should make sure your hips and shoulders are square with his. Support with your inside leg on the girth as he turns and keep the horse from "falling out" by using your outside leg behind the girth.

If your horse does not respond to the initial aid of leg pressure to move up into another gait, apply the aid slightly more strongly. Don't take your legs off the sides of the horse to kick it. All this does is deaden the horse's sides, which basically makes him stop responding altogether.

When your horse starts doing things wrong, don't get mad at him. That's the worst thing you can do, because then it'll just be a battle of wills...who's more stubborn. Also, the horse is stronger than the human, so the horse will always win a battle of strength. Be sure to keep your calm when training your horse, on the ground and from his back. Horses can sense the sort of mood you're in, so be careful to stay calm and relaxed. Think about what you could be doing wrong and then take steps to fix the problem. If the horse still has problems, then ask for help.

If your horse constantly wants to put his/her head down to graze while you're leading them, and you don't want to have to yank that head up every time, try to think ahead of the horse. It's actually pretty easy to tell when they're thinking about going down to grab a bite, so all you need to do is give a little upward tug on the lead rope to remind them that they're supposed to be walking, not eating. Hopefully they'll get the message in due time. If not, keep it up until they do "get it"!

Considering your horse has been trained to carry his/her head very low, and it looks very unnatural, and you'd like to change it, you can do so this way: when using a western saddle, tie a piece of twine or something equally as strong to the saddle horn, then tie the other end to your horse's headstall. Take care not to make it too short, lest you encourage high head carriage, or too long, thus not fixing the problem at all.

Work with your horse in the round pen as often as possible, maybe even for a warmup to your ride. Time in the pen is invaluable, because you can teach your horse just about anything. The space is large enough to give both of you space, but not so big that the horse can get away from you. You can teach them tricks, how to stand or ground tie, be clipped, and so on in the round pen. For more info on some things you can teach your horse in the round pen, go to www.roundpenmagic.com

If your horse is having trouble turning, flexion exercises may help. After you mount your horse, make the horse stand still while you use the reins to pull his/her head around to your knee. If the horse begins moving, release pressure, make the horse stop, and try again until they learn to stand still. Make sure you slacken the rein opposite the side you're pulling so you're not sending mixed signals.

If your horse consistently begins running after jumping an obstacle and you have a hard time slowing him down, do one of two things: stop him immediately after he jumps, as soon as humanely possible. Two, as soon as he jumps, circle him back around and jump again several times. This should get him paying attention to you.