The time you spend with your horse can be more fun when you understand the way a horse communicates with you and you with your horse.

Voice

• You teach your horse certain words of command: walk, trot, lope, trot on, whoa, easy, and more.
• The tone you use with your words determines what your horse does as much as the word itself.
• A soothing “whoa there boy”  is a totally different command than a “Whoa There Boy!”

Touch

• Touch your horse with your legs to tell him to go forward
• Pull back on the reins to apply pressure on his mouth to tell him to stop
• Swing your legs to tell him to speed up or to keep going
• Rub his neck, his back, his flanks to soothe him or show him affection

Sound

• You use sounds like a sigh or an intake of breath to tell your horse how you are feeling
• He uses sounds like a “whicker of welcome” or an angry “whicker of why are you late feeding me”
• He uses a squeal of ” get out of my way” to another horse and to you

Emotions

• You feel fear when your horse goes into the lope…your body tenses up…your horse senses your feeling of fear and feels your body tense…he is immediately on high alert to danger and responds instinctively by being excited and fast to react to any cue quickly and forcefully.
• The sun is warm, you are relaxed and feeling lazy…your horse senses your relaxed emotions and relaxes himself…you may have to nudge him along with a spur to get him to perform.
• You are getting ready to go into the show pen…you are nervous, tense and your body is more rigid…your horse senses your tension and responds in like…he doesn’t know why you are tense but if his master is tense then there must be a reason…so therefore he starts looking for the boogy man in the show pen.

This by no means covers all the ways you communicate with your horse. As a matter of fact it barely scratches the surface but it’s enough to get you thinking about all the ways you and your horse communicate with each other.

Learning how to ride a horse isn’t as easy as the trainers make it look. For instance I use my hands and reins to control my horse and rate his speed way more than I should.  Now I know better and I’ve spent years learning how to ride a horse but, still when I get nervous my reflex is to lean forward and use my reins to control my horse. How about you?

I, like many of you have been told by coaches and trainers that to learn how to ride a horse I need  to sit back, relax and use my legs to control my horses body. And I have practiced doing just that. But today I had a ride that proves I still have a lot to learn about how to ride a horse to get the results I want.

Riding my horse today for about an hour, I had some success but I also had some issues with getting him to slow down and come back to me when I asked him to. So after an hour I told my trainer, Teresa Sullivan that I was finished and slid off. I say slid off because my horse is 16:3 hands and I’m past my youth so I don’t bounce off my horses anymore and certainly not one who is as tall as my horse, Snickers…

Anyway, Teresa decided to hop back on him to tune on him a bit. When she got on him, she tied the reins in knot and wrapped them around the saddle horn. Then she proceeded to ride him around the arena and over poles using just her legs to guide him. She walked, jogged and loped him around and around. She used her legs, seat and spurs to slow him down and cue him to perform his gaits.She was demonstrating how to ride a horse to get the results you want.

He looked incredible.

Her words to me….Snickers has told on you. His issues today were yours and not his. To learn how to ride a horse you need to learn to let go of the reins and use your body to guide him. Long story short, I got back on and rode him around for another 30 minutes or so and while I was a bit nervous I let go of the reins and used my legs and seat to guide and direct him. I’m not sure I have ever had a horse back ride that was more fun. The moral of my story, if you want to learn how to ride your horse then let go of the reins. ( in a safe environment and safe horse of course.)

Do you have stories of learning how to ride a horse? If so then share them with us. Click on the comment section below and leave us a comment.

My advice; never close your mind to a particular kind of training just because that trainer doesn’t compete in the same events that you do. A good horseman is a good horseman.

I hope you enjoy this video.

You can find this video on You Tube

“In other sports, if you’re not having your best day, it doesn’t bother your equipment. Your golf clubs don’t care if you slice and your surfboard doesn’t care if you fall off.

Horses, however, care intensely. Remember, they’re counting on us to provide clearly consistent leadership-we are the ones who are supposed to know what we’re doing. So when they sense a wobbly, unbalanced, on-the-edge-of-control rider it troubles them. It shakes their trust and leads them to rebel against what they are being asked to do. And as typically seen, here’s where all sorts of horse behavior problems begin.”

Often when our horse is acting up we just assume it’s him who is having a bad day when in reality most of the time we need to take a look at ourselves first before we lay the responsibility on our horse. While this isn’t always easy to remember when we ask our horse for a nice slow lope and he goes into an out of control canter we’d do well to check in with ourselves first before we discipline our horse.