This is the place where your relationship starts to transition from hanging out together as a herd to actually making a specific request and working together as a team.

In this lesson, you are going to ask your horse to accept your small request and also try to keep the trust you’ve already built.

This is where you may see a new side to your horse. It all depends on how he feels about you giving him “a request” and asking him to do something for you. It is just a small request, baby steps, but it is still the first time that you are asking your horse to do something after gaining his trust.

Watch your body language, use a gentle, confident voice, and keep observing your horse’s reactions and respond to them accordingly.

To start, put a pile of hay or a bucket of grain in the middle of the arena, or the pasture depending on where you are working. Start by standing next to the horse’s front shoulder, on his left side, while he is eating. Allow him to get comfortable with eating while you are close to him. You can pet him and just chill out with him while he eats for a bit.
While you are standing next to your horse’s shoulder, I want you to bend over and stretch out your hand down near the ground. Now we are going to make a specific request and start to change your relationship a bit. When you are ready to make a request, you are going to ask your horse to lift his head up and stop eating. Knowing what you are going to ask, you now raise your body up straight and verbally ask your horse to raise his head. You can use the words, ‘up’, ‘head up’, or whatever you choose. Remember to use your body language as well as your voice. However, we don’t want to surprise or spook your horse. You just want your body language to show that you are asking him to pick his head up. When you lower your body and then raise your body, you are showing him with your body language what you would like him to do with his head. You now want your horse to mimic your movements. After doing this a few times your cues can get smaller when appropriate, or larger if you need to.
Then when he waits a bit, 10-30 seconds is fine, tell him it’s ok to eat, say ‘go-ahead’, or ‘down’, or ‘head down’, or whatever cue you like and also use your body language to let him know that it is ok to eat again. So, you would be bending over again.

Together and it doesn’t hurt the trust that you’ve already built together.

Take it slow, work it out together, and be thoughtful and look at things from your horse’s perspective during this lesson. You can adjust where you need to.

Also, don’t forget to do this lesson in increments. We don’t want to keep drilling or pushing or force anything. If your horse doesn’t understand it the first time, stop and do something else and then try it again the next day. This might sound like common sense, but it’s easy to forget that expecting too much too soon while your horse is learning something new can be stressful and confusing.

Working in partnership together is a great way to build trust with your horse, but it should be done with patience and compassion. Start with small, easy to accomplish tasks, and work your way up to more challenging lessons as you go and after your horse has accomplished the smaller requests.

Here are a few tips on working with your horse and continuing to build trust together:

Start with what your horse already knows and use baby steps where you can. If it’s too hard, start even smaller and break the lesson down to smaller increments.
Add easy challenges that you know your horse will be able to accomplish without too much effort. This gives both of you a sense of accomplishment and grows both you and your horse’s confidence in the lesson and in each other.
If your horse isn’t ready to do something that you’re asking that day, that’s okay. Allow your horse to be comfortable starting the new lesson and if he needs to process it and think about it overnight, that’s ok too. This way, over time, he’ll be much more comfortable with your requests and he will trust that you have his back and won’t force him if he’s not ready.
Don’t rush your horse or your progress. Building trust is important first and foremost. However, if for some reason you feel you broke that trust, or he did, with love and patience it is easy to get back. So, don’t worry too much about it. If you keep pushing and don’t listen to his signs of mistrust or fear, this will only make him more distrustful of you and could cause a bigger issue.

Let your horse investigate, process, think, sniff, and choose if he feels he can do the lesson you’re asking him to do as much as he needs to. Eventually, he will trust you and the process, if you’ve listened to him, and will be ready soon. This way the two of you will be more confident and comfortable working together and moving forward with a trusting relationship.

There is so much more to earning and building your horses trust in you and your trust in your horse. But all these tips will start to build a good foundation of trust between the two of you and you will see, and feel a difference.

Just enjoy the process and don’t be in a hurry to get to the end. The slower you go, the faster you’ll see results. ????

How to Keep the Trust

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Teddie's Fundamentals

Training Lessons (TF)

Bonus Lessons (TF)

Foundation Of Trust

Introduction to a Foundation Of Trust

The Concept Stage

The Introduction Stage

The Proximity Stage

The Nourishment Stage

Bonuses (FOT)

Beginning The Connection

Introduction to Mark’s Journey

The Stallion Series

Kit’s Training Lessons

Danny Boy’s Training Lessons