Training Tips

QUESTION: Hello. First of all I would like to say I enjoy your web site very much. A little about myself and my husband: We are in our mid sixties and ride Tennessee Walking Horse mares. Both are well trained and easy to work with. We did have a situation when riding last Sunday that I really do not know the answer to. Maybe just a freak accident that will never happen again. We were on the trail riding from sunlight into deep shade. There were 3 deer grazing on the side of the trail. I immediately knew our horses did not see them and did not want them startled to flight which is exactly what happened. I yelled at the deer but they did not move, just looked at us. Then one made a slight movement and my horse finally saw “something” and whirled around going back the other way for a few feet. She did not actually run away just whirled and I lost my seat in the saddle and fell to the ground. She then stood beside me, upset, but not running away. My husband was having trouble with his horse because of mine (we never did know if his saw the deer or reacted to my horse). He managed to stay aboard. I came away with only some bruises which was good since I fell on some large rocks that were in the trail because of erosion. Earlier that day they had seen some deer crossing the trail ahead of us but they were ahead of us enough not to cause problems. Both of our horses are good trail horses and have seen deer before that day. We will be going camping next week and I am thinking of deer and how to avoid a similar situation. My only thought is to be on the alert for some beside the trail and turn the horses around before they are startled. Any ideas?

REPLY: Ouch! Glad you're okay! It's not so much about deer appearing on the trail and what to do about them, but about: having in your horse's foundation what is missing, to draw upon in ANY emergency (even checking at the door the reaction caused by any emergency appearance of anything that could potentially spook your horse) and that is what you need to build into your horse's foundation now. It is called: a one-rein stop. I want to direct you to a link on my web site that will go into greater detail about the importance of building this into your horse's foundation, the why's, and how to build it into your horse's foundation, starting in baby steps (from the ground first):

It is absolutely crucial, I feel, to build that one-rein stop/safety zone into every horse's foundation before ever riding them, or it's like driving a car on black ice -- i.e., an accident just waiting to happen!!

Spend some time this week (after really reading/studying my above one-rein stop link) building the one-rein stop into your horse's foundation, safely from the ground first, then keep building it upward in saddle like I teach there. Then, next time you see a deer ahead, or your horse spooks at anything, you are going to wind the horse down into the one-rein stop/safety-bonding zone and reassure them that you have things under control and they are not to worry. Better yet, you are going to practice it many times when out on the trail ride, even before something "scary" appears, so it will be total reflex for you and the horse when a deer -- or anything potentially scary -- appears. That is what's missing in your horse's training foundation there, and you can easily build it in now, doesn't take long. I do it in one training session usually. You cannot introduce the one rein stop for the first time on the trail. It must be built into the foundation first, in the safe confines of a round pen or arena, built from the ground up, and then practiced dozens and dozens of times there at the walk, then higher gaits, until it is total reflex in you and the horse. Then and only then, take them out of the arena/confined area and practice it all around the area, then out on trails. And if you see a deer ahead and suspect your horse may have a reaction, you are going to instantly perform the one-rein stop/bond in the safety zone, to reassure your horse BEFORE anything happens, not after.

In my opinion there is probably no more important feature to plant into your horse's foundation than the one-rein stop. It's that crucial for remaining safe at all times on horseback. Work on that and you'll see you have a tool to draw upon in any such future emergency as you experienced in the deer incident.

All of the above (and much, much more) is taught in my Whispering Way 12-Step Total Training System DVD set. Usually it helps to see this natural horsemanship art taught visually, to really understand how it is all done. You can get that DVD set here: CLICK HERE

And incidentally...my Whispering Way Complete Training Package contains all my videos and training tools that you need to train or retrain your horse yourself the natural horsemanship Whispering Way. You can check out/order the Whispering Way Complete Training Package on my web site here: CLICK HERE