Horse Riding Tips Articles

Ground control precedes horse control. Before you snap the lead rope onto a horse's halter, you and the horse need to start communicating in a meaningful, horse-logical way. The reason for that is because lead ropes don't...Read More

Heeding is a horse communication system that proceeds in small, horse-logical steps that never create fear or antagonism in the horse. It requires being consistent in the moves you make around the horse, introducing just one small bite of...Read More

Ground control precedes horse control. If a horse doesn't heed its handler on the ground, it is never going to listen when that person swings into the saddle. A lot of horse people mythunderstand ground work. They think it just...Read More

When you are trying to get a horse's attention, the first thing you go for is his ears. Once an ear swivels in your direction, you've got his attention. It may take a little longer before he turns and faces you or before he walks up to you. But those...Read More

There's a lot of talk about aids and cues in the horse world and a lot of it just confuses people. One trainer talks about using your legs as aids and another one tells you to cue your horse with your leg. Neither one probably knows what he's talking...Read More

Trailer loading is not a BIG deal. It is just heeding. When you step forward, the horse steps forward. When you stop, the horse stops. Your horse stays by your side always and that includes walking next to you into a trailer. ...Read More

WAVERLY, WV - One of the biggest mistakes that I see people make in their relationships with horses is failing to pay complete attention to the horse they are handling. That's why heeding is the best program I know of for working with...Read More

WAVERLY, WV - - Loading a horse into a trailer is not a separate skill that horses and their handlers need to learn. Loading is simply a response to the step cue you've taught your horse through heeding. The horse that has learned...Read More

WAVERLY, WV -- Loading a horse into a trailer is a test of how accurately the horse responds to the step cue you put on him by heeding. Trailer loading isn't a separate skill you and your horse must learn. It's just applying the step...Read More

When a student gets on a horse to take that first riding lesson, their greatest concern is staying there. Everyone is afraid of falling off, particularly in the beginning. Whether you are the student or whether you are the instructor, you need to be aware...Read More

Parkersburg, WV, Sept. 1997--Many people who are training horses will ask them questions that the horse has no way of understanding or answering. Then they will fight with the horse or hold him hostage until the horse either gives in...Read More

Bits are one of the most MythUnderstood pieces of horse equipment man has ever invented. The things that people think they're supposed to do with a bit in a horse's mouth are unbelievable. All to often, the human take on the situation is that a horse is...Read More

Aids are physical pressures a rider uses to communicate with the horse. When the horse responds correctly to the pressure, the pressure goes away. So a correct response rewards the horse. Think of individual aid pressures as “words” that have a...Read More

WAVERLY, WV--Sometimes a super horse appears at the events where our instructors are showing that really catches my eye. He is already such a nice mover or I can see that he has the potential for three good gaits as he progresses. The following year,...Read More

As we move up the riding tree, we learn to relax on the horse, stay balanced and follow the horse’s motion. As we continue to develop our ability to communicate more clearly with the horse, we learn to apply the pressures of weight (seat), leg, and rein...Read More

At some point in its training, something will startle or frighten an energetic, red blooded baby horse and he will rear or pull back or run sideways while the trainer is leading him. Or he may jump around just because he's young and he's feeling good. Or...Read More

Developing an independent seat is absolutely essential if a rider aspires to the upper levels of any equestrian sport. An independent seat is wonderful to have, beautiful to see, but difficult to describe in words. A rider with an independent seat can...Read More

Mistake #1: "Here, Kitty Kitty..." Unless they have been educated, new horse owners often think a horse is like a cat or dog. They figure if they tap their thighs and say, "C'mon,...C'mon,...C'mon..." the...Read More

Take a quick poll anywhere you find a bunch of horse people, and you’ll find that the two things riders fear most are coming off their horses and getting run away with. There’s a common solution to both of those problems--don’t hold your breath. When...Read More

The dream of getting paid for doing something they love is what attracts young people to the horse business. And what better way to start that career than with a solid education in equestrian studies. Education is, after all, concentrated experience,...Read More

Finding the right instructor is essential if a rider wants positive, satisfying, and safe equestrian experiences. The “best” riding instructor may be a very different person for different riders. It is an adult student’s responsibility to choose an...Read More

Our goal as we move up the riding tree is to develop an independent seat so that we can influence the horse. An independent seat means that you are not relying on anything but balance to hold you on the horse. You use an athletic muscle tension to help...Read More

Close up, horse shows look like serious business. They're certainly business because their economics affect an awful lot of different people in a lot of different ways. For breeders and trainers and show managers and hamburger slingers and farriers and...Read More

When new students first arrive here at Meredith Manor, we need to evaluate their current riding capability is so that we can match them up with appropriate horses. So everybody starts out with evaluation rides on our "goldie oldies" to see how they do and...Read More

Parkersburg, WV, Sept. 1997 -- Good horse training is boring to watch. It looks like nothing is happening. Many people are impressed by training methods that are nothing more than a blatant series of attacks on the horse because they...Read More

Horse training is a mental game played in a physical medium. Here at Meredith Manor, we use a system we call “heeding” to teach students the rules of the mental games they play with their horses. They learn how to use corridors of methodically applied,...Read More

A lot of amateur trainers MythUnderstand what the training process is all about. They think that training involves dominating a horse, showing him who's boss. They approach training as though it were a battle in which one party wins and the other loses....Read More

If you ever rode a horse that would stop and refuse to go forward then you would know how absolutely annoying it is. Why do they stop? Because that's their reaction to a worrisome or unpleasant situation. Even nervous and timid horses can...Read More

If you have a passion to learn all you can about horse training, then you will want to know about a 108 year old horse training manual recently revived from a dusty old book shelf of a used book store. This horse training...Read More

Imagine being on a horse and he bolts. You pull those reins to slow him down but it’s no use. He resists and the fence posts go whizzing by you as you panic and pray he doesn’t shift his bodyweight and you fly off his back into a...Read More

There is a dangerous problem that horse owners should be very aware of. It’s when a horse stands up on his back legs. It’s called “rearing.” This problem can be quite dangerous and cause severe injuries to the rider and/or horse....Read More

Horse training can be a relatively mysterious subject to people who have not studied it. Even more mysterious is a behavioral problem a horse has that causes his owner stress and frustration. What many horse owners don't...Read More

I’ve been around many people who try to lead a horse by controlling their head with a lead rope. They end up pulling or jerking the lead rope and the horse will typically pull back or push around the person with the lead rope....Read More

It can be enormously frightening to be on a bucking horse. If you're a novice rider, a bucking horse can almost force you to give up the "owning a horse" dream. But it doesn't have to be that way. I've read where people who can ride...Read More

Only when riders progress to the top of the riding tree are they finally capable of influencing a horse to teach it something new or to remind it about something it already knows. Their communication is clear enough and accurate enough that they can use...Read More

Never do anything to frighten a horse to gain control. Swear pressures or avoidance pressures can create activity in an animal but activity should not be mistaken for learning. A high level of activity can sometimes limit the amount of learning. If a...Read More

WAVERLY, WV--Every rider has experienced the situation where they ask their horse for a particular shape or movement and either nothing happens or something other than what they wanted happens. You apply the aids for a left lead canter and the horse just...Read More

I was interviewing a prospective student the other day - the very proficient youth-pleasure-trail-horsemanship rider who just wanted to "get a certificate" so she could "get a job as a trainer" type - the type whom I have seen so...Read More

There are probably as many jokes about getting a mule's attention with a two-by-four as there are pickup trucks in Texas. When you are teaching your horse to heed, you must keep bringing its attention back to you. But you don't want to use a two-by-four....Read More

Everything I've learned about communicating with horses I've learned from horses. Sometimes it took awhile for the lessons they were teaching me to sink in. But the wisdom they shared with me gradually accumulated and became the system we now teach at...Read More

Anyone who's honest with themselves and has been in the horse business for very long can look back and count quite a few mistakes. It's the old "if I knew then what I know now" thing. Honest mistakes are OK. Everybody makes them, so don't beat yourself up...Read More

Some years ago there was a book making the rounds called, "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." I sometimes think that everything I've learned about horses I learned from my first one. She was my horse trainer's kindergarten, although I...Read More

When Meredith Manor students first begin to work a horse using the training system we call "heeding," they think they are teaching the horse to pay attention to them. Actually, heeding teaches the students to pay attention to their horse. Heeding brings...Read More

A lot of people think you train horses with equipment. This is one of the biggest MythUnderstandings out there. Try this bit, try that bit. If those don't work, try a thinner bit or one with a longer shank. If those don't work, tie that sucker's head...Read More

When a horse is just being kept as a pasture ornament, nobody pays much attention to his activity level. He pretty much does what he wants and being a horse that is mostly going to be ambling along grazing. As soon as we start training a horse or wanting...Read More

Most people think you control a horse by controlling its head. You put on a lead rope or a bridle and you use that to show the horse how you want him to start and stop and turn and move his feet and disengage this or that and other stuff. So how do you...Read More

Anyone who has ridden for any length of time would be dishonest if they told you they have never felt fear. If you have any common sense at all, you should have a certain level of “healthy fear” whenever you get on a new horse. Call it “respect” if you...Read More

Pattern-istic pressures build horse logically on what a horse already knows. The trainer puts a mental or physical pressure on the horse and releases that pressure when the horse takes the shape that the trainer wants. The horse associates the feeling of...Read More

Horses are creatures of habit. And the habits they learn can be good ones or bad ones depending on who’s handling them. And whatever habits or patterns they have when they come to you can be changed if you go about it in a methodical, horse-logical way....Read More

WAVERLY, WV - - Heeding uses methodically applied, horse-logical pressures to enable the horse to feel the shape we want him to take. That is so important, you should go back and read it again.  The pressures must be methodical and consistent. The...Read More

We use aids to teach things to horses. In teaching horses to heed, we define an aid as a methodically applied directional pressure used to create a shape. Aids need to be horse logical. That means they must make sense to the horse in terms of what his...Read More

WAVERLY, WV--In training, we use both physical and psychological pressures to shape the horse's behavior. Every training activity needs to be structured in such as way that the horse himself removes the pressure when he provides the correct response....Read More

A new student recently told me he was diligently taking notes, carefully describing the corridor of pressures that create each a specific shape we ask horses to take when we are riding. He planned to take all his class notes and develop them into a book....Read More

Before you can clearly communicate to the horse what shapes you want him to take at what gait and in what rhythm, you need to have control over your own body. You cannot simultaneously influence the horse’s shape, gait, and cadence unless you are in the...Read More

Over the years, I’ve had to unlearn a lot of what I learned when I started working with horses in the 1950s. I’ve changed my training methods so completely that I consider myself a born-again horseman. I owe my conversion to the horses that were generous...Read More

Merely causing a horse to do something does not mean that you are in control of the horse. Think about the times you have seen someone put a chain lead shank under a horse's chin or over its nose. They may have been successful in leading that horse from...Read More

Horses have taught me most of what I know about training horses. This is a secondhand story, but the story and the horse impressed me enough that I never forgot it. If memory serves, the guy who told me the story was Bud Blackburn, one of the first people...Read More

Heeding uses methodically applied directional pressures to create shapes that the horse can understand. You create those pressures by changing the relationship between the horse's primary and secondary lines of influence and your own. The primary line of...Read More

When you first start teaching a horse to heed, you use a corridor of aids or pressures to create a feeling in the horse of where you want him to move. As the horse's understanding increases, the handler can not only change the direction of the horse's...Read More

Getting a horse to stand still is all about getting its attention. Heeding teaches you to keep your attention on the horse so that the horse will keep his attention on you. Once you have the horse's attention, you use your body position to create...Read More

It takes a long time to develop a full communication system with a horse. When you first begin the training process, the horse's vocabulary of understanding is pretty limited and that limits what you can expect of him. As he learns more, you can expect...Read More

When you first start training a horse, everything is about getting his attention. Once you've got his attention, you start directing his attention where you want it to go. To get the horse to pay attention to you, however, you first have to pay attention...Read More

We communicate with a horse by using a corridor of pressures that suggest the shape, the pace, and the direction we want the horse to take. Removing a pressure is the horse’s “reward.” It is the way we communicate to the horse, “Yes! That’s right.” If...Read More

As you likely know already, horses have at least 10 times our strength. If they also had our intelligence, they would probably be riding us humans. Fortunately, horses cannot reason like human beings and therefore will never have...Read More

If you've ever taken riding lessons, you can relate to your horse when it comes to being corrected for something you didn't do quite right. Maybe the instructor just got a little sarcastic. Or maybe she raised things to the level of a good scold. Maybe...Read More

It’s been weeks since you went riding. Now you have time to ride this afternoon and there ain’t no one gonna stop you. Excited, you saddle up your horse and get on him. You get about 50 feet from the barn and your horse turns around...Read More

Mistake #7 – Assuming You Can Get On Any Horse And Simply Ride Not all horses are the same. Some you can get on and easily ride. Some are so green that you could be easily injured if you have little or no riding experience. The...Read More

Balance is one of those terms in the horse industry that is so misused that it’s become mythunderstood. All it really means is that the horse is distributing his weight equally on all four feet. We want him carrying as much of his weight on the ride side...Read More

Collection is at the top of our training tree and it is another one of those mythunderstood words out in the horse industry. A lot of people look at a horse and say he’s collected when he’s really just all bunched up in front. Maybe he’s got a lot of...Read More

As our baby horse progresses up the training tree, we’ve given him a solid base of trust. We work with rhythm and relaxation doing anything we do from catching him to grooming him or putting on his leg wraps or giving him some play time before we put his...Read More

When we first start working with a green horse, we get his trust by working with him in a relaxed and rhythmic way whether we’re catching him, grooming him, or doing some groundwork with him in some kind of pen. You want the horse to be comfortable with...Read More

A lot of horses that intend to play the higher level games can get along in life quite nicely if they get this far on the training tree. If a horse has rhythm, relaxation, and freedom of gaits, if a horse accepts contact on both reins, can move straight,...Read More

A lot of the terms that horse people use have been misused and overused to the point that they are no longer meaningful. Because the term means different things to different people, it is more apt to be mythunderstood than it is to be helpful, especially...Read More

Followed in the correct sequence, the steps in the training tree methodically prepare a horse both physically and mentally to play whatever game the rider likes to play. The training tree has ten levels that have to be mastered in sequence: rhythm,...Read More

As the horse progresses in his training, you begin “layering” new things on top of what the horse always knows. If you have a problem, you go back to where the horse last accepted everything and start over from there. Rhythm is at the bottom of the...Read More

Every animal handler or hope-to-be trainer needs to establish a relationship that allows the animal to understand them and figure out what they are asking them to do. The best and most effective system must be based on trust. The obedience or compliance...Read More

We get halfway up the training tree before we introduce the concept of straightness to the horse. We spend the first months of a horse’s training working on rhythm, relaxation, and freedom of gaits. In this early phase of training, we want him to feel...Read More

Suppleness is another mythunderstood word in the horse industry. Suppleness simply means the ability to bend without stiffness. We want the horse to have loose, pliable jointshis hocks, his hips, his knees, his shoulders, his poll and his jaw. There are...Read More

I was young and pretty cocky when I started working with horses. Back then, I figured that the first thing I had to teach a horse was that I was the top dog. Then it was the horse’s job to pay attention to me and do what he was told. Like a typical...Read More

WAVERLY, WV - - There's a lot of mythunderstandings out there about training equipment. Some people seem to believe that using a certain piece of equipment guarantees their horse will learn something. Or they'll be able to learn it easier or faster. Other...Read More

WAVERLY, WV - - Keeping a log is a powerful training skill a lot of people overlook. Without logs, you have to trust your memory. More often than not, your trusty memory gets to be a rusty memory and you wind up losing track of where you've been and where...Read More

WAVERLY, WV -- Horses are not born knowing how to be reining horses or dressage horses or driving horses. We train horses to play the games we humans like to play. We start with the horse's inborn mental and physical abilities. Then we gradually apply...Read More

Heeding is an attitude you have whenever you're around your horse as much as it is a technique for communicating with him on the ground. You start heeding your horse from the first moment you connect with him whether that's walking down the barn aisle to...Read More

When youngsters come to Meredith Manor, one of the first things I show them is a big ball of string. Now if I asked them to sit down right then and there and eat that whole ball of string, they'd find that pretty gross. But if they started at the end,...Read More

WAVERLY, WV--When we're training a horse, we use both physical and psychological pressures to shape his behavior. You can't neatly separate the influence of these pressures because the horse has physical reactions to psychological pressures and he...Read More

Parkersburg, WV, Sept. 1997--Training horses involves using pressures to shape a horse's behavior. But many people MythUnderstand how to use pressures properly. Horses will learn when: a pressure is not perceived as...Read More

As the horse moves along through his training, you go from showing him what you want to asking him for it and finally he knows what you want well enough that you can just tell him. For example, when you’re heeding a horse on the ground in an arena and...Read More

When some students first arrive here at Meredith Manor they don't see the point of the ground work we call "heeding." Moving their horses around on the ground doesn't seem very exciting. They're impatient to get in the saddle and start riding. They might...Read More

They say the eyes are are the gateway to the soul. When it was said, they were referring to us humans. But the truth is, it also refers to horses. Many horse owners don't understand the importance and usefulness of the horse's...Read More