My green mare, Penny, won't respond to my cmmands. I want to get her to walk, trot, and canter while I'm on her and tell her too, but when I kick her or tap her with the crop, she bucks in confusion. How do I get her to go on my command?
The key is good ground work. You could start while leading her ... say "waaaalk" and cluck or kiss. Then she can learn what " ; walk "means. More advanced would be a round pen or longe line, but if you are inexperienced you could get hurt or confuse her further. Get some help from someone who knows how or watch some good videos on starting to longe. Then you can teach her voice commands and then carry it over to under saddle.
The way I was taught to start a green horse was with plenty of controlled longing and voice commands, then with a rider on the longe and the trainer still holding the longe and giving the voice commands the horse already knew so that the horse could learn the leg aids and rein aids. A horse with good ground work is already quite trained when you start to ride, and this horse will progress much faster in the long run.
Okay your probably giving her mixed commands. Plus (this is going to sound cheesy) your horse needs to spend time with you. Every day spend at least 1-3 hours with her just giving her apple and carrots or sugar cubes, walk her around on a lead rope, ride bareback, and just have a very positive mood no matter how its going. Horses can sense mood, so when your stressed, angry, confused, or something they will act very poorly. And practice your commands, like kicking or squeezing to get moving, halt commands, and simple canter and trot commands. Don't give up-if thats the one thing I've learned-giving up makes the horse feel in charge and they aren't in charge-you are! Also, don't gently kick or tap the crop, get aggressive! Kick hard when you want her to move, smack the crop on her shoulder or hindquarters it doesn't hurt them! Punish her when she's bad and reward her when she is good! If you stick to this, she will quickly learns who boss (YOU) and that she better start listening.
There's a really good article at Horse & Rider.com called Clinton Anderson's Lunging for Respect. Just type it in and it will come up. It is a fantastic exercise and you can add voice commands to get your horse to respond to your verbal commands and then you should be able to use the same commands when you are on her. Remember always start on the ground. I know it sounds boring but it is so worth the time and effort. You will actually save time by taking the time. My horse is a different horse when I do these exercises with her. You should check it out you won't be sorry. It changed my mare from a bucking balking crow hopping mess into a horse I could actually ride and have fun with.
Get a trainer.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
Kicking a horse or just tapping her with a crop isn't how you teach a horse to go forward in the first place. It's just how you annoy a horse and so ... cause a buck.
Honestly, you sound so green yourself, that unless you get a real trainer or at least get some real training material like a dvd or something, you're just going to get hurt or get this horse hurt. Or teach her to hate pressure which will then be more work for a trainer to fix.
why are people so stubborn about asking for real help and think they can get an easy answer on yahoo?
If you find a good set of dvds that show you how to start a horse, that would be a great thing to do for you and your horse.
How trainers teach horses to learn a go forward cue is:
1. They SQUEEZE their legs (they never kick. Kicking is not anything but annoying)
2. They make a kiss or cluck sound
3. They keep squeezing and add tapping with rhtyhm ... each tap is firm and harder than the last
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com It's about timing ... when do you apply the right pressure
and feel .... how much pressure and when you stop.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get some real help. Invest in your horse's training.
There's SO much more to this .... too much to write down on a yahoo post. So, swallow your pride and get some real help.At least a trainer to start you out right.
Repetition and consistency
might need a trainer to help you
