Horse Training Halters

Horse training halters begin with a simple rope halter that gets the animal used to responding to the pressure of its pull, and they progress up to more aggressive nylon halters. Learn how halters are used to train horses with advice from a riding instructor in this video on equestrian living.

We're going to discuss training halters, and I've chosen to begin with what we would consider just a simple rope halter. We all appreciate and hope that our horses will have what we call the best ground manners, so that we can enjoy them when we're not riding them. Having a horse that walks quietly next to you, that listens to the pressure that we apply through the use of a training halter, will make that horse that kind of an animal. A rope halter has the double strand of rope here, that if I apply enough pressure, you can see it's very effective in guiding him, because we understand that horses move away from pressure. Equally, it has a double strand at the top, where we call the bridle path or his pole, where I can then ask him to lead forward off of that. In the beginning, if they were to be somewhat unruly, it's not unusual that we could apply a lot of pressure to his nose and this rope halter could be very effective. It also has the knots on either side that can equally apply a different kind of pressure as I ask him to move from side to side. So although it seems simple in nature, we like that, it does have a good effect in training. If I wanted to go with something more assertive, I would switch out to my nylon halter, and then add something of a chain over the top. Some people call this a stud chain... it was certainly intended to help with the unruly nature of horses that are stallions, but there are also effective in doing some things for horses that maybe aren't as sensitive to the rope halter. We always try to be humane in our training techniques, but we understand that horses are large animals and sometimes it's just... they require something a little bit stronger. I have my chain attached to my lunge line, which of course if I were to choose to go on and lunge him, that would be a very nice way to begin. So I put the chain through, going underneath the nose band, and attach it over here to the other side. That, as you can see, would certainly give me plenty of control if my horse were unruly, and I needed a little bit more control through the use of pressure. Now if I pull back the chain is going to be the overlying pressure, and he's going to get much more sensitive very soon.