Training the Haflinger’s- Follow Me

You may know that the 3 newest additions to my horse family are unbroken. So it is up to me to train these horses. I get the responsibility of establishing a foundation for them to build upon. I have never trained a horse before and am super excited and a little nervous to take on this responsibility. I plan on sharing my experience on this blog. I am not a professional, but I hope that by following along you learn something new and get inspired to connect with your own equine. 

Not only am I encouraging you to follow me on this journey, but I am currently teaching the haflingers to follow me!

 First Steps 

It is very important that a horse has good ground manners and can be properly led. A well trained horse should match the gait of their leader, keeping their head at their shoulder. Princess, Jasmine, and Rosemary are catching on fast as I teach them to be led. To help reinforce the pressure the halter gives and to get them to move their hind end, I used a lasso around their hindquarters, putting pressure there when I asked them to move forward. I used this video made by a horse-loving friend of mine as a reference. I will continue to teach them how to be led and am going to add in some barrels or cones to lead around. I want to establish a strong foundation of groundwork for these horses. Which is also why I am keeping track of all the training I do with them. 

More horsey posts: Lessons From a Farm Girl- Responsibility

Goals & Training Journal 

Whenever you have something that you want to accomplish, it is important to set clear goals for yourself and document them. That is why I am not only blogging about training my horses, but why I am also keeping my own progress journal to keep a concise and detailed record of the training process. This is also important because I am training three different horses at the same time. Each horse is different and will learn at their own pace. Princess will  need special attention because she only has one eye. She is such a sweet horse and I am excited to see how she does! 

After each session I will record the progress made and the work that still needs to be down as well as what I did in the training session. I made a column for each horse so that I can keep track of their individual progress. 

Whether you are training your horse or simply working in your own backyard, keeping a written record of your goals and progress is always a good idea. I have never had a progress journal before, but I am looking forward to writing in mine. *And to think years from now I will get to look back and see how far my horses and I have come!* 

I am super excited for you to join me on my horse training journey and I hope you will subscribe and tag along as I blog about getting to train these amazing haflingers!!

Tails & trails,

Reese