Breaking and training a "green" or spirited horse can be a challenge. In the past, people often resorted to harsh and even abusive means to do it. However, that type of training isn't necessary because gentle methods will work as good if not better than traditional "breaking".  By using natural horsemanship, we can communicate with the horse in a way he naturally understands and train him using gentle methods, and build a relationship based on leadership, trust, and respect, rather than breaking him down. In naturla horsemanship we don't break horses but instead build them up. We call this starting a new horse.

In this article we'll lay out the basic outline for starting a new horse. Before getting to this point, you should be able to catch your horse and be able to lead the horse properly.  Once that is done, you can embark on a program to develop what you need to in order to get the horse doing what he needs to before you can ride him safely.

Interaction with horses involves the application and direction of energy. This is because horses will yield to pressure. Walk up to at trained horse and press against his hip with your hands, and he will swing his hip away from you. Pressure can be applied directly or it can be applied simply with energy. The more time you spend training with a horse, the more lightly he will respond, and eventually you won't even had to touch the horse, but simply direct energy where you want, and he will yield.

By directing energy at the proper locations of the body of the horse, we can direct movement. We begin by teaching this on the ground to prepare the horse to respond to cues while riding. You want your horse to yield forwards and backwards, and left and right. Getting the horse to yield left and right also means having the forehand yield left and right, and having the hindquarter yield left and right.

In this article we'll summarize six steps in training you must do with every new horse. Every horse is different, so some horses, for example, may be easy to catch right away, while others will have you running all over the pasture.

1. Catching a Horse Properly

The first step is to catch your horse properly. This means using body language and approach that your horse will naturally understand as leadership. Read more about catching a horse

Here is a sample video which demonstrates catching:

2. Leading a Horse

Once you catch a horse and put the halter/leadline on him, you have to lead him. Many people aren't aware that leading is an important activity with a horse. While leading, the horse is observing and seeing who is the leader of the "herd". Read how to lead a horse properly.

Here is a sample video which demonstrates leading:

3. Round Pen Training

Where are you going to lead your horse after you catch him? Well to the round pen, naturally! Once in the round pen we can do an exercise Eric calls "hook on" which is popularly known as "join up" due to Monty Roberts. In this exercise, you remove the halter and lead rope from the horse, then push the horse around the round pen in both directions. This exercise taps into the natural instincts of the horse because alpha horses in the wild use movement to demonstrate leadership. Read more about round pen training.

Here is a sample video which demonstrates round pen training:

4. Moving the Forehand

Now we turn to the three basic yields. When riding your horse, you'll use these yields to direct where you want the horse to go, and we're going to teach the horse to respond to these yields on the ground first. By directing the forehand, we control the nose of the horse. Where you point the nose, well that's where the horse will go. At first pressure can be applied by actually touching the horse and physically applying pressure. As you proceed in your training, you will apply lighter pressure and eventually be able to simply direct energy at the given location. To move the forehand use the following procedure.  Stand on the left side of your horse by the neck area. Put your left hand in the throat latch area and the right hand just above the point of the shoulder. Then push. When the horse moves his forehand away from you, release the pressure. Then repeat for the other side. Here is a diagram showing you where to apply pressure.

5. Moving the Hindquarter

We want the horse to yield moving the hindquarter away from us (consider the alternative). To do this, stand near the hip area and apply pressure to the hip. Release the pressure when the horse moves away from you.

6. Teaching the horse to yield backwards

To teach a horse to yield backwards we apply pressure alternatively to the sides of the nose. You can do this with your lead rope. Stand in front of the horse, and shake the lead rope side to side. Using your hands, you can also apply pressure left-right-left-right to the nose area to ask the horse to back up. This is best demonstrated in video.


Here is a sample video which demonstrates the three basic movements:




Learn more about Eric Bravo horse training videos.

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