Fearless Horsemanship

Bit of a repetitive video this week but that’s what a lot of my week is, this allows the horse to understand what you are asking in little stages rather than becoming overwhelmed (which can still happen even for little things, so sometimes you need to go back a few steps to what they do understand)
Simba is handling everything we are asking so far with a few temper tantrums about standing so close to a fence. (If my kids got over their tantrums as fast as Simba does I would be a very happy mum 😂)
This week was all about getting comfortable with someone on your back. Next week is saddle 😁

Simba - week 2
Bit late with my video this week 😊 went to a Mark Langley clinic which was amazing. I love learning from other trainers and I would highly recommend Mark to anyone wanting to experience a type of horsemanship that brings everything back to basics and makes so much sense for both horse and owner.
Simba is doing so well. We should be getting ready to start the backing process in week 3. Enjoy.

Simba - week 1
This week was all about feel, feet and float.
In my opinion these are the 3 most important things to train any horse, young or old as these 3 things allow us to give the care we need to keep our horses happy and healthy.
Feel - Simba is learning to respond to the rope rather than just following my lead. Responding to pressure allows you to ask the horse to move in many different ways and you need to make sure they understand this concept from everywhere on their body, not just their head.
Feet- Simba is now lifting his front feet and allowing me to clean them out. He will offer his back feet, but is not yet ready to keep them there. As a side note - make sure your horse is balanced before asking for a foot (standing square for the front and ‘resting’ the required leg for the back)
Float - Simba is now happy to walk up the ramp and place his head in the float. This is a big trust exercise for a horse as you are asking him to walk into a big box that limits his sight and renders his flight response useless. Start small. Always allow retreat. Don’t apply pressure when in the float. You want this to be a relaxed place. Ask from outside and then leave it upto the horse how far they want to go. Having food inside the float works as a reason for them to want to go in but the more you leave the choice up to them, the easier they will find it to chose to push themselves.

Looking forward to seeing where Simba has progressed to in another week!

First halter and leading session with Simba from earlier this week. Still a bit sticky on the backing up but he works really hard to understand what is being asked.

Working on staying calm with the forward, stop and backward cues with the beautiful Trinket today.

Float training - getting on the float

A few things I do not talk about in the video but are also really important:

- When going through stage 3 and 4 it is really important to make sure the back feet are getting up on the ramp before they continue onto the inside of the float. This reduces the chance of them ‘stretching out’ and getting in a position where they feel more vulnerable.

- Teaching your horse to walk past you is a great aid to float training as it enables you to ask your horse to walk on without the need for you to be in the float. This is also the precursor to teaching a horse to self load.

- Don’t be afraid to back up and ask your horse go back a stage if you feel they are getting overwhelmed.

- Make sure you float is as open as you can get it for the first 4 stages. You can then start closing sections but with will talk about that in my next video ‘staying on the float’

Harness training this spunky little man… the most important part is teaching them to stop and stand relaxed.