This rig eases a horse into a spade bit and ensures that he is comfortable.

Benny Guitron says horses must learn to be supple, light and responsive in the hackamore before they are moved to a two-rein. Journal photo.

By Annie Lambert in The American Quarter Horse Journal

Traditionally, working cow horses are first trained in a hackamore, then a two-rein and are considered finished horse when they are “in the bridle.” In the two-rein, the horse is ridden with the hackamore, but under the hackamore is a full bridle with a curb bit, usually a spade or half-breed. As the horse gains experience, the reins to the hackamore are used less and those to the bridle more.

It’s a time-honored way of doing things, and AQHA Professional Horseman Benny Guitron of Merced, California, says that horses must learn to be supple, light and responsive in the hackamore. He makes sure his horses excel in the hackamore while being ridden one-handed before he introduces them to the bridle via the two-rein. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes, horse training means not forcing an outcome.

Andrew and Barbara’s progress was remarkable in the short amount of time they were together. Journal photo.

By Joe Wolter in America’s Horse

When I teach a clinic, I don’t try to predict which rider and horse will make the most progress. For instance, at first I thought Andrew and “Barbara” were simply mismatched.

Andrew is an international insurance broken in charge of his own brokerage in London. Barbara is a horse employed by the 63 Ranch in Montana, part of a cavvy that guests ride for self enjoyment, to see the scenery or help work cattle.

Andrew is a natural leader in business, but he wasn’t getting much respect from Barbara. Read the rest of this entry »

What you need to know to start a horse-training career.

AQHA Professional Horseman Charlie Cole and Majestic Scotch win the world championship in senior western pleasure at the 2007 World Show. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

For some, the progression to becoming a trainer is an extension of having grown up taking lessons while showing as a youth.

For others who haven’t had the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the saddle, the path is not as clear, and their journey starts during college or by paying a trainer to learn. The American Quarter Horse Journal talked to professionals about how to get started in the industry.

Courses With Horses

Numerous two- and four-year colleges offer hands-on programs in equine science. One such place, Lamar Community College in Lamar, Colorado, is an all-western school that students attend with the goal of working in the cutting, reining, working cow horse, roping or pleasure industries. Lamar offers a two-year associate of applied science degree in horse training and management that is designed for those who want to be horse trainers.

One- and two-year certificate programs are also available in colt starting, fundamental horse training and advanced horsemanship. Read the rest of this entry »

The bottom line in the cow-horse game is control.

AQHA Professional Horsemen Doug Williamson on High Brow Shiner at the 2012 AQHA World Championship Show. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

Editor’s Note: This is the final installment of a series on cow-horse training with AQHA Professional Horseman Doug Williamson. Need to review part 1 and part 2?

“It always comes down to the fence work” is a familiar adage in cow-horse circles. The cow-work finale is where many championships are won or lost.

Following the herd and reining works, this final phase entails briefly boxing a cow at the end of the arena, rating the cow down the fence and turning it at least once each direction before circling the cow both ways in the center of the working arena. It doesn’t sound scary or perilous, but when control is replaced by a “thrill of the hunt” mentality, it can be extremely dangerous. Read the rest of this entry »

Cow horses can finesse a reining pattern using the same skills applied in the herd and down the fence.

AQHA Professional Horsemen Doug Williamson on High Brow Shiner at the 2012 AQHA World Championship Show. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

Reiners work on reining perfection 24/7 to flawlessly float through all their maneuvers. Cow horses must demonstrate the ability to complete similar dry patterns while also completing their cutting phase and the challenging fence work.

Splitting training time among the three cow horse disciplines – while striving for perfection at each – does not appear to trigger a problem for AQHA Professional Horseman Doug Williamson of Bakersfield, California. He simply incorporates the same basic foundation for all the jobs demanded of a reined cow horse.

Doug keeps the rider-to-horse communications simple. He voices a “whoa” to stop or clucks for propulsion, uses his bridle reins mainly as directional hints, while his legs seldom do more than scold the horse for a lack of response. Read the rest of this entry »

Improve your performance with an inclusive warm-up and balanced riding style.

AQHA Professional Horseman Doug Williamson’s horses are generally relaxed with ears perked and never over-bridled. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three-part series.

Loping circle after circle often becomes tedious for a rider and can certainly bore a horse. AQHA Professional Horseman Doug Williamson has developed a cure for those training doldrums – an exercise he has dubbed the “circle-stop-sweep.”

“The circle-stop-sweep warms up my horse’s body for any situation,” Doug explains. “It doesn’t matter if I’m reining, cutting or doing fence work, the drill allows my horse to get his physical and mental game tuned in.”

However, even with the best preparation, Doug insists, the outcome of any performance will be determined by the rider’s posture, position and balance. He is adamant that people need to ride like there’s “nobody on top.”

“The horse and rider are a one-unit deal,” Doug says. “It all has to go together.” Read the rest of this entry »

 Author Tom Moates explains his horse-training journey in a new ebook.

Tom and Cody Is A Barfly work together by listening to each other. Photo courtesy of Pam Talley Stoneburner.

By Tom Moates

Editor’s note: Tom Moates is a freelance writer for America’s Horse and The American Quarter Horse Journal. This excerpt is from his book “A Horse’s Thought: A Journey Into Honest Horsemanship,” which was recently released as an ebook. You can purchase the book for your Kindle, Nook, iBooks app, and at other ebook stores. You can also find more information on Tom’s website.

Honestly, when I traveled to Salome, Arizona, from Virginia for two weeks to learn from clinician Harry Whitney, I expected to build on the solid foundation I’d worked for several years to lay up towards a better way of working with horses. I figured the base was solid. After all, I’d obsessively worked to read, watch, attend clinics and practice all I could toward learning this “better way” with horses, call it what you will. This opportunity, I figured, would be the beginnings of the structure to be framed on top of that base. But … that’s not what happened.

What I got was just the opposite. I got deconstructed. I got those foundation stones torn down before the first sill was placed upon them and a whole new floor plan presented to me.

And, to make it all the worse, I lived in awareness of it the whole time. Just like the sudden new understanding of working with a horse’s thought versus how much I had been just driving my horses’ bodies around. I knew it was happening to me because I participated in it. It – this deeper understanding I sought – actually began to make sense, but I had to face the grueling reality that I must be willing to let go of much of what I brought to the Arizona desert with me. Read the rest of this entry »

Riding accurately will help prevent these two common errors in the cutting pen.

Ed and Auspicious Cat are in good position. Ed’s hip and eyes are in the middle of the cow, and “Ozzy” is waiting for the cow to make his next move. Journal photo.

By AQHA Professional Horseman and Team Wrangler member Ed Dufurrena with Larri Jo Starkey in The American Quarter Horse Journal

Editor’s Note: This is a taste of Part 1 in a two-part series about accuracy in the cutting pen with AQHA Professional Horseman  and Team Wrangler member Ed Dufurrena. Part 1 appeared in its entirety in the November Journal, and you can find Part 2 in the December Journal. For great training tips every month, subscribe to the Journal.

Amateur cutters tend to make two mistakes. Both mistakes come from inexperience. Gaining experience only comes with time, but amateur cutters can take a shortcut if they learn one simple trick: riding accurately.

Cutting looks exciting, but fundamentally, cutting is more about accuracy than speed, and paying attention to the fundamentals is how you create a winning run. Read the rest of this entry »

With the basics down, AQHA Professional Horseman Robin Frid explains how to put on the finishing horse-training touches.

AQHA Professional Horseman Robin Frid explains how to step up your trot serpentines. Illustration by Jean Abernethy.

By AQHA Professional Horseman Robin Frid with Christine Hamilton in The American Quarter Horse Journal

Editor’s Note: Did you miss Part 1 of this story? Don’t worry, you can catch up on it here!

Step It Up

Once your horse stays square through the circles and over the poles, then you move to taking the poles at a less than 90-degree angle, and you practice steering with large, circular corners.

So, if I’m circling the first pole to the right and I want to go to the second, I practice turning strong to the right over the first pole – where I go over it closer to a 45-degree angle – and then I make another strong turn to the left back over the second pole, and then I just open up and continue circling to the left again over the first two poles.

I make a strong turn, a more aggressive move, to increase the level of difficulty, but then I immediately go back to the circles, the more basic move, to reinforce the horse’s confidence level, and to reinforce the square frame in his body.

I just move through all the poles that way – making one or two strong turns followed by opening up to the large circles again. Read the rest of this entry »

Use these horse-training tips to get a great trot serpentine in your next trail class.

The key to starting off with a trot serpentine is keeping your horse’s body square in a circle. Illustration courtesy of Jean Abernethy.

By AQHA Professional Horseman Robin Frid with Christine Hamilton in The American Quarter Horse Journal

Our end goal for a trot serpentine trail maneuver is to be able to go through it almost in a straight line, where you go forward and almost sideways over the poles as you go over them. The ideal horse is fluid and forward in his movement, and he stays square in his body and up in his shoulders.

But it takes a lot of time to get there. Weaving a really nice trot serpentine begins with teaching your horse to keep his body square in a circle over a single pole.

The series of exercises I use to work on the trot serpentine are a fundamental warm-up for any trail work, and useful in any discipline – because they work on developing that square, collected frame, where your horse is lifting his back and shoulders and driving forward from his hindquarters. Here’s what I do:

Starting Out

Set up three poles in a line, end-to-end. (Use nothing shorter than 12-foot poles, or use two 8-foot poles together to create 16-foot poles.) Then, kick the bottom pole over to the right, so it’s at a slight angle; leave the center pole straight; and kick the top pole over to the left, at a slight angle. Put a cone on the end of each pole. Read the rest of this entry »

Heading horses can pick up bad habits. Here are some horse-training tips to fix one of them.

You can stop your horse from cheating on the pull. Journal photo.

By AQHA Professional Horseman Gary Wells and Larri Jo Starkey in The American Quarter Horse Journal

It’s easy for horses to pick up bad habits.

I see a lot of horses in the roping pen that have picked up some bad habits that make it harder for their amateur owners to catch in team roping.

If an amateur roper isn’t working with a trainer who can fix the problem or with someone who can point it out, that problem can get worse.

One problem that some heading horses pick up is cheating on the pull. Here’s how to tell if your horse is cheating and how you can fix it. Read the rest of this entry »

More horse-training techniques to produce a well-behaved stallion.

A good showing stallion starts with early socialization. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

Did you miss Part 1 of this story? Click here to read what AQHA Professional Horseman Gene Parker and AQHA Professional Horsewoman Gretchen Mathes say about training your stallion in early handling and socialization.

In the Ring

“The best thing with a stallion is you have to start with good disposition,” Gene says. “If you’ve got a horse that’s rank or aggressive, it’s hard to get him into show mode. But if a horse is good-minded to begin with, he’ll tend to be that way in the show ring.” Read the rest of this entry »