Horses are like kids in many ways. If you don’t give them something to do, they’re going to find something to do, and it probably isn't going to be your idea of fun. Don’t just turn your horse loose for an hour on auto-pilot. Give him a job. I have sixty exercises on the ground and sixty exercises under saddle that you can do with your horse whether you’re in an arena, a pasture, or on a trail. Be creative with the exercises by using your environment. Do rollbacks into the fence or serpentine around the trees, or sidepass up to the gate.

Most horses are overfed and underworked. Don’t get on your horse and just walk for an hour – get his feet moving! Give him a job to do. I canter my horses for ten to twenty minutes every single day. They come back sweaty every single day. A tired horse is a good horse. I’ve never seen a tired horse give anybody any problems. I have seen plenty of fresh horses, and spooky horses, and energetic horses give people problems though. A lot of people ask me how I get my horses to lope so slow. Here’s the secret – I lope them, and lope them, and lope them.

You can’t expect your horse to get broke by riding him for twenty minutes at a time. You have to put some miles under his feet. Once or twice a week, take him on a two or three hour trail ride, do some concentrated training while you’re out there, and bring him back with wet saddle pads. The best place to ride colts is on a wide dirt road that goes for a hundred miles, because it gives him plenty of room to move his feet. Horses will go sour very quickly by only riding them in a small enclosed space like a roundpen or an arena. The smaller the area, the more it shuts down their mind.

In order for a horse to be well-balanced, he must get an equal dose of all three elements. It’s no good to have only one or two. For example, race horses get lots of wet saddle pads, but no long rides or concentrated training. I’ve seen trail riding horses go on ten mile long rides but come back with not a drop of sweat on them because all they did was walk the whole time. And I’ve seen plenty of show horses that had lots of wet saddle pads and concentrated training, but never stepped foot outside the arena for any long rides.

Round penning is a great tool when it comes to training horses because you can get the horse to use the thinking side of his brain without over stressing him, making the learning process as easy as possible for both you and the horse. Below, I’ve highlighted several advantages of the round pen and why no matter what stage of training your horse is in, he can always benefit from round pen training.

Teaches your horse to catch you.

Respect is broken up into two categories, a safety category and a learning category. When I refer to the safety category of respect I’m talking about the personal hula hoop space. The personal hula hoop space is a four foot circle that surrounds you and serves as your safety zone. Whenever I’m working with a horse, I always imagine that there’s a four foot circle drawn around me—almost like an invisible electric fence. Unless I invite the horse into my personal hula hoop space, he should keep a respectful safe distance from me.

"How do I know if I'm doing enough with my horse?" is a common question I get asked at tours and clinics. Basically, as long as the horse is making an improvement every day, you’re on the right track. The more consistent you are in working with your horse, the better. Remember, consistency is your greatest ally, and inconsistency is your greatest enemy. Horses learn best with repetition.

Horses by nature are programmed to be dominant around food. If horses in the wild don't fight for their fair share of food, they'll die. It's the survival of the fittest; the strongest, most dominant animals survive and the weaker animals die. It's your job to get your horse respectful towards you and establish yourself as the leader whether food is involved or not. Every time you go to feed your horse and he pins his ears at you or gets pushy and disrespectful, and you dump the feed and run out of his space, you're encouraging his behavior.

Whether you ride English or western, compete or trail ride, we all have one thing in common and that's to be the best horsemen we can be. A truly great horseman moves as one with their horse and has extremely good balance. One of the best ways to develop good balance with a horse is to learn how to post to the trot. The trot is a two beat diagonal gait, and when you post correctly, you'll be sitting one beat and raising the next. In order to stay in rhythm with your horse, you must have good balance and be in time with his feet.

If your horse is fresh, disrespectful, and has a bad attitude on the ground, guess what he’ll be like under saddle? Worse! Get all of the kinks out of your horse on the ground, so that when you get on, you won’t run into problems. All the problems a horse can have come from two causes: a lack of respect or fear (or both). By following my groundwork program, you address both causes: the sensitizing exercises earn respect from the horse and the desensitizing exercises eliminate the fear. By eliminating those causes on the ground, it prevents you from having to deal with them under saddle.