Training A Horse for Shooting And Roping

The weakened economy has lead horse enthusiasts to tighten their belts. The horse market has become very soft and that means that young colts in training are no longer taken to shows to gain experience because travel expenses add up quickly. Even horses that are well trained and would do well in shows do not go. Some horses are even sold in yard sales for a small fraction of what they are actually worth. There’s even a story about a guy who went to sell his horse only to find that a stranger had dumped two more horses in his trailer while he was gone! Unbelievable! So what do the people who still own horses, who still enjoy spending time with their horses, and who are still willing to do some intense training do? They improvise to save money.

Improvisation in Training a horse

Even if you are in a financially sound situation it does not mean that you should not take advantage of money saving opportunities. Besides teaching my horse the same jump again and again until I’ve become Utah’s first one-jump sensation, what other resources do I have at my disposal to help me train my horse?

A Pistol and a Lariat…

A Pistol and a Lariat can take you a long way when it comes to horse training. Not to worry, I am not going to tie up my horse and shot her if she does not do what I want. But, I am going to use the pistol and lariat as part of my daily training routine. What am I going to teach my horse with these two tools? I’m going to teach her how to do safe mounts for roping and shooting, of course! Pretty much any horse can be used for roping, but if your horse allows you to shoot off of it, it is worth its weight in gold. Where I live, many hunters shoot off of their horses and horses that allow you to do this are very valuable. Also, there are many cowboy shows here in Utah. I could chose to participate or even sell my horse to one of the mounted cowboy shooters from the shows.

Be Warned, Training Horses With a Pistol and Lariat is NOT for Beginners.

Training a horse with a lariat is definitely not a good idea if you do not know what you are doing. Handling a lariat without hitting yourself in the head takes some practice and shooting a pistol (even one shooting blanks) off the back of your horse is a whole new ball game. You can still use the traditional horse training equipment, which will be a lot more familiar and easy to use.

Since, like me, you are probably working with low funds, trying to barter with experts who know what they are doing! You could make a lot of new contacts and at the same time teach your old horse some new tricks! You could even make some money if your willing to sell your horse after it’s been trained.

Amanda Spring recommends the Horse Training Secrets Revealed course to anyone who wants to learn how to train their horse properly and inexpensively. This course has helped thousands become better horse owners and trainers — check it out right now.

Advanced Horse Training – Tricks

There is a little trick that you can use to train your horse more easily, especially if you use clicker training. I will tell you the trick a little further down the page. You’ve half done your job if you have already taught your horse to focus on something like a pylon, plastic bottle or any other object.

If you do not use clicker training, do not be discouraged, you can still teach your horse tricks without a clicker. When my mom was teaching her horse Manitou tricks, clicker training had not yet been invented. Simple praise and treats still go a long way. If you do want to use a tool like a clicker you can use a training whistle or make clicking sounds with your tongue. The reason clickers are so useful is because you can give your horse praise the instant they do something you want. It is faster than a verbal reward like “Yes!” or “Good Girl!” and so it is more accurate to click.

Before Starting, Use Common Sense

For example, I would not teach some horses to kiss. Horses that are mouthy and love to nibble and bite things, young ones especially, are not the perfect candidates for kissing. Horses that are grumpy and snappy should not be taught how to kiss either. If you train a horse to place their mouth near your face you want to make sure that they are obedient and respectful.

If you have a horse that you do not trust enough to kiss your face, you can still teach her to kiss your hand. The process of teaching the trick will be the same, but instead of targeting your cheek, you would target the back of your hand.

There are some horses that I would not even teach to kiss the back of my hand for fear of losing my hand! However, I could still teach these horses to give a hug.

What You Will Require

A Clicker (or very close attention so you can praise your horse at the right instant).
Little treats such as sugar cubes, apple pieces, horse crunch, or carrot slices. Having a variety of treats keeps things interesting for your horse. Using handfuls of concentrates or grain can be pretty awkward, but if you prefer it feel free to use it.
A fanny pack or big pockets to store the treats.
At least 10 minutes dedicated to trick training a few times a day.
Lead rope and halter if your horse is out of its stall or you can work with your horse’s head as she looks out over the stall door. Head movement may be restricted through the use of cross ties making it uncomfortable for the horse. Learn more about horse training equipment.

The time required will depend on the horse. Some will learn quickly and others will take longer, so be patient.

Teaching How to Kiss

The trick is to place some treats in your hand and hold your hand next to your cheek. Then tap your hand and say, “kiss” (or any other cue word you want to use). The horse will eat the treat out of your hand and in the process will touch its nose to your cheek. When the horse touches its nose to your cheek mark it with a click or praise and give another treat, but this time away from your face. This way the horse learns that its target is your face and after a while you can stop putting treats in the hand beside your face. The horse begins to understand that when it touches your cheek the treat is received afterward, away from your face. Make sure that you feed the treat away from your face because you might accidentally teach your horse to bite you.

Keep the training brief (only 10 minutes). After a brief training session go away and do something else and then you can come back and train for a few more minutes.

Do not reward your horse with a treat if it becomes pushy; we do not want to encourage pushy behavior. Instead, back off for around 10 seconds then slowly start training again. It is more important that the behavior is done respectfully than perfectly. I strive for accuracy as I advance through the training of my horse. Once you have mastered operand conditioning, training a horse is lots of fun!

Amanda Spring recommends the Horse Training Secrets Revealed course to anyone who wants to learn how to train their horse properly and effectively. This course has helped thousands become better horse owners and trainers — check it out right now.

Basic Obedience Training For Your Horse

Ask yourself the following questions to find out if you need basic obedience training for horse. Does your horse display aggressive behavior when you try to turn her out? Does she like dragging you to the paddock or try to pull free from her halter and run? Maybe she tries to kick you in the face before steamy off into the distance?

By following some simple steps you will be able to correct this type of behavior while still being friends with your horse and creating a strong relationship.

Encourage Good Manners in the Stall

Try to distract your horse if she becomes excited when you enter her stall. Give a treat to chew on while you sneak the halter on her. She might try to run off right after you have placed the halter. If she does pull the lead rope firmly and quickly then immediately release the pressure. Keep in mind that this is not punishment; it is simply meant to focus her attention on you. Before you open the stall door and she is standing still, offer her another treat as a reward for being patient and focused. You might have to go through this process several times, but eventually she will learn to be patient because she will be rewarded for it.

If your horse has a habit of pulling on the lead rope when you are leading her then you can use a chain with the lead rope. Hook the chain on the halter ring on her right side, bring the chain over her nose and hook it through the halter ring from her left side. Now when she tries to pull the lead rope, the chain will make her feel uncomfortable. When she stops pulling, the chain will loosen and the discomfort will be gone. Before you attach the chain, give her a treat so she associates this action with something good. While you are doing this, talk soothingly and calmly to your horse to help her understand that you are a friend and that you must be respected.

Maintaining Control As You Lead Her To Pasture

If you are leading her to pasture and she begins to pull the lead rope, refocus her on you by performing a couple quick pulls on the rope. When she stops, give her praise to encourage her not to pull on the lead rope. Although you may be tempted to give her a treat at this point, do not! If you do then you are teaching her to stop on the way to pasture so that she gets a treat.

You will also have to continue this training process for a while until she learns to lead quietly. If you are using a chain, you will find that you not need it very soon.

Releasing Your Horse on Your Terms

Lead your horse through the gate into the field and make her face you while you close the gates to the field. Offer her a treat and talk to her calmly while holding the lead rope in your hand. If she misbehaves make sure that you use a quick tug at the lead rope to remind her that her behavior is unacceptable. Soon, she will realize that you want her to wait patiently. Offer her a treat when she behaves and use the opportunity to take off the halter. If she is calm throughout, then give her another treat to encourage the behavior.

By doing this, she will no longer have a reason to run away since you have encouraged her to stand still by offering rewards. Eventually, you will be able to give her fewer treats and still get the desired results.

Using Equine Instincts to Catch Your Horse

Following are some points you should consider if your horse runs around the field and will not let you catch her. Horses are both inquisitive and jealous animals and by knowing this, we can control their behavior more easily. So let’s make her jealous. If she will not let you catch her, try approaching another horse. Give the other horse a treat and give him attention, while ignoring your own horse. Your horse will be watching and will soon become annoyed and come to you for attention.

When she arrives beside you, give her a treat and put the halter on her. You can also loop the lead rope around her neck so she cannot wander off while you attach the halter.

Sometimes, it is a good idea to ask someone who does not ride your horse to catch her. Also, make sure that your horse does not associate being caught with having to do work. Once in a while, just approach her with a treat and affection, then leave her alone. That way, she will not know if you are catching her for work or for treats, so she is more likely to stick around in the hope of getting a treat. If you found this article useful, then you will enjoy the article on natural horse training.

Horse Training Tips

Training your horses can be risky business because they can sometimes exhibit aggressive behavior which includes; kicking, biting, bucking and rearing, and pushy. In order to reduce the chances of aggressive behavior, you have build a solid foundation with your horse and show that you are the leader of the herd, right from the start. The following 5 horse training tips will help you establish yourself as the leader.

Good Lead: A horse that has respect for you is a horse that will lead well. Horses lead well when they follow a short distance off your shoulder. If you lead your horse from the left side, like most people do, then your horse should be just to your right with her nose near your shoulder. A horse that leads well will not drag or pull on the rope, and she will not try to lead or move ahead of their trainer. If you find that your horse drags the rope a lot you can stop and ask for a backup. This makes the horse pay a cost for the bad behavior and she will learn. Sometimes your horse just walks faster than you and when they start to pull ahead of you, you can change directions to regain the lead.

Relaxing Your Horse: Horses are prey animals and they spend most of the their time looking for any threats to their safety. Horses walking with their heads up high are actually tense and actively looking for threats. On the other hand, a relaxed horse walks with her head low in search of some attractive greens to nibble on. Try teaching your horse to lower her head on cue to encourage them to relax.

Round-pen Training: This is one of the best horse training tips that will establish you as the leader. In a round pen you do not need any horse training equipment, like a lead line or halter on your horse (this is called “at liberty”), which allows you to control her movements using only your leadership presence and body language. There are very few techniques as effective as this to gain your horses respect and trust. Often, this method is called “Hook-on” in the round-pen. Another name, coined by Monty Roberts is “join up”.

Keep Her Paying Attention: Something you should always do is make sure your horse is paying attention to you during training. If she is distracted during training you can bump the rope to get both of her eyes focused on you again. If one of her ears acts like radar, listening for threats in the distance, then her full attention is not on you. You need to correct this and make sure that both of her ears are pointing towards you.

Do Not Just Ride Off: During your training, take the time to run through exercise such as having her move her front and hindquarters and flexing. These exercises make sure that she is listening to you and while she is listening to you, she is less likely to be probing the environment for threats.

If you apply these horse training tips a solid foundation will be built between you and your horse, a foundation that teaches leadership and respect while still being gentle (similar to natural horse training). If your horse believes that you are the leader she will be far less likely to resort to bad behaviors.

Finding Good Horse Training Facilities

It is a very big responsibility to raise a horse. Unlike other pets you may have, horses need more room to grow and often the best places to grow are horse training facilities or stables.

Stables usually have trainers that are available to work with your horse several days a week. And if shuttling your horse to the stable is a problem, then you may want to look into keeping her at the stable (this will cost board in additional to the regular check ups, training and shoeing).

The perfect horse training facilities will have outdoor and indoor arenas. There will also need to be a large open space for your horse to wander around, interact with other horses and rest after a hard day’s training.

The facility you choose must have capable personnel including a veterinarian and a trainer. The vet is responsible for regular check ups, vaccinations and de-worming shots and the trainer is responsible for horse training. Veterinarians or equestrians who have competed professionally run most of the horse training facilities.

You can place a certain amount of confidence in these people since they know about horses, are passionate about horses, and walk the walk. Additionally, if your facility is run by someone who has won major competitions or has trainers who compete, then there is a better chance that your horse will reach higher levels of achievement.

The phone numbers and addresses of horse training facilities are available online and in phone directories. You can easily make an appointment to survey the facility and informally interview some of the staff. If you like what you see you can later sign an agreement so that everything can be put in place for your horse.

The rates that stables charge are usually quite competitive, but you might be able to find a better deal or a nicer facility for a competitive price so feel free to shop around. If you live near the edge of your state, you may find large price differences across state lines, potentially saving you a lot of money.

Those who want to learn how to ride a horse can also visit the facility and sign up for riding lessons. If you are lucky, you might also be able to purchase a quality horse directly from the facility.

You may even be able to sell your horse or breed them in these facilities and then sell the young later on. You could potentially develop a nice little income stream doing this.

A horse training college that offers extensive equine education will have horse training facilities as well. Having those facilities on campus allows students who are learning about horses to get hands on experience.

Once you have found the perfect facility to keep your horse you can start to build a strong, lasting, positive relationship with your horse.

If you want to learn more about developing a strong relationship with your horse, Amanda Spring recommends the Horse Training Secrets Revealed course. This course has helped thousands become better horse owners and trainers — 60 Day, no hassles, money-back guarantee.

Natural Horse Training

People think that they need to have control a horse’s head if they want to control the horse properly. This is one reason why most trainers use a bridle or ropes teach a horse how to start and stop. But, if that equipment is not available, how do you control your horse? If you have ever chased a horse around a pasture then you have probably asked yourself that exact question before.

Natural horse training is a technique through which you learn how to control a horse’s mind. By getting inside your horse’s mind you will be able to keep your horse in control in any situation that arises. This is a very unique training method that has to be done properly for it work.

Punishments, rewards and clicker horse training are not part of this training process. Instead, it uses calm compliance. For this to work properly you need to be calm, self-controlled and disciplined, otherwise your horse will not be willing to follow your lead all the time. The focus of natural horse training is on making your horse feel safe and comfortable with you and the training process. That is probably over-simplifying it because this type of training program is actually very difficult to learn.

In order for this training method to work your horse has to pay attention to you and you need to provide your horse with your full attention. You have to be completely focused on what your horse is doing and you cannot afford any distractions during the training session. If keeping complete focus for long periods of time is not possible for either you or the horse, then start with smaller spans of time and work your way up. It would be ideal if you started with 10 minute training sessions.

Paying attention to feedback from your horse is really important while training. Be aware of their breathing patterns throughout the training and watch their ears and eyes to see if they are signaling something. Find the action that motivates your horse to do what you want her to do and keeping using that same trigger. Over time, you will learn which triggers result in which actions and you will be able to control your horse very easily.

The key to natural horse training is rhythm and relaxation. You should display relaxed and rhythmic movements when approaching your horse or her stall. Your breathing should be monitored carefully as it plays a very important role in appearing relaxed. Your horse is great at reading body language and they will know if you are relaxed or tense.

You can move onto natural horse training once you have mastered these key your body language and your horses triggers. Try not to be disappointed if things do not work out as you imagined in the first week or two. It can take months for your horse to learn non-predatory behavior through this training. Even though it is called natural horse training, it will not feel natural to everyone who tries using it. You can hire horse training facilities to train your horse in these methods or you can enroll in a horse training college to learn.

Mental self-control is essential to keeping your horse under control and that type of self-control requires loads of hard work. Nearly all natural trainers have many years of experience. Always remember that, if you don’t succeed, try, try again and you will soon reap the rewards that this training method has to offer.

Amanda Spring recommends the Horse Training Secrets Revealed course to anyone who wants to learn more about natural horse training and many other effective horse training techniques. This course has helped thousands become better horse owners and trainers — check it out right now.

Best Horse Training Methods – Natural Horsemanship

Every trainer has a philosophy, or set of standards, that they follow and are collectively called their horse training methods. Deciding which methods to use when training your horse will be an important step in building a positive relationship between you and your horse.

Throughout the past few years, I have participated in, listened to and learned a lot of different horse training methods. The trainers I have learned from include Pat Parrelli, John Lyons, Tom Bell, Sally Swift Buck Brannamen and Tom Dorrance. I have do not use one method more than another, rather I use bits and pieces from each person’s techniques depending on my ability and understanding of that training method.

I suggest this approach to everyone who asks for advice. We all process information differently and we each have different abilities. As you learn the different approaches, you will figure out what works for you and brings results and what does not.

It does not matter at which level you are, you will find that horse training is an ongoing education. You will keep experimenting and learning new things to incorporate into your training methods. Just make sure you follow your passion and never stop learning how can train your horse better and develop a solid positive relationship with your horse.

Horse Training Method for Natural Horsemanship

Natural Horsemanship is a training philosophy that is applied by many people. Basically, this method involves learning how a horse communicates in the wild and imitating those communication techniques to build a strong relationship between horse and human. This training method works with a horse’s instincts and herd mentality.

Natural Horsemanship has gone a long way to reduce the inhumane training methods of the past; you may have heard of “horse breaking”. Although some people probably still “break” their horses, I do not believe that they are building a strong positive relationship with their horse. I believe that they are just breaking their horse’s spirit. Over time, with natural horsemanship, you are able to get into your horse’s mind and understand her better, thereby building a stronger relationship.

Theory of Natural Horse Training (point form)

Just like all other social herd animals, horses rely a lot upon their developed communication structure, specifically body language. You, as the trainer, have to learn the subtleties of your horse’s body language and integrate that into your training program. In addition, you will use gentle pressure of escalating intensity to get your horse to respond in the way you want.

The trainers who use natural horsemanship believe that teaching their horses through pain and fear does not work. They work hard to mold a horse that is calm and feels safe all the way through training, which in the end produces great results and a much more rewarding relationship between the trainer and the horse.

The most important concept of this training method is pressure and release. The pressure is applied and the horse recognizes that as a cue for it to act. As soon as the horse responds, the pressure is released.

To set up boundaries and communication with your horse, groundwork is used. This is generally achieved with lunging and leading, and round pen work exercises.

Understanding a Horse’s Behavior

Have you seen a child hit another child abruptly while playing? In young horses, we see the same behavior. They might unexpectedly bite each other as if saying they want more attention or they want to other to stop doing something. Since you are now part of the herd, they may begin to apply this behavior to you as well.

When one child hits another it is easy to deal with the situation because the child understands your language. It is different with a horse; you have know the horses language to reprimand her properly. First, you have to understand why a horse acts the way it does and that will help you be more patient with her. In turn, that will create a stronger bond between you two.

By working through videos and books on horse training methods as well as gaining hands-on experience with horses, you will be able to choose the best method to train your horse. You can never learn too much, so keep learning and fine tuning your horse training skills. If videos and books do not appeal to you then you can find a horse training college near you and learn all the basics from experienced teachers.

The great thing is, your horse will let you know if you are doing something wrong. When you are doing something incorrectly you have to figure out what it is and then do it right. Never stop learning about your passion, you can never learn too much.

Amanda Spring recommends the Horse Training Secrets Revealed course because it is jam-packed with horse training methods and techniques. This course has helped thousands become better horse owners and trainers — check it out right now.

A Few Popular Equine Training Methods

One of the most popular equine training methods is the clicker method with takes advantage of operant conditioning. This name is derived from the primary and secondary stimulants used in training; the primary stimulant is a ‘click’ sound and the secondary stimulant is a treat, such as food. When the horse performs an action that the trainer wants, then the trainer ‘clicks’ and gives the horse a treat. This constructive encouragement from the trainer helps the horse recognize the correct actions. With clicker horse training, a horse becomes more confident and plays a dynamic role in the training, which also builds the foundation of a positive companionship between the horse and the trainer.

Some of us may have seen clicker training in action. This training method is used to train dolphins for shows at aquariums and also to train dogs, zoo animals and circus animals. This is a very interesting and effective training method and it works well with horses. The difference is that a horse is generally not required to perform complex behaviors without the guidance of a human. Most handling of horses involves direct contact with humans.

Clickers and Equine Training

Clicker training is super flexible and can be incorporated into nearly any training program. All you have to do is add the ‘click and treat’ component to your training sessions. Clicking helps positively develop your horse’s behavior and increases their confidence in themselves. Clicker training also makes the training more understandable for your horse because the clicking and the treats help them recognize what they should be doing. Clicker equine training can also be used to teach your horse more complex behaviors step-by-step, which would be nearly impossible without the accuracy of the ‘click’ and treat.

What follows are a few methods of clicker training used to train horses. You will probably end up using more than one of these methods at different stages of your training and individual horses may respond differently to each type of training.

Free Shaping: this is usually what comes to mind first when people think of the clicker training. With this method, you wait until the horse performs a particular behavior that you want and then ‘click’ and give them a treat. This tells the horse that what they just did is a good thing and will make them more likely to repeat that behavior again. Free shaping is the first step used in targeting. Targeting is when you teach the horse to follow or touch an object; I will cover this in more detail below. When you use free shaping keep in mind that it is similar to ‘baby steps’. You want to click and treat your horse when they perform any behavior that is inline with what you want, not just for the end behavior. For example, if your horse is scared of an object that you want them to eventually interact with, then you would click and treat them when they do something as basic as looking at the object. Then build from there.

Molding: Another method is the molding method, in which you physically place the horse in the desired position and then click and treat them. This works with horses that do not show any of the behaviors you want, which is required for free shaping. This method requires that the horse is very calm and open to training.

Using Pressure and Release: This is one of the most used clicker training methods. All horse handling, whether clicker training or not, requires physical contact of some sort; for example, direct contact with your hands, your legs and seat, lead rope, lunge lines, reins, etc. You use these same types of physical contact with clicker training, but instead of increasing pressure to get your horse do to something you want, you can use a clicker and a treat to reinforce desired behavior. For a young horse only a tiny amount of pressure is required to make them do what you want. Then when they do what you want, you can ‘click’ and treat to mark the behavior as positive.

Targeting: Targeting is a very useful tool in a trainers inventory. It is based on free shaping and I wanted to mention this separately because it is so useful. Once your horse has learned how to target, you can use targeting to teach them other behaviors, such as trailer loading, leading, touching scary objects, moving body parts, etc. This method is better than luring, which is using food to lead your horse around. Luring can work well when your horse knows that it can only take the food after you click, but you should replace the food with a target object as early in the training as possible. The food itself can be distracting and overexcite your horse, whereas target objects do not generate that kind of excitement and distraction.

Often the question arises, do these methods work as well while riding your horse as they do while you are on the ground beside your horse? The answer is, you can train your horse while in the saddle the same way you would train them while on the ground. You can teach your horse to stop on a ‘click’ and it will then bring its head around for a treat. To train from the saddle you will have to use treats that can be easily given from the saddle. You will also have to give your horse some time to learn how to eat with its bridle on.

Giving treats from the saddle can increase your horse’s flexibility and the way in which they accept the treat can provide useful information about your horse’s mental state. During the training process always remember that it is more important to have your horse perform behaviors you want from scratch, rather than continuing performing desired behaviors. Once your horse regularly performs desired behaviors from scratch when you click then you can increase the duration between clicks. Read more horse training tips.

Clicker Horse Training

Clicker horse training uses the principles of operand conditioning to train horses. A conditioned re-enforcer, which in this case is a “click”, is used in conjunction with a primary re-enforcer (something the horse values, such as food) to re-enforce behaviors that you want your horse to exhibit.

The trainer marks the correct behaviors using the clicker and then gives the horse the treat to help the horse identify correct behaviors. Clicker training is very interactive and it encourages both the horse and trainer to be actively involved. This helps build a positive relationship between trainer and horse.

Clicker training is used to train dolphins for aquarium shows, to teach dogs to become more agile, and to train many animals at zoos. When you use this method of training and you begin to see results, it can be very fascinating. Although horses can also be trained with clickers, the process is a little different than that used to train other animals.

The reason it is different for horses is that horses are not usually required to do complicated maneuvers without a human being close by. Most of the time, all horse training and performance is done in close contact with humans. So the question arises, why train horses with a clicker in the first place?

Why Horses Are Trained With A Clicker

A clicker training program is very flexible. Trainers simply add treats and clicks to their existing training methods. This way, the lessons become clearer for your horse and she better understands what you want her to do. This makes training much easier and more complicated behaviors can be built in smaller steps.

Clicker training also allows you to teach complex behaviors to your horse, which normally not be possible without the accuracy of treats and clicks.

This program is perfect for coaching liberty work or any horse behavior horse where physical contact is not required, either through physical contact or horse training equipment. A clicker training program increases the confidence level of your horse and can also bring positive changes to their attitude. When this training is done properly you can help your horse overcome emotional difficulties ranging from fear to aggression.

There are three types of clicker horse training. First, the free shaping method. Using this method you would wait for your horse to perform a behavior that you want and then you ‘click’ and give them a treat. This increases the likelihood that your horse will perform the same behavior in the future.

The second method is called molding. In this method you physically place the horse in the desired position. This works with horses that do not present any behavior problems and are very calm. For example, if you wanted your horse to put its foot on a mat, you would physically put their foot on the mat for them. Once you have placed her foot on the mat, you would ‘click’ and give a treat.

The last method is called clicker training. With this method you use the same aids as in normal horse training, but you do not have to apply any pressure to get the desired response.

The last method allows the trainer to use similar training aids, which requires you to get in touch with the horse without adding any pressure to obtain the preferred response. This is similar to natural horse training.

These methods are great ways to teach your horse to be responsive without needing to pressure your horse in ways that make either you or your horse uncomfortable or cause your horse to react negatively. Of the three clicker horse training methods, the one you choose will depend on your training philosophy and the temperament of the horse you are training.

Amanda Spring recommends the Horse Training Secrets Revealed course to anyone who wants to learn more about clicker horse training and other effective training methods. This course has helped thousands become better horse owners and trainers — check it out right now.

Horse Training Colleges

Hoping on your horse and riding off into the sunset is not all fun and games. Not every horse will accept training. At a horse training college, it is the specialists responsibility to make sure that the horse comes from a good line so that it can do well in the arena or on the racetrack.

There are a lot of horse training institutes across the country. Let’s take the Breyer State University (scroll to the bottom of the page) in Alabama as an example. They offer a Certificate Award, Associates Degrees and a Bachelor’s in Equine Studies to anyone who wants to learn.

You can either study online or enroll on campus. Once you have finished this education you can become a horse trainer or a breeder and earn around $50,000 per year.

An other institute specializing in Equine Studies is Lamar Community College located in Colorado. This institute does only offers Certificate Programs, which will help an individual begin their career by working on ranches. They offer two Associate of Applied Science degrees, one in Horse Training and Management and another in Equine Business Management. Both of these programs give you classroom knowledge as well as hands on experience from interning on ranches.

Another institute where these programs are available is Midway College in Kentucky. They offer Bachelor’s degrees in Equine education with different specializations including management, business, equine instruction, equine science and equine therapy.

Above, I have mentioned only 3 of many institutions in the U.S. where you can earn degrees in equine studies. Below, you will find the names of other horse training colleges and their contact information.

The cost ranges from $500-$1000 per course and it will cost more if you are moving to another state to take the course. Even though you can study online it is better to choose a campus and get practical experience with horses.

Scholarships are a great way to reduce the cost of your education. Scholarships can be earned in different ways such as, a student athlete scholarship, a company sponsorship, or by becoming a member of the equine club.

Black Hawk College
1501 Illinois Hwy. 78
Kewanee, IL 61443
(309) 852-5671 ext. 246
WEBSITE: BHC.edu

California State University Fresno – Dept. of Athletics
5305 N. Campus Dr.
Fresno, CA 93740
Attn. Megan McGee
(209) 278-8385
WEBSITE: CSUFresno.edu

Central Texas College
P.O. Box 1800
Killeen, TX 76540
(817) 526-1288

Ellsworth Community College
1100 College Ave
Iowa Falls, IA 50126
(515) 648-2809

Kirkwood Community College
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. S.W.
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406
(319) 398-5882

Mount Ida College
777 Dedham St.
Newton Centre, MA 02159
(617) 928-4553

Northwest College
231 W. 6th St.
Powell, WY 82435
(800) 560-4NWC
EMAIL: admissions@nwc.cc.wy.us
WEBSITE: NorthwestCollege.org

Oregon State University
Withycombe Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331
(541) 737-5042

St. Andrews Presbyterian College
1700 Dogwood Mile
Laurinburg, NC 28352
(800) 763-0198

University of Arizona
Race Track Industry Program
PO Box 210069
Tucson, AZ 85721-0069
(520) 621-5660
WEBSITE: ag.arizona.edu/rtip

There are still more schools that offer an education in equine studies and horse training, but these should get you off the on right foot.

If you prefer a more self-guided approach to learning about horse training, Amanda Spring recommends the Horse Training Secrets Revealed course. This course has helped thousands become better horse owners and trainers — check it out right now.