Q: My horse respects me for the most part, but when push comes to shove, he is not always obedient. I am not an experienced trainer, but I cannot afford hiring a real trainer. What can I do? A: Since horses communicate mostly with body language, they are far more adept at reading and understanding body language than we are. They know your emotions and intentions better than you know them yourself. Your horse can read and feel your lack of commitment very well and he knows as long as you are not committed to following through on what you ask him, that he doesn't have to do it.

It is important that you change your attitude than use any other sort of training aid. As soon as you change your attitude and show a commitment and a determination to reinforce your cues, your horse will happily obey. When you get wishy-washy with him, he senses a lack of leadership and tries to step into the leader role, rather than the follower role. Every time this happens, you are eroding your authority with him and pushing him toward the dominant role. But whenever there is a void of leadership, the horse will always move into the dominant role.

There are two concepts for you to think about. First, don't ever ask a horse to do something that you are not capable of, or committed to, following through on. If you can't make him do it, don't ask. Because if you ask and fail, you have successfully trained your horse to be disobedient. Once you ask something of a horse, it is imperative that you follow through with whatever means you have at your disposal, otherwise you are anti-training him.

A common example of "anti-training" is when you ask a horse to turn in a direction he does not want to go (like away from the barn) and he resists and tries to go the other way, and you cave in and allow him to turn that way. Even though you may plan to take him all the way around to the point you were headed to begin with, he has been rewarded for resisting your request by being allowed to turn the way he wanted, not the way you wanted. He has no conception of the fact that you circled him all the way around to the direction you wanted to go to begin with. All he knows is that by resisting you, he got to go the way he wanted to go to begin with.

Secondly, there is a theory in cueing horses called "Ask, Tell and Command." It means that the first time you ask a horse to do something, you ask lightly and politely. The second time you tell the horse with greater authority and the third time, you let the horse know you really mean business. If you are asking beyond 3 times, you are training your horse to ignore your directives. This concept only applies to trained horses that know what the cue means.

I see this problem all the time in clinics and it always stems from a lack of follow-through from the rider. The rider may ask the horse to trot (or canter, or go to the rail, etc.), but with ambivalence and a lack of confidence. The horse detects the lack of confidence or the lack of determination in the rider and just ignores her. So the rider gets frustrated and instead of reinforcing the cue, the rider just quits. And now the horse has been trained to ignore the rider's cue and this cycle goes on and on. Typically, I (or any confident rider) can get on this horse and in seconds he will respond promptly and willingly to my cue, because he will recognize my authority and determination.

You need to really concentrate on every aspect of your relationship with him. Are you babying him too much and giving him treats? Are you sometimes compromising with him ("oh well, I guess you don't really have to do that right now")? How are his ground manners, does he stand quietly and obediently and lead well and move out of your space or does he bump into you and rub his head on you, etc.? These are all symptoms that the horse has not truly accepted your authority.

Think about how horses treat each other. When a horse is disobedient in the herd, does the boss mare come up to him and try to reason with him, pet him and make nice to him, or does she assert her authority in no uncertain terms? In the herd setting, horses are quite physical and violent at times. I am not advocating that you are violent with your horse, but if you think about it, they are pretty physical.

Horses are obedient and respectful to the leaders of the herd and they would never think of infringing upon a more dominant horse's space, because if they do, they'll lose some hair over the deal. The leader of the herd has gotten to that position by consistent and strong leadership, which sometimes involves biting, striking and kicking his way to the top. Sometimes, we have to assert out authority over horses with string leadership and authoritative corrections. The good news is that once a horse accepts our authority we can maintain that authority through kind and consistent reinforcement of the rules.

Before you tackle the canter, make sure your horse is moving well off your legs at walk and trot. Ask him once lightly with your legs and weight cue and if he does not respond promptly, immediately correct him with your legs and with the crop if necessary, right where your leg cues him. The next time you ask, he will move promptly off your leg because he knows what the consequences of disobedience are. If you do this right, you should only have to use the crop once or twice, which is far better than carrying it with you always and giving him nagging taps every time you cue.

Be cautious at the canter because often when lazy horses refuse to canter, they will buck. So make sure you are confident to ride through the bucks. If not, ask for some help from someone that is more capable of staying seated through the bucks. Lots of people are willing to help if you just ask, but most knowledgeable and competent people will not offer help until you ask (it's the ones that are offering advice unasked that I would avoid).

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If you liked this article, Julie suggests the following products to help you continue the work with your horse (or call 800-225-8827 for ordering help):

Goodnight's Principles of Riding, vol. 1 Balance & Rhythm 
Goodnight's Principles of Riding, vol. 2 Communication & Control
Goodnight's Complete Rider Package

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