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The ultimate goal if you wish to ride is to achieve success in saddle training; however, it is necessary to do the groundwork first. Before riding, your horse will need to be led to where you will tack up. You can’t begin to teach point B if you’ve not first mastered how to get there from point A. The two of you can only act as a team if your horse cooperates with you. This cooperation begins with your ability to approach, catch, and halter him first. Then you’ll need to lead your horse about with a halter and a lead rope.

With the primary objective of safety in mind, your horse needs to learn what is acceptable behaviour. Although it is natural for him to pull against the lead rope, for example, he must be taught not to do so. A horse should never be allowed to invade the personal space of whoever is holding the lead rope. Accidents can easily occur if proper consideration to teaching basic safety manners to your horse is not given before moving on to more advanced training. Whilst a good equine insurance policy may cover you for accidents that happen in training, it’s obviously far more preferable not to have to find this out!

Lead training requires the use of patience, persistence and positive reinforcement – the essential three Ps of horse training. Having already accomplished haltering, it is likely that you have already discovered the effectiveness of the three Ps.

It is a good idea to begin lead training when the horse is still a foal. You don’t need to teach a very young horse about saddles and riding, of course, but don’t leave the basic ground manners until he is older. The young horse will need to cooperate for farrier and vet visits, as well as for the various people moving about the yard, stables or paddock.

If you happen to have the dam – the foal’s mother – present, lead training will be easier as he will naturally copy her behaviours. Don’t worry if the dam is not present, as it works as well with any horse which the foal spends time with. A young horse will naturally learn from his elders. For example, you don’t need to teach a horse in the pasture how to graze or go to the water and drink. They learn to do this by watching the other horses in the herd. If your student is older, you can still use another horse’s example by haltering and leading the other horse first. Horses notice everything that goes on around them – particularly if it involves other horses within the herd – so you can be sure that your student will be paying attention.

A good place to start is to lead a more experienced horse along with the foal; lead them simultaneously with you in the middle. The safest place for you to stand is to the left of your student’s shoulder, with the older horse to your left. A young horse could suddenly decide to bolt or to kick his heels, so make sure that you don’t wrap the lead rope around your hand or anywhere else that makes you vunerable. The last thing you need at this stage is complicating the process with an injury for which you may need to claim on your horse insurance.

Another method you could use, if you have a calm horse that you are comfortable riding and that the foal will follow, is the pony method. Using a longer lead rope and simply tow the young trainee behind the more experienced horse. This is actually a logical method for teaching the lead, as it’s natural for the young to follow the elders behaviour.

With no other horses nearby, you will need to rely solely on your patience, persistence, and positive reinforcement skills. Use these three Ps of horse training when trying to get the horse to understand what it is you would like him to do.

After satisfactory progress, it’s time to try it alone. Again, standing to the left of your young horse’s shoulder and with both of you looking straight ahead, gently walk forward and as you step out, tug very gently forward, then release any pressure on the rope as soon as the horse makes any motion to go forward. Understanding that release is a reward to your horse is a valuable tip used by professional trainers. It tells your horse he’s doing something right.

When he can successfully walk with you in straight lines, try a slight left turn whist maintaining the space bubble. If he crowds you, use your right hand to push him out away from you and hold your arm out to the appropriate distance. Then try turning to the right with the same safety distance between the two of you, still using your right hand to guide him into the correct zone. You will need to reward him by releasing the pressure on the lead rope each time he steps in the right direction.

Lead training requires large reserves of patience. Big improvements will soon be made if you can just stick with it. Work every day if possible for short periods and you’ll be pleased with the results; then you will be moving closer to the time when you can saddle up and begin riding.

This is basic ground manners explained. It simply means that your horse does as you ask. The horse’s movements should be performed safely no matter how simple or routine the task may be. Your horse needs to know that to push, step on or endanger you in any way – either intentionally or not – is unacceptable. It’s easy to see that even such simplest annoyances have the potential to cause a person serious injury. Since horses outweigh you by a ton, literally, a misplaced hoof can break your foot. You could be covered for this type of injury under the terms of your equine insurance – but it’s far less painful to avoid the necessity of that in the first place! If you first establish and then maintain an area of personal space, this can be avoided.

Nuzzling his nose into your pockets to see if you have apple treats can result in a nibble in a most inconvenient place if he decides to have a little taste. A horse’s love nibbles are painful when applied to mere human skin. Horses in a herd treat each other differently than they must treat us. Often they will bite, nip and crowd each other, but they are somewhat more robust than we are.

The space bubble lesson is one that many horse owners and trainers have learned the hard way. My first, and subsequently the last, experience with the concept of crowding occurred when I bought my first horse years ago. My wonderful new four-legged friend liked to “help” me with the paddock cleaning. As I shovelled and filled the manure cart, he would come and put his nose into it. Then one day he actually lifted his front hoof and put it into the cart when I put a rake full of manure in. He knocked the cart over, which spooked him, which in turn spooked the other three horses in the paddock. Suddenly I found myself within the midst of hooves and tails every which way. Thankfully I was not hurt, but this could have been a mild or even a serious disaster – and may have even necessitated a claim on my horse insurance.

This happened when our training relationship was in its learning curve phase. I was so amused at his trying to help me with my chores that I didn’t think about the potential consequences. I learned about the importance of safety manners that day. from that day on I began to teach him the importance of respecting my space if I happened to be in the paddock doing jobs or attending to the other horses. If he wanted to play cute he could still do this during the time we spent together learning cues and training.

You can use the three Ps of horse training to instil basic safety manners into your horse. Patience, persistence, and positive reinforcement are crucial to the future relationship between you and any horse, be it your own or one you are training or riding.

Patience. Remember, your horse does not know what you want. You need to show patience in showing your equine what to do, then patience in letting him practice until he gets it right; this is key to building trust. Your mind needs to be free of stresses and anxiety before you begin any training session. Take a deep breath and relax. It is part of the natural learning process for your horse to test the waters. He needs to check and see if what he thinks you want is correct. This can occur several times before the horse has confirmed his correct assessment of the task.

Persistence. You can’t just give up after just a few tries. At first it is hard to communicate. After all, you don’t speak the same language yet! Stay with it and be consistent in your cues. Horses are very perceptive to even the slightest cue. Your horse will only cooperate when he has learned what the cue means.

Positive reinforcement. Whenever your horse does something correctly, show him a signal. It’s not always necessary to use a tasty morsel as a reward. They love to be released when they’ve done their job. Imagine the “whoa!” or “stop” cue. This is a pull on the bit within his mouth. When the horse exhibits the signs that he understands that you want him to stop, release the bit immediately. That will let him know that he’s doing things correctly.

Horses need to know their limits. How close can he stand to you before you feel crowded? Can he pull on the lead rope if he doesn’t want to go the way you are leading him? Is he allowed to get away with things that he may not wish to do on a whim? For a horse this is not natural, even though to us it may seem like common sense. A correctly and carefully trained horse will forever be both a most pleasing companion and could also represent a lower liability when it comes to renewing your horse insurance policy.