Your a hobby equestrian with no experience training horses, until you buy a young horse who forces you to get some training experience! Or in my case, 4 horses & a pony who force you to! Some of my followers may remember that last year I lost three beloved senior equines, who spoiled me with their gentle, easy going demeanors. So now instead of enjoying seniors, I get to enjoy energized, spunky youngsters!
Working with younger horses is very different from working with older, experienced equines. As I have discovered after spending almost a year now working with my Haflingers and the short amount of time I have spent working with my sister’s nearly four year old Missouri Fox Trotter. I wanted to take some time to share what I have learned this past year with you all! Here are some of my “Top Tips for Training Young Horses.”
My sister Quinn & I have been working with our new horse Coconut. He’s an energetic gelding with a short attention span, so I put these tips to use when training him! 
We have been working on his listening & obedience skills recently. Between the ear shots like this one are my fav!
Start with Short & Often Training Sessions
I have found that the “short & often” approach works best for training young horses. When I was training the Haflingers to lead, I worked with them for less than 10 minutes everyday. A young horse with very little training experience will have a very short attention span. Start out working with your horse for 5 to 10 minutes a day and build up from there.
Be Clear & Confident
It is important to remember that not only is your horse young, but he has no clue what’s being expected of him (in the beginning); in a sense he doesn’t yet know right from wrong. This is why being confident and clear is so important in the early stages of training. We love our youngsters and want to treat them with the utmost kindness, however; if we allow them to act up and invade our personal space, neglecting to correct them, we pave the way for an unruly equine.
Standing your ground is important, but what is equally important is “how” you stand your ground. We need our horse’s respect, but we don’t have to earn it through aggressive tactics. Confident persistence where you correct and not punish your horse will help you build a healthy relationship with your youngling. I think equinehelper.com makes a noteworthy distinction between punishing and correcting, “It’s important to have the mindset of correcting rather than punishing. Punishing correlates with responding in anger while correcting is responding from a place of patience and communicating to the horse what should have been done instead.”
Have a Small Goal for Each Session
One thing I like to do every time before I ride my horse is pick a small goal to focus on. This concept transfers beautifully into training my young horses. Choose a small goal to accomplish each training session. It doesn’t even have to be the entire focus of the training session, just a little something you know can be accomplished by your horse and praised by you. Pretty soon those miniscule goals will add up to be the foundational training your horse’s performance is built upon!
Desensitize to Human Touch
Desensitizing your young horse is an important first step in the training process. He has to get used to wearing his halter, being brushed, and eventually wearing all his tack. It’s important to remember that not only does he need to be comfortable with the feel of tack and with anything “scary” in his surroundings, but he needs to be comfortable with human touch. Even more than that, he needs to see human touch as a reward. Start rubbing and petting your horse from the start and be sure to incorporate positive touch when rewarding him. If your equine is leery of being touched in a certain spot, start by touching him as close to that area as he will allow and slowly (maybe even over a few training sessions) work your way to touching that area. If you’re fearful of being kicked, stand a little ways off and gently use a lunge whip or stick instead of your own hand. Remember to make human touch a rewarding experience for your young equine.
Pressure & Release- a foundational concept
We communicate with our horses through pressure and the release of pressure. When you start training a horse, one of the first things he will need to learn is how to yield to pressure. This is the foundation for all your horse’s training, so make sure your horse clearly understands & responds to your use of pressure. An important thing to remember is to take away the pressure once your horse obeys. In the beginning, reward even the smallest attempts your horse makes when yielding to pressure.
Lastly, I always end every training or riding (or even grooming) session on a good note. You want your horse to enjoy the time he spends learning, so always finish on a high note. End while your horse is obeying you, not once he has stopped paying attention. Even if we are having a rocky training session that isn’t going quite as planned, I always try to go back to something I know my horse can do and end the session with me rewarding him for it.
Working with young horses has taught me both patience & persistence- ingredients I try to employ in every training session. Young horses require work, but seeing them learn and grow is so rewarding!
*If your training a youngster, I hope you find these tips helpful! I would love to hear all about your experiences in the comments!*
Tails & trails,
Reese