There are many different horse tricks for you to teach your horse and all of them are fun and build your relationship between you and your horse.  And while there is not enough time to go over all the horse tricks out there I would like to cover some basic training concepts that will help you in any horse tricks you decide to teach your horse.

The prime concept you must keep in mind when teaching horse tricks or any training for that matter, is that the horse has no idea what you want.  Therefore it is up to you the trainer to break down the horse tricks into as many small steps of learning for your horse as possible.  None of the horse tricks should be approached by starting with the goal.  Whenever we start with our goal we start with a wreck.  For example, let’s say you pick teaching your horse to bow from the long list of horse tricks.  You do not enter your horse’s stall and try to force its knee to the ground.  As obvious as it may be reading this, the horse could easily overpower and hurt you.   Which leads us to the second concept you must keep when teaching your horse tricks.

It is actually a threefold concept, first you cannot get hurt, second the horse cannot get hurt, and third the horse needs to be quieter at the end of the lesson than when you started.  What does this mean when it comes to teaching a horse tricks? When you are creating your lesson plan you need to analyze each step for safety.  If there is any way you can make teaching your horse tricks safer, do it. If there is a real likelihood that one of the steps in teaching your horse tricks could get you or the horse hurt, work on the lesson plan until that threat is gone.  If there is no way to avoid the danger, reconsider sing the lesson for teaching your horse tricks.

And finally there is your actual lesson plan for teaching your horse tricks.  You will put your goal at the top of the list.  Then you will think of as many steps as you can to teaching your horse tricks as possible.  Let’s use bowing a horse again.  Ask yourself what you can ask of your horse and have him respond to correctly and consistently.  Will he pick up his foot?  If yes, continue on, if no go back in his training.  Will he back up when you apply pressure on the halter?  If yes, start here, if no go back farther.  Will he release to pressure on the lead rope by moving his head away from the pressure, in this case across the poll and nose?  If yes, start here, if no go farther back. Will he allow you to catch and halter him in his stall? If yes, start here, if no go back farther.  Will he allow you to enter his stall and face you…Do you get the idea?  Where you can start will determine your first step in teaching horse tricks.

You notice how none of the above steps are even addressing teaching the horse tricks directly.  What it is doing is showing where you can start your lesson plan.  Each one of the ‘no’ answers will require its own lesson plan before you start teaching your horse tricks.  When you can catch, halter, back, and raise the front foot, you are ready to start teaching your horse how to bow.  Each time you pick new horse tricks to teach your horse you need to break them down into steps, then take each of those steps and break them down, and continue until you find a point where you can ask your horse to do the step and he will answer yes.  You will find it a bit more work in the office, but your horse will become better and better at learning horse tricks if you will take the time breaking each step down.