This Simple Trick Makes Horses Want to Go Forward

Today I'm going to show you how I teach go from the ground by rewarding the very first thought or even before the feet move. This is how you build willingness rather than obedience. When Willie first came to me he was a very confused little cob. He wasn't offering forward, he wasn't sure what the cues meant and he was generally quite stuck. Now he came to me being called naughty, lazy, all of those sorts of things but he was not any of them. In fact I find it very unusual to find horses like that. Most horses are willing to do what you ask them if they understand. So in the beginning when I couldn't get him to go, this is 10 months ago, I had to reward even the thought. If I gave him some sort of body language and he looked at me, looked away, whatever he did, I rewarded that first because I had to explain to Willie that I was observing him. I could see that he was talking to me because he'd been so shut down that he wasn't going to do anything. I think he thought doing nothing was probably the safest option because whatever he did he got into trouble for. So once we finished with just getting him to understand, this is real training here guys, this horse is back, he's only been here a couple days. Once he got to understand that yes I did read him, he could read me and he could trust my body language and trust me, I taught him some groundwork patterns to make him go. So most of those were moving his feet backwards because he was very stuck in the feet and sometimes just the thought like that, I want his shoulders that way, this front foot moved to there and you can see that well you probably can't but it's a very slight that way. I've got to reward the smallest tries with these horses to build their confidence in themselves. So one of the principles of this is you have to give your aid to your horse, watch your horse and the minute you see an improvement, release then. Like even if I want him to speed up or go to a trot in the beginning, I might pick myself up and his walk increased, so I will relax. Rome wasn't built in a day, particularly with horses like this, you need to have compassion. He's certainly not a hot horse, he's a gypsy cob, he's cold-blooded, so they're not hot, so you just need to reward every little try he does. I'll do that again, I'll lift my body language up. Yeah, that was a quicken, was it not? So you need to learn to reward the smallest try to start with. Good boy, good boy, good boy. Is he perfect at this? Absolutely not. There, good boy, good boy. It's just a little bit of that's confusion. Now I stayed with the aid because I know that my aid was correct. I know, yeah, good boy, that it was. And when he goes forward like that, I will, now he has to get out of my space because he would like to be in my back pocket all the time, this horse, therefore he stays back there. So when I ask him to trot, I don't care if he walks afterwards, no problem to me, I'm building things in very small steps, one step at a time. So if I want him to trot, and he gives me one trot step, I reward that, and I don't think that he has to keep trotting. Good boy. We'll build on it, there will be eventually that he will need to keep trotting, but I won't need to keep nagging because I'm training the basics. So when you're trying to build the cue on your horse, you got to make sure you're right first, your body is right. I want him to go that way. It's no use going like this. I need to open the door, belly button, shoulder, ask, and did you see the release there? He hadn't even gone. He just started to take his neck over and I released. He's in the early stages of his training. He's a horse that's in the early stages of his training. Yes, I would like him to be really soft and go off beautifully. He's not up to that yet. And it's unfair of me to expect it. So you just reward the slightest try. We'll do that again. First of all, get his attention this way. Good. That was much better. I was a little bit sharp with my aid though, because I like to build aid slowly. And I'll show you that as we come around here. So if I want him to go up, I start lifting up my energy hand. Good boy. That's my dog over there. And then allow now haven't asked him to keep trotting. I hadn't asked him to stop. I didn't care what he did. As we work through this groundwork session today, I do care that he's in my face all the time. And for me, this is just another little tip. This is a individual horse by horse situation. He's not allowed to be in my face all the time because he pushes on me. There's a feeling of the horse pushing on you or of them reaching out to say hello. He's always pushing on me. So he has to stay back there. Alright, so let's go this way. So again, I'm opening the door turning my belly button my energy the way I want him to go. I'm leading with my hand. Good boy. Now he doesn't go out beautifully around me yet, but he will. Good boy. If I want him to speed up, I pick up my energy pick up my hand he has sped up he sped up in the walk he didn't have to trot off. Good boy. If he won't go or in the beginning I would I can't do it now because he's much better. But I would irritate him as in I would go tap tap tap on the bottom with my whip. I'm not hitting him. I wasn't hurting him. I was being irritating. And the minute he went forward, I stopped doing it. Pick my energy and my hand up. Good boy. Doesn't have the world's greatest work ethic this boy. But that's okay. This is nice. He's not much of a canterer. And I struggled to get him to canter because I don't believe in chasing them or beating them. But what I found work with him is when I wanted and I went up and then I cantered in a cantering. Good boy. Don't care that he got the wrong leg. Don't care that he changed. He cantered. One step and because he loves attention. His best reward is for me to come in and rub him. We'll see if we can build on that and I'll show you the fact that you don't have to do the whole hog. One step's enough. Go this way again. Good boy. You're all right. Good boy. We'll see how quickly the canter comes. Good boy. So it took me a little bit then. Go this way. Start to pick my energy up. Good boy. Good boy. So to me it makes sense when you're building a horse's confidence and you want to have them be willing and not obedient. We like them obedient as well. But willing. Willing to be a partner. You need to start and reward the smallest try you can find for your horse. And as I said in the beginning with him, I rewarded anything because I needed him to know that I saw him. If you remember that footage, he wouldn't move and I actually ended up having to, I just jumped and he moved back and I took the pressure off of him. I went, yes, I saw you. I saw you saw me. And that's how our conversation started. See if we can do a canter this way. As you can see, he's much better one way than the other. That's not unusual. Good boy. I haven't even asked for a trot there. He's already willingly giving me more forward movement and I don't take advantage of it. He's trotting there, but I'm just still just asking him for walk. Now I'm going to ask for trot. Good. He can get that shoulder away from me. Ready? We'll see how far for canter. Ready? Good boy. Good boy. Very good boy. Try that again. Good. Much better moving out on the circle. This truly was at the beginning. I hadn't done anything. I'd literally walked into the arena with him. All right, we'll do a see if we can get another canter because this is good to show you. You don't need to drill the horse. Move your shoulder away. That's the boy. Ready? I'm going to ask for canter around here. Ready? Here we go. Yeah, good. Very good boy. So why does this work? Because Willie now has some clarity. He understands that I am asking him for something to start with. And then he understands that I am consistent with my aids and what I ask. And if he gets confused, and he gives the wrong answer, he does not get in trouble because he's trying to find the answer. It's a bit hard to be cross with someone that's looking for the answer. Good boy. Just imagine if you went to a country where they didn't speak English, and they wanted you to do something. And you thought you understood what they wanted. This horse is a bad creeper, always was, always will be, I think. And you didn't understand what they wanted, but you thought you got the idea and you tried to do it. And all of a sudden, they started yelling at you, or worse, still hitting you. And then you thought you'd try something else and you got done for that. What would happen? I can tell you what would happen. That's what happens when horses get shut down. I don't believe it's any other problem than the fact that the person doing the training does not understand what they want. So make sure that you're crystal clear with what you want your horse to do, and that your body language is congruent with that. Because me trying to get him to go forward here, or with me facing this way, is very unfair. Opening up the door, asking him to go that way, and releasing the aid the split second he decided to go. I didn't wait for him to walk three steps and then release it. Release it when I saw the horse make the decision that he was going to go forward. Do that once more for clarity here. There's the decision, there's the release. Might have only been one step, but that doesn't matter. Every journey starts with one step. I really hope you got something out of that. Thanks for watching Willie and I. And by the way, if you have any tips on how to keep burrs out of cobs feathers, please let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear from you.