APRIL 2006 • VOLUME 8 • ©HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

The first and last lesson of the day  -  -  - LEADING 

The first and last lesson that we give to our horses in his lifetime is leading.  It is also often the first and last thing that we teach him every time we handle him. We go get him from his stall, paddock, corral, pasture on the lead rope, and we take back to his paddock, corral, pasture on the lead rope.

The first and last lesson of the day.

The first lesson, sets up everything that comes after that, we set up and re-establish our relationship, the way that we expect the horse to behave, and our very feel that we want to have connecting the two of us.

The last lesson of the day is our last opportunity to interact with our horse. The last thing he will remember for when we come for him tomorrow.

There cannot be too much emphasis put on good ground handling. It provides us with endless training opportunities that we cannot afford not to take advantage of. To not take advantage of these opportunities is to untrain our horses, or train attitudes and habits that will create problems not only when we are handling them, but when we are riding as well.

Often the difference in the well trained horse and the poorly trained horse, is the trainers ability to pay attention to the smallest of details and the knowledge that every moment we are with our horses we are training, whether we mean to be or not.

With leading being both the first and last lesson of every single interaction with our horses, every aspect of our leading has a huge impact on the training of our horses.

The very first lesson that we teach to our horses, is often leading. With this being the first formal lesson between the two of us, this creates an incredible opportunity for us to set up the basis of our relationship with our horses for the rest of our lives together.

Thus there is no more important lesson that you will ever teach to your horse. The more you study and think about your training and handling approach to leading, the more changes you will see in all aspects in your relationship AND in your riding, with your horses.

So how to begin. The how and why of what you introduce in this first lesson is paramount.

First of all let us consider the two most popular ways of leading.

One insists that you and the horse be shoulder to shoulder, the other that the horse in essence should be following you, with his nose to your shoulder.

From a safety perspective, the shoulder to shoulder is to protect “you” from getting run over by the horse. The idea being that if the horse tries to take off he will be beside you not on top of you. And anyone who has ever been charged by a horse from behind will confirm that this can be a very important consideration.

One possible problem with this particular method of leading is that we frequently see horses who are taught to lead in this fashion seem to think it is okay to get ahead of the person leading. I mean they are already, why not a little bit more, then a little more again. They often seem more focused on what is ahead of them, then the person walking with them.

In the second method we make the horse responsible to watch us. It is sometimes easier to train a horse to respect that they are to follow and not go past if there is a clearer defining line of where they are supposed to be. NEVER in front of you. Horses in the wild and in the pasture are quite used to following one another. Thus this concept is in effect already taught. Paths through the grass are ribbons running through the pasture. Not wide roadways. It always amazes me how narrow those paths really are, considering the bulk of the horses that are walking on them.

Leading is no more then teaching the horse to "follow me"! Wherever I go, you come to. He knows how to do this, we just need to teach the horse to do this with us.

Now there are all sorts of ways that you can teach a horse to lead. Some people advocate using ropes and all sorts of other gadgets. The most you actually need is a halter and a lead rope. And actually for the training, you might not even need that!

Here are two effective ways to teach a horse to lead without ever getting either of you upset.

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