Horsemanship Education - Immerse Yourself in Horses

Good horsemanship starts on the ground. Participants learn how to get their horses to respond to them using body language based on equine behavior.

Horses can be taught to perform all sorts of behaviors and be light on the lead rope. The Pinto is walking figure-eight patterns around the cones while the trainer stands still.

With positive reinforcement and target training, behaviors such as lowering the head are taught easily, with no force or pressure.

Groundwork helps teach respect. Once a good human/horse relationship is established all sorts of games can be played, which exercises not only the horse's body but also the mind.

Horse behaviors that are useful in the saddle, such as lateral bending, can be taught from the ground first. This makes transfer to the saddle easier and safer.

Circling the horse a few times in each direction and in each gait allows the rider who strives for good horsemanship to look for any potential problems, either physical or mental, before getting in the saddle.

Desensitizing horses to all sorts of unusual sights, sounds, and smells on the ground better prepares them for the trail.

Once good on the ground, horse riding becomes fun and relaxing.

Trail riding becomes more pleasurable once good relationships are established and bonds form between horses and their riders.

The Equine Research Foundation conducts positive reinforcement horse training clinics in the western states. For more information, please see our positive reinforcement clinics page. With positive reinforcement, all kinds of behaviors can be taught including behaving politely around food, lifting feet for cleaning, standing quietly for farrier and vet care, trailer loading and unloading, the possibilities are endless. Horses become highly motivated and eagerly seek the "right answer." Training becomes enjoyable, exciting, and stress-free.

Equine Research Foundation clinic participants and their horses learn about positive reinforcement and good horsemanship in this Oregon facility.

Equine Research Foundation clinician, Jerry Ingersoll, leads a discussion on horsemanship during a positive reinforcement clinic.

Positive reinforcement horse training clinics help horses better deal with unusual situations. Horses learn to follow and focus on a target (an object attached to a handle), which helps them accept strange objects, such as fuzzy purple bunnies.

Not only is target training the start to teaching horses to play Frisbee, it also can be used to train horses to go to a stationary target and remain there until called off.

Positive reinforcement works wonders in helping horses overcome fear and resistance and become braver.

Clinician Dr. Evelyn B. Hanggi and her Missouri Foxtrotter demonstrating following at liberty after positive reinforcement training.

The Equine Research Foundation positive reinforcement training tools: a closeable belted pouch, a handheld target, a clicker with wrist coil for initial training, a stationary target (not shown), thin leather gloves, food that horses like and, most importantly, knowledge. The training tool starter kit is available to participants through the Equine Research Foundation. Please contact us or check back in the future to see when kits will be available to nonparticipants.

Fun and useful behaviors for training, handling, and care can be taught through positive reinforcement.

It's an excellent method for training behaviors such as:

• trailer loading on only a hand gesture - no whips, no ropes, no force

• unloading just as easily using a target

• lifting feet on a verbal cue

• playing games

• becoming braver around all sorts of odd things

The possibilities are limited only by imagination.

Techniques based on natural horse behavior and animal cognition make training from the ground fun and rewarding.

These interactions are based on herd behavior, equine language, and psychology.

Understanding through communication rather than intimidation through fear is the basis of the Equine Research Foundation's philosophy of horsemanship.