Tricks are so fun to teach your horse, but how useful can they be? Mostly, I feel like tricks are simply a fun and expressive way to play with my horse. But did you know some can actually be helpful and useful for your horse to know?
How about your horse picking you up at the mounting block? Or backing out of the trailer by their tail? Ever thought about ground tieing? There are so many “tricks” we can teach our horses that will help us so much in our daily handling.
Hindquarters Towards
This may not be classified as a trick, but it sure is helpful and not taught as often as the away movements. For the majority of the time, we use pressure to teach our horses to move away from us, but for this we want our horses to move towards.
To teach: you will need a halter, dressage whip, and a mounting block.
Start with your horse lined up at a fence. Standing at your horse’s neck/shoulder area, use your whip and reach over your horse and signal your horse to move by first pointing the whip at your horse’s hindquarters. If you get a reaction towards you or even a weight, shift towards you release and reward.
If your horse doesn’t react by the whip pointing, add in a cluck with your tongue. If they still don’t move, then tap lightly with the whip.
Most horses will try to walk forward or backwards when positioned next to the fence, but try to use the halter to block them from going forward. Be clear about what you are asking.
As you advance with this maneuver, you can move to the mounting block and use the same technique to teach your horse to line up for mounting. Very helpful to know!
Back from Behind
This is a bit more difficult to teach because pressure from behind usually means for a horse to go forward. But this time we want our horse to back up.
To teach: you will need a halter and dressage whip
Begin by leading your horse to a fence or rail. Stand at their shoulder holding the lead rope under their chin. Reach back and touch your whip just above your horse’s tail. To help show them what you want, use gentle pressure with the lead rope to get them to take a step back. Ask for only one step at first and then progress from there.
Eventually, you want to be able to stand directly behind your horse and back them.
Come to a Whistle
This trick is fun and useful in calling your horse from the field. But it can also be used to recall your horse at liberty if they were to leave you. The key to this is using the same word or the same whistle every time.
To teach: you will need a halter and lead rope. Optional is a food reward.
To teach this, you can either start in a round pen at liberty or start with lunging circles. If you are familiar with working your horse on a lunge or in the round pen, then you will know to send them out away from you. You don’t have to run them. In fact, I don’t recommend running them at all for this. Send them out on a circle and watch their ears. When you feel they are ready, step in front slightly to catch their eye as soon as they turn, whistle and back up, inviting them towards you. If you want, you may reward them with a treat. Repeat this again until you don’t have to step forward, but only whistle and they will turn in and come to you. Horses learn by repetition, so be patient. It may take a while before they connect the dots, but they will get it.
Stay/Ground Tie
This is a super handy trick to teach. Horses must learn to stand still at times. There’s just no way around it. I would actually practice this often as you master it to keep it fresh. What if you need to step off your horse and walk around him? He needs to stay put. It keeps you and him safe.
To teach: you will need a halter and lead rope and optional dressage whip. You will also need a cue word, such as stay.
To begin, stand in front of your horse with the lead rope in your hand. Say your cue word. Mine is stay, and take a step or two backwards. If your horse tries to follow, put them back exactly where they were standing and start again. If they don’t move, step back towards them and give them praise. If you are using a dressage whip, hold the whip directly up in the air. If not, try holding your free hand up as a signal. The next time, take three of four steps and continue that progression until you get to the end of the lead.
The goal is to be able to walk all the way around your horse without them moving. Some horses pick up on this more quickly than others, but it isn’t too difficult to teach. Don’t rush it and your horse will get it.
*Note I use the whip straight up in the air as a visual cue, but it is not necessary to teach. With consistency and clarity, they will learn your cue word. Ours is ‘stay’.
Shake
I know it seems silly to teach a horse to shake. It’s usually something we teach to dogs. But this is actually quite useful for your farrier. Because farriers not only need horses to lift their leg straight up but also straight out in front. Teaching this trick can help your horse be lighter with giving their legs and is an intro for the spanish walk.
To teach: you will need a halter, lead rope, and a dressage whip.
Begin by gently tapping your horse on the leg above the knee with the dressage whip. When your horse lifts his leg, relax and reward your horse. As your horse learns this, switch to standing in front of your horse and reach forward with your hand and tap on the same place of their leg. When they pick it up, grab a hold of it for a second. Then release, relax, and praise. The goal is to not even have to tap your horse, but reach forward with your arm and your horse offers his leg.
That’s it for useful tricks to teach your horse. I hope you enjoyed this and you find some new and useful things to work on with your horse! As always, happy training and God bless!
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