How to Lead a Horse

Current Rating:

Views: 941
Favorite: 1
Category: General

URL:

http://www.equestrianlife.com/videos/watch/269/How_to_Lead_a_Horse/

Embed:

About This Video

Leading a horse is done through positive reinforcement, gentle pressure and vocal cues. Train a horse to follow a lead with helpful advice in this video on training horses.

Member Comments

Add A Comment Now

Make this Community Strong:

Be the first to add a comment!

You Must Log In In Order To Participate in the Discussion.

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Rick Gore with the Travis Equestrian Center. Today, we're going to talk about how to get your horse to lead with less work, and hopefully better leading. What we're going to do here is, in order to get your horse to lead, first of all, your horse has got to want to be around you. You see this horse? He's kind of mouthing me, he's kind of hanging all in my space. I'm not a big proponent on keeping horses out of your space and always pushing a horse back. They need to listen, they need to pay attention, but they don't need to always be out of your space. So this horse wants to be with me, so when I'm leading him, I always want to teach him the come cue, so when I walk away, I'm going to say come, and he learns. If I turn and I know he keeps his butt away from he, he knows to keep that away, and I say come, I'm always leading him on a nice, loose line. I'm requesting and giving him the right direction, so he wants to follow me. I'm not yanking and pulling and making him come, because then he learns that he doesn't want to be around me. So leading a horse has a lot to do with lightness and finesse. I like to lead a horse with a, with just a loop, and to me it teaches a horse a little bit more finer touching, it also helps when you're in a saddle. You put a loop over his head, and I just take an old rope and I tie them together, it's no big deal, an old lead rope that breaks, tie it together, and now when I lead him, I'm teaching him to come to pressure, not necessarily on his head, but on his neck, "come". So now he learns to follow me, and I can lead him with nice, light pressure by just guiding his head, and not necessarily pulling on a lead rope and having that control, or that pain compliance, or that force, "come". And I can back him up, "back, back, back, come". And again, by having this being light, later I can move in to where I can have him follow me without hanging on to this. I can have him come. He can follow me by paying attention to me, and knowing he wants to be with me, and I don't need any lead rope. So if you work on being light, and not necessarily pulling your horse around, and use finessE instead of force, you're going to find out your horse will lead a lot better, and he'll be a lot happier.

About The Author

Expert: Rick Gore

Specialty: Horsemanship

It is never the horse's fault. Good natural horsemanship and a true understanding of horses will always get the best results with a horse.

Related Videos

How to Teach a Horse to Back Up Under a Saddle
To teach a horse to back up under a saddle, first teach the horse the term "back" while on...

Why a Rope Halter is Better Than Webs & Buckles
Rope halters are better than webs and buckles because it creates a stronger hold and even...

How to Teach a Horse to Bow
Teaching a horse to bow down can be done using a carrot as a lure and positive reinforcement...

One Rein Riding With Halter and Lead Rope
One rein riding using a halter and lead rope is a great way to break in green horses or to...

Show Horse Bridles
When choosing show horse bridles, consider the discipline in which the horse is being shown.

How to Tie Rope Horse Halters
When tying a rope horse halter, approach the horse slowly and calmly...

Basic Skills: Teaching Responsiveness to a Rider's Legs
Training a horse to respond to the rider's legs is crucial for dressage, side passing...

Canter Pirouette in Dressage
When training a horse to do full canter pirouettes, the horse will first have to learn how to...

How to Play With a Horse
Playing with horses is a process of gaining their respect through training, reinforcing good...

Dos & Don'ts of Trail Riding
When starting out riding on the trail, it is important to train the horse on smoother trails…

See All 35 Related Videos

Email a Friend about This Video

Array ( [noProfilePhoto] => 0 [tempDBStoreCT] => 1 [sqlDebug] =>
SELECT * from eventResults WHERE e_id = 1 and c_id = 1
SELECT * from eventResults WHERE e_id = 1 and c_id = 2
SELECT *,(`r4` IS NULL or `r4` ='') as isNull, (`r1` = 'DNQ' or `r2` = 'DNQ' or `r3` = 'DNQ' or `r4` = 'DNQ' ) as dnq from eventResults WHERE e_id = 1 and c_id = 3 ORDER BY dnq ASC, isNull ASC, CAST(`r4` AS DECIMAL(10,2)) ASC [tempDBStore] =>

NO.	RIDER	HORSE	NAT.	Dressage Test	Total	Cross-Country Test	Total	Jumping Test	Total
	C	M	E	Errors	Score	Place	Jump	Time	Score	Place	Jump	Time	Score	Place

Dressage Test

Total

Cross-Country Test

Total

Jumping Test

Total

9	Craig Thompson	Orion	USA	Withdrawn						Withdrawn				Withdrawn
20	Ashley Leith	ESB Irish Doctrine	USA	Withdrawn						Withdrawn				Withdrawn
15	Kristin Schmolze	Cavaldi	USA	51.00	51.67	56.67	--	70.3	47	Withdrawn				Withdrawn
32	Corinne Ashton	Dobbin	USA	68.33	70.00	66.67	--	47.5	12	Withdrawn				Withdrawn
6	Mike Winter	Kingpin	CAN	65.67	66.00	67.67	--	50.3	17+	Eliminated				Eliminated
17	Susie Beale	Isabella II	GBR	56.67	58.00	59.67	--	62.8	42	Eliminated				Eliminated
21	Sandra Donnelly	Buenos Aires	CAN	61.33	59.33	62.33	--	58.5	34	Eliminated				Eliminated
26	Karl Slezak	Kachemak Bay	CAN	58.00	59.67	57.00	--	62.7	41	Eliminated				Eliminated
54	Tamra Smith	Chaos Theory	USA	55.67	51.00	49.33	--	72.0	48	Retired				Retired
35	Stanislas de Zuchowicz	Quirinal de la Bastide	FRA	60.33	71.00	68.00	--	50.3	17+	Eliminated				Eliminated
37	Barbara Crabo	Eveready	USA	62.00	60.33	62.00	--	57.8	33	Eliminated				Eliminated
58	Jennifer Wooten-Dafoe	The Good Witch	USA	65.00	65.33	65.00	--	52.3	21	Eliminated				Eliminated
67	Mike Winter	Wonderful Will	CAN	64.67	65.33	64.33	--	52.8	23+	Withdrawn				Withdrawn
68	Jose Ortelli Jr.	JOS Aquiles	ARG	Eliminated						Eliminated				Eliminated
42	Missy Ransehousen	Critical Decision	USA	64.33	66.33	67.67	--	50.8	20	--	0.4	51.2	13	Withdrawn
43	Bonner Carpenter (YR)	Acapulco Jazz	USA	63.67	62.67	60.33	--	56.7	30	--	11.6	68.3	23	Withdrawn
57	Lucinda Fredericks	Headley Britannia	AUS	79.67	78.67	77.00	--	32.3	2	--	--	32.3	1	--	--	32.3	1
51	Bettina Hoy	Ringwood Cockatoo	GER	82.00	84.67	75.67	--	28.8	1	--	9.6	38.4	2	--	--	38.4	2
63	Bruce O. Davidson Jr.	My Boy Bobby	USA	74.00	72.67	75.33	--	39.0	3	--	1.2	40.2	3	--	--	40.2	3
53	Nicolas Touzaint	Hildago de l'Ile	FRA	72.67	73.67	65.00	--	44.3	7	--	--	44.3	5	--	--	44.3	4
61	Lucy Wiegersma	Woodfalls Inigo Jones	GBR	70.33	72.00	71.33	--	43.2	5	--	1.2	44.4	6	--	--	44.4	5
66	William Fox-Pitt	Seacookie	GBR	71.00	70.33	71.67	--	43.5	6	--	2.4	45.9	8	--	--	45.9	6
64	Phillip Dutton	Connaught	USA	69.00	68.00	69.00	--	47.0	10	--	--	47.0	9	--	--	47.0	7
18	Oliver Townend	Carousel Quest	GBR	70.00	74.67	68.00	--	45.2	8	--	--	45.2	7	4	--	49.2	8
30	Tim Lips	Concrex Oncarlos	NED	73.33	72.00	70.67	--	42.0	4	--	--	42.0	4	8	--	50.0	9
11	Stephen S. Bradley	Brandenburg's Joshua	USA	68.00	65.67	70.00	2	48.2	13+	--	0.4	48.6	10	4	--	52.6	10
41	Nicola Wilson	Opposition Buzz	GBR	62.33	65.00	63.33	--	54.7	26	--	--	54.7	15	--	--	54.7	11
2	Phillip Dutton	Woodburn	USA	64.33	69.00	66.00	--	50.3	17+	--	--	50.3	12	4	1	55.3	12
48	Amy Tryon	Leyland	USA	69.33	65.67	67.33	--	48.8	15	--	--	48.8	11	8	--	56.8	13
40	Allison Springer	Arthur	USA	64.33	67.00	68.33	--	50.2	16	--	4.0	54.2	14	4	--	58.2	14
1	Bruce O. Davidson Jr.	Ballynoe Castle RM	USA	60.33	60.67	59.67	--	59.7	38+	20	6.4	86.1	29	--	--	62.9	15
33	Sara Dierks	Somerset II	USA	55.67	62.00	57.00	--	63.2	43+	--	--	63.2	19	--	1	64.2	16
59	Tiffani Loudon-Meetze	Above 'N' Beyond	USA	64.67	61.33	65.33	--	54.3	25	--	12.0	66.3	21	--	--	66.3	17
14	Jolie Sexson	Killian O'Connor	USA	69.33	67.00	69.00	--	47.3	11	--	12.8	60.1	18	8	--	68.1	18
65	Bruce O. Davidson Sr.	Cruise Lion	USA	64.00	61.67	62.33	--	56.0	28	--	9.6	65.6	20	4	--	69.6	19
12	Selena O'Hanlon	Colombo	CAN	67.33	70.33	66.00	--	48.2	13+	--	20.0	68.2	22	4	--	72.2	20
31	Ashley Adams	Vaunted	USA	64.33	41.00	63.33	--	55.7	27	--	2.8	58.5	16	12	2	72.5	21
27	Jan Byyny	Syd Kent	USA	61.00	61.33	64.00	--	56.8	31	20	3.6	80.4	26	--	--	80.4	22
4	William Fox-Pitt	Navigator	GBR	68.67	69.67	68.33	--	46.7	9	20	16.4	83.1	28	--	--	83.1	23
62	Peter Thomsen	The Ghost of Hamish	GER	66.00	62.33	66.00	--	52.8	23+	20	8.4	81.2	27	4	--	85.2	24
50	Debbie Rosen	The Alchemyst	USA	61.67	59.00	60.33	--	59.5	37	20	27.2	106.7	36	4	--	90.7	25
7	Jose Ortelli Jr.	JOS Aladar	ARG	58.33	55.67	59.67	--	63.2	43+	--	27.6	90.8	31	--	--	90.8	26
29	Kelly Sult	Hollywood	USA	53.33	53.00	54.67	--	69.5	46	--	5.6	75.1	25	4	12	91.1	27
22	Cayla Kitayama	Esker Riada	USA	61.00	59.67	60.00	--	59.7	38+	--	9.2	68.9	24	20	3	91.9	28
16	Diana Burnett	Manny	CAN	64.33	64.00	66.33	--	52.7	22	20	15.6	88.3	30	8	--	96.3	29
25	Ronald Zabala-Goetschel	Che Mr. Wiseguy	ECU	63.67	61.33	62.67	--	56.2	29	--	36.4	92.6	32	4	--	96.6	30
52	Stephanie Boyer	Macloud	USA	62.33	62.00	61.33	--	57.2	32	--	37.2	94.4	33	8	--	102.4	31
3	Bruce O. Davidson Sr.	Jam	USA	60.33	57.33	60.67	--	60.8	40	20	25.2	106.0	35	--	--	106.0	32
47	Kyle Carter	Madison Park	CAN	59.67	60.33	62.33	--	58.8	35	20	20.8	99.6	34	8	--	107.6	33
23	Madeline Blackman (YR)	Gordonstown	USA	59.67	55.67	58.33	--	63.2	43+	20	23.2	108.4	37	--	--	108.4	34
60	Tara Ziegler	Buckingham Place	USA	51.33	50.33	50.67	--	73.8	49	40	36.8	150.6	38	20	--	170.6	35
24	Ralph Holstein	Arctic Dancer	USA	60.33	60.00	61.00	--	59.3	36	--	--	59.3	17	--	--	--	--

)