HOW TO GET A HORSE’S ATTENTION (Easy Tips & Tricks)

Did you know a horse can only pay attention for 18 to 20 seconds at a time? Well, in today's video, what I wanted to do is share some things that I personally do to help my horses stay focused and paying attention when I'm working with them. So now I wanna share how to tell whether or not your horse is paying attention to you. So first I'll cover when a horse isn't paying attention, some of the body language they may display. So a horse that isn't paying attention will be looking off in the distance, just kind of how it was there. He was looking off over there. They're gonna be not as responsive because they're not gonna be focused on you and what you're asking them to do. Instead, they're gonna be focused on something else. Another thing a horse that isn't paying attention may do is they may be winning for their friends or looking for something outside of the arena or your workspace and letting outside situations influence how they're reacting in the arena. A good example of this is if a horses are galloping around outside the arena and suddenly my horse starts to act up because the horse is focused on what's happening outside of the arena rather than what I'm asking them. So now let's talk about a horse that's paying attention. What do they look like? How do they respond? So a horse that's paying attention to you on the ground is gonna be looking at you. Their ears are gonna be pointing towards you and they're gonna wanna stay focused on you. Another thing that a horse that's paying attention will do is that they're gonna be more responsive to you. They're gonna be focused on what you're asking them to do and so they're gonna be more likely to respond quickly and correctly. A horse that's paying attention is more likely to be relaxed and calm and not influenced by things happening outside of the area where you're riding them. So now that you can tell whether or not your horse is paying attention, I wanna talk about how to get their attention specifically on the ground to begin with. So the best way to get your horse's attention on the ground is through groundwork. Groundwork is basically any training you do with your horse when you're on the ground. So groundwork is very vast and everything you can train your horse to do. So I just wanna share with you guys some really simple exercises you can do with your horse to help them focus back on you when you're on the ground. So these are great to use in specific situations where your horse is distracted by something else or maybe they're starting to get a little anxious. So the first exercise I wanna share is lunging. So lunging is basically getting your horse to work around you on a circle when you're on the ground. So I find this exercise great for getting your horse's attention because it's gonna get your horse's feet moving. So when a horse's feet are moving, it's kind of funny because they tend to focus on their feet and their direction and where they're going. Compared to if I just let my horse be distracted and focus on something else, they're gonna react off of their instinct, which is flight. So then to start getting antsy and crazy and taking off. So that's why I like to use lunging. Another great exercise you can do on the ground is disengaging your horse's hind end. So what this is, is where your horse is gonna move their hind end by stepping one of their hind legs in front of the other. So this means they can basically pivot on their front end by just moving their hind end. So I find that any lateral movement is great for getting your horse's attention just because it's a little bit more of an advanced movement. So they really have to focus on what they're doing. So moving the hind end is basically the start and the foundation of lateral movements. And that's why I think this is great for using it to get your horse's attention. Another exercise that's kind of like disengaging the hind end is moving the shoulders. So moving the shoulders is basically, I'm gonna get the front legs to step one in front of the other so that the horse can pivot on its hind end. But this is the same concept as when we disengage the hind end, where the horse is having to think through the process of moving their feet because it's more of like a lateral movement. So once you can lunge your horse, disengage their hind end and move their front end, you can put it all together to create a really active exercise. So what this is gonna do is it's gonna get the horse focused because there's a lot of moving parts. So they're gonna have to stay on their toes to expect what's next because you're gonna be able to switch it up quickly and get them really focused on what you're asking. The reason that groundwork is so important when it comes to getting your horse's attention is because when a horse is not paying attention to you, that means they're gonna start ignoring your personal space. And this is usually when I find that a horse starts running into me or maybe just starts getting pushy. So what groundwork does is it reinforces your personal bubble and your personal space. So it makes the horse kind of have to focus on where your boundaries are. So I shared some groundwork exercises with you, but I didn't share the technicality behind them just because I feel like this video may be a few hours long if I were to do that. So I have an online course where I walk you through each of these exercises step-by-step so you can use them with your horse. I also have countless videos on these as well. So I'll put the link to the course in the description down below and you can check that out. Since we've covered on how to get your horse's attention on the ground, I now wanna cover how you can get your horse's attention under saddle. So same situations, if your horse is getting easily distracted under saddle, or maybe you're finding it's hard to hold their attention when you try to teach them something new, I'm gonna share some steps that I go through to help my horse focus back on what I'm asking them. So the exercise I use follows the same concept as the ones I used on the ground in terms of these exercises are geared to get your horse's feet moving because that's gonna lead them to focus more on what I'm asking them to do. So the first exercise I'm gonna do are figure eights. And figure eights are great because any rider can do them, but they're also great because the horse has to change its bend and change direction. So it's really having to focus on what it's doing. So I'm just gonna figure eight around these cavalettis. Another great exercise on horseback you can do to get your horse's attention are serpentines. So serpentines is basically when you're making an S shape with your horse. And what I'm gonna do here is I have some jumps set up that are actually perfect for doing serpentines through. So I'll just show you around the jumps just so you can get the concept. But it's almost the same concept as the figure eight where I'm having to change direction and change my diagonal and change my horse's bend a lot. So it's really gonna help them focus. Another exercise you can do to keep your horse's attention are transitions. So a transition is when you go from gate to gate on your horse, whether you're going walk to trot or Canada walk or stuff like that. Any one of those transitions you can use here. This is really gonna help the horse focus because it's an active change from one gate to another. So that means you're gonna have to engage their mind and make that change. So if you're doing transitions every few strides, this can really help keep them focused on what you're asking. This next exercise is great if you're in an instance where your horse is so unfocused on what you're asking that they're starting to get distracted by something that may cause them to bolt or buck or do anything they're not supposed to. So what this exercise is, is disengaging the hind end. So I covered this on the ground. Now I'm gonna cover it under saddle. The reason this is important to know under saddle is because that exercise disengaging the hind end, it's called that because you're actually disengaging the horse's power. So the horse's power comes from their hind end. So if they're going to go bolt or buck, it's gonna come from their hind end. So when we can turn them in a tight circle and make them step their hind end around, it's gonna take that power away from them, where the only thing they can do is walk in a tight circle. So to disengage the hind end under saddle, what I can do is reach my hand down the rein and bring it back towards my hip at the same time as I use this leg to squeeze behind the girth. So you'll see the horse is gonna step his hind end around and then I can let him walk straight again. And then I'll do it with this frame. I'll put my hand down, put my leg back, squeeze and pull back to my hip. And there he steps, so I'll release. And so this is great if your horse is really not paying attention. Because like I said on the ground, that this is more challenging for them because it's the start of a lateral movement. And so it's gonna be a process they have to think through. So one of the hardest things about owning a horse is having to track everything, whether you're tracking their fear and vet appointments or even just your training progress. My friends at ES Damon Equine actually sent me these handbooks that I've found to be very helpful. And what they do is they help you track your horse's progress whether it's a fair your visits or training sessions. So for example, on the event page here, I filled out that I took Tucker to a 100 pace. He was really good when it comes to crossing obstacles, but he tuckered out, tuckered out halfway through the 100 pace cause it was like six miles long. So now I know that I need to work on building his endurance. So I'll put the link in the description to these products on Amazon and I'll also share the Facebook link to their business. So the tips I've shared when it comes to keeping your horse's attention, I've been more geared towards horses that are not paying attention when you want them to focus on something else. So now I wanna share tips that you can follow to help your horse when it comes to learning something new. You know, horses learn by repetition. So it is good to repeatedly do stuff to help your horses learn, but this can also become monotonous and boring to them. So I wanna share some things you can do to help keep them interested in what they're learning. So this first step I'm gonna actually demonstrate even though Tucker knows how to pick up his feet. But let's say you're teaching your horse to pick up their feet. So what this tip is, is you wanna give your horse a break every few minutes just so they can have a mental break if they're learning something new. So let's say I'm teaching Tucker to pick up his feet. I'll work on this for a little bit where I'll just get him to shift his weight or even pick up his foot and I'll put it back down and I'll just do this for a few minutes. And after that, I'll just let him walk. Walking is a great mental decompressor for horses. They don't have to focus on too much. So what this does is for a short amount of time, it makes him focus on what I'm asking, but then it rewards him with the mental break. So that's what I'm doing here. So this way he can stay interested in what he's learning. Another thing you can do is when it comes to teaching your horse something new is practice no longer than 15 minutes, even if you do have those short sections in between where you're giving the horse a break. This is particularly important with young horses. So if you're just starting a horse under saddle or maybe you're working with like a younger horse and they're just starting to be handled, this is so you keep the sessions short. They don't have to focus too much. They don't become bitter with the work. And it also helps them positively associate you instead of thinking, oh gosh, the humans coming, I'm gonna have to work. Another great way to keep your horse interested is to make everything fun and a game. So this is great when it comes to training because it helps teach the horse that the new thing they're learning is actually fun and then they'll want to do it. So I actually have an entire video on how to play with your horse and how to make training fun for them. So I'll share the link to that video in this description. If you enjoyed this video and you got something out of it, please be sure to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel for more weekly horse videos.