The trick is to break this particular problem down into smaller baby steps so he can digest them/succeed in smaller increments. I'm going to show you how to do that here. But first, for you to understand this lesson, let me go over "Volume-Thinking" briefly with you so that you can understand better how to do this lesson the natural horsemanship way using pressure & release and Volume-Thinking.

Click here to see V-Thinking Diagram 1 - Theory

Click here to see V-Thinking Diagram 2 - Example
 

Also, always use the natural horsemanship halter with attached 12-foot lead rope for this/all lessons. Maybe think of this particular tool as a powerful "horsey hearing aid" so they can "hear" you better there from the get go.

So, now that you understand Volume-Thinking, let's break down the problem where a horse doesn't understand how to be driven forward on the ground . But let's break it down into the smallest incremental units possible so that you are afforded the opportunity to give quick releases for tiny right answers so the horse can "connect the dots" more easily to reach full understanding quicker.

This is how: put the horse against a fence line, right up against it, his side to the fence. This rules out him thinking about going any other direction except forwards and backwards when asked to move. And this will also give you the opportunity to reward him for quieter, more rational behavior.

You're going to ask for the forward movement there by starting low on the Volume (Volume-Thinking, remember the concepts there) with very little pressure at first so you have somewhere to go up the Volume/asking for more if needed. You're going to start by softly twirling the end of the 12' lead rope that is attached (tied on/not clipped on please) to the horse's NH halter. Twirl overhand always, not underhand. And start the twirling behind his shoulder.

Note: Draw a mental straight vertical line that goes from the horse's withers down his side to behind his shoulders. That's the "drive line." Make sure that all your asking-for-forward movement pressure ALWAYS takes place BEHIND that drive line and on back. Any pressure directed in FRONT of that invisible drive line there will send him BACKWARDS, not forwards (Or will turn him)! Turn around and read that again because people can get this wrong at first about 80% of the time when asking for forward movement. And they end up getting upset with the horse when suddenly the horse shoots backwards instead of forwards at the ask there, but truth is, they are confusing the horse, when actually, the horse is doing exactly what was asked of him there. Not a horse error! Is a human error. So... memorize that, is important to know/fully understand!
 

So in our exercise here, the horse is going to be given two and only two choices there posed before him. It's always best to give a horse two choices when teaching if he's struggling to learn something, but making the choice we want him to make: easy; the choice we don't want him to make: harder. Quickly the horse chooses the correct answer and internalizes that it was his idea all along and what was previously perceived difficult suddenly seems easier to him! The two choices posed before him there, this time: 1) go forward or 2) go backwards. The right answer we are looking for there is: go forward. As you have the horse positioned parallel to the fenceline, you've automatically ruled out sideways (left/right) - the fence is blocking one side, your body is blocking the other side -- only choices left: backward or forward. You're going to help him to find ruling out backwards there.

Start with your leading arm holding the lead rope, pointing that arm & rope and your body language tilted forward, your feet pointing slightly forward as well. In other words, your forward arm and body language are pointing in the direction you want him to go: forward. In fact, feel free to point forward with your index finger there, as many horses quickly pick up on that pointer.

Note: Important -- hold the lead rope in the forward hand very loosely in the "crook" between your thumb and index finger, just laying across your open hand there, not gripping it, so that you won't accidentally be pulling on that, giving the horse mixed signals, or accidentally be pulling the horse's head toward you. You want that "front door" kept WIDE OPEN for him to walk through: forward. Keep your palm up high, facing the horse's head, even with his eye-level to discourage the head from turning into you.
 

With your back driving arm holding the dangling tail end of the lead rope, now begin your first soft twirling rope ask toward the horse behind his shoulders; if the horse starts to move backwards at that rope-twirling ask-for-forward behind the shoulders, simply next go up the Volume of pressure higher, twirling a little faster, little bit wider circles, making mild connection with the popper on the end of the lead, right behind his shoulder, but start moving the rope twirl farther back along his side, climbing the Volume of pressure.

Escalate this if you have to if the horse goes backwards or just stands still by twirling wider and wider rope circles (end of that twirling lead rope is slipping through your hands to get longer) making connection down his flank with the popper until you reach his rear. This is not about whacking the horse aggressively, but about tapping him, escalating back along his flank to his rear as necessary. DO NOT stop asking if he moves backwards, but keep up the steady, rhythmic pressure as you move your way back.

The SECOND you get any forward motion whatsoever, even one baby step forward (reward for the smallest try, slightest change in the right direction), STOP ASKING, stop twirling, drop your arm, release the pressure instantly. To show "right answer." Stroke the horse, "good boy!" All horses learn from the release of pressure what it is you want, not from the pressure itself, so get your release timing split-second accurate, stop asking, rewarding for the smallest positive try forward. And this is also why you should NEVER STOP asking if he goes backwards there/steps backwards, because...if you release the pressure right there (stopping twirling), you just accidentally told him "right answer" when you released the pressure and you literally taught him to move backwards. When training a horse, we proceed in this sequential order always:

Ask
Anticipate (the right answer)
Get Compliance
RELEASE!
Reward

Always in that order. Do not release the pressure until you get compliance, THEN release the pressure. When you're asking for this forward movement, horse against the fence, you're doing that with your back/driving arm. Your arm/hand closest to the horse's head (forward arm) stays up high, palm up facing eye level with the horse to let him know you don't want him coming into you, just go forward. After he succeeds, even with a small forward try and you release....Walk up and praise/stroke, "good boy" when you get the right answer (in this case the right answer is: step forward).

At first, as you begin this exercise, he may over-react and kind of lurch forward explosively, giving you far more than you asked for there. Ignore "how" he does it, but keep your body language soft, casual, breathe deeply yourself so that your body remains on relaxed mode and still give him the release for right answer. He's simply putting more pressure on himself than you are, it's not you, in such cases. He'll realize that pretty quickly.

Repeat. Multi-times. Before long, he'll be moving forward with very little pressure at all (very low down the Volume of pressure, as we say it), more & more steps forward progressively, more quietly and rationally, maybe even just your raised driving arm now has him stepping forward softly on cue and that's the ultimate goal, but as long as he's going forward there when asked, accept it and release the pressure instantly.

This route breaks the behavior down to its smallest components, giving you the opportunity to reward for baby steps and he'll understand better what it is you want. And horses then get it real fast. But it is soooo important to remember to RELEASE INSTANTLY the pressure when you get forward movement, even when he's circling around you later, for example, as you build upon this. If he's moving forward, circling, always drop your driving arm down beside you and don't keep asking/don't keep pressuring when you've got exactly what you want!! Too many people keep asking/pressuring (keep repeatedly flagging the horse) when the horse is already doing what was asked, and the horse then simply dulls out to the request (cue) from then on or, conversely, gets more & more excited/irrational/agitated. Leave the horse alone when you get what you want. Go soft, passive in your body language, release the pressure. Apply pressure only when they're not doing what you want.

When the horse gets that exercise against the fence down well one direction, switch him around so he's facing the opposite direction now, his other side against the fence this time, and start again, baby steps, exactly like above. What we teach on one side of the horse, we have to then do on the other, because it never translates automatically to the other, because horses "compartmentalize" learning. So...it's literally possible to train one entire side of a horse and the other could be still wild/untrained, believe it or not. So we have to do everything equally, on both sides, and there will invariably be one side that is harder for them to learn on than the other, because they are mostly all one-sided (dominant sided). Just par for the course. Spend extra time on their most difficult side so it catches up with the easier side and they'll get there.

When he's going well forward both directions against the fence, stay right along that fence line, but ask him now to start to make a half circle around you there, quietly, rationally, him ending up on the fenceline again and, I suggest, go ahead and teach him right there to make the turn of direction. Because, just from long years of training experience with such horses with the above problem there, those types also have "eye-changing problems" often, and they will also frequently balk at the request-to-make-the-turn spot. So let me coach all the way through that next step as well because frequently: you might struggle with that with this type of horse as well.

What you're flushing out there when he won't make the turn rationally while circling around you, is about a foundation hole we call "eye changing problem." Many (most!) horses have a dominant side kind of like we are right-handed or left-handed. So it is with horses, only it also greatly involves their eyes. They have a dominant/preferred eye. Horse's eyes are placed on the sides of their heads, not directly in front like ours are. So...they have greater "monocular vision" whereas we have greater "binocular" vision. Therefore...their blind spots are: directly in front of them and directly behind them. Their greatest range of vision is all around beside them. Here's a link on my site that teaches a little more about horse eye changing problems:

http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/TrainingTips65.html

So...when they want to see something clearly, they sometimes turn the side of their head to focus with one eye, but they'll have a dominant eye they prefer to keep on you -- you: the predator. Most horses are like this, one-eye dominant. Some more than others. But it doesn't mean we can't train that out of them and get both eyes equally comfortably balanced on us; we can!

Also...this problem if he balks at making the turn, in addition, often flushes out further trust issues. I.E., a horse who doesn't want to change eyes (which is what's required when making that turn -- first you're in one of his eyes, then it switches & you're in his other eye after the turn) is often exhibiting that: he doesn't feel full trust to have you in his blind spots briefly. Meaning: Out of his full sight/full focus for just a second as he makes that change. You literally disappear for a moment there, to him!

So..be glad if he shows you he has this eye-changing problem. Yes, glad! Much better to find and fix an eye changing problem safely on the ground FIRST before ever getting in the saddle. These exercises flush out issues first on the ground, giving us the opportunity to safely fix them before riding.

Here's how you fix it if that does get flushed out (if he won't make the turn easily to change directions there, softly, rationally, after he's learned to circle around you well). After you've taught him as I broke it down above, to go forward well when asked, driven from the rear, next: Just remain against the fence line again, and you are going to use half-circles around you, instead of a full circle there. The fence allows for cutting the circle in half to break this behavior down into easier baby steps. This also sets it up again, as we say in NH, to now "make the right thing easy, the wrong thing hard." You are going to, in essence, be giving the horse two choices again there for him to make as he moves that half-circle around you: 1) run into the fence (when asked to turn) OR 2) make the turn. Guess which one he'll figure out how to make pretty quickly? I've never seen a horse choose the run-into-fence option yet. I've seen them briefly think about jumping the fence for a fleeting second, but...your half circle isn't that big, he can't get the momentum up to take that fence (plus I never use a low fence for this exercise), so his brain sorts out fast: oops, gotta turn here or else I'll run into that fence there!

Here's how that exercise is specifically performed: Get him moving forward and around you away from the fence in a half circle, and then reach your arm over dramatically with your driving arm like you're performing an overhand swim stroke  (so he sees a visual cue) to grab that lead rope to ask for the stop/turn, right before he gets to the fenceline. At first he may struggle with the choice, as he stares at the fence while on the move, but stick with the pressure asking, bumping the rope as needed to insist on the stop & then turn. (You can also use your hand there that is holding the lead rope to help push his face over to make that turn.) His only other choice there will be: run into the fence. He won't want the run-into-fence-choice and the SECOND he steps over to make the turn, no matter how irrational or awkward it is at first, instantly remove all pressure off him and go soft in your body language, showing him "right answer." No pressure.

Then drive him forward; this time he's making the half-circle the opposite direction, and again, right before he reaches the fenceline, reach your driving arm over dramatically (like an overhand swim stroke) so he sees the visual cue, grab the lead, and ask for the stop/turn; this time it's a turn the opposite direction from before. Inevitably, you'll see which side is the struggling side -- which eye he doesn't want on you. But...since the only other choice posed before him is to run into the fence, he'll figure out how to turn there, though it'll be a struggle for him at first sometimes. But keep the pressure up until he turns, help with your hand on his face if he's really struggling, and when he turns, go very soft again, slack in the rope. Right answer.

Works every time. If you ever feel you need to stop to calm the horse, do so. Nothing wrong with that and is even recommended. Stop, get him to lower the head using pressure/release on the lead rope (high head is a tense horse, lowered head is relaxed horse; a horse cannot remain tense with a lowered head), get your finger in the corner of the mouth, feather the tongue to get him working the mouth, which also produces instant relaxation, and stroke and scratch (never pat) in all his favorites places around his head and neck. When he's calmed, begin again. A fearful, tense horse cannot learn as easily, so return to bonding, nurture him well when needed so that he can remain open to learning.

Play around with all that until you get the hang of it. After he's making turns very easily, rationally at the fence line, you can try stepping away and working on him making the full circles and turns without the need for the fence as a turn aid. You can always return to the fenceline again if needed, if he backslides/still struggles. But quickly, usually, they get it, and soon the second they see your hand reach over to grab the lead, they're already stopping and prepping for the turn.

And then you'll see it's easy. Use fences whenever you need to, to break down behaviors into smaller steps. They come in quite handy for that!

After he's circling you easily, rationally, after he's mastered that better, then start introducing the wind down/the one-rein stop, everything all together now. Walk in slowly toward his hip, keeping your eye focused there. Reel in the rope as you go. If the horse tries to turn to face you there too early on, stopping, use your hand that's closest to the head, raised at his eye level and "pat the air" and the eye away. Patting the air toward the eye will automatically turn the horse's head away.

If he struggles/balks there, let him run into your hand at his-eye level. Not about hitting him. HE runs into YOUR hand and realizes, oops, wrong answer, I ran into a hand there. And he'll turn his head away and move forward as you want him to.

As you wind down and reach his side, stroke the girth area and ask for the head. If he still keeps circling, move with him. Bend your body, your head low, so he knows this means: bring the head in to the side and stop. If he's not getting it, that simply means: you didn't get yielding the neck to the side well enough, which should be tackled first, and you may need to back up and work on head yields to the side more at a standstill.

If/when the horse does stop and give you his head in that completed wind-down/one-rein stop on the ground, keep his head over and bond on him deeply over there. Lots of love, lots of praise. Breathe into his nose with your nose (while safely, firmly containing the head in your hands). You're instilling in his brain: this is the safety zone. It is where we take you to when you're upset, afraid, need help and just to wind down/calm down. This is our safe, loving place we go to, to bond. Goes a long, long, LONG way for later when up in the saddle, believe me.

I've started a lot of young, green horses in my biz. And I plant all these steps deeply into their foundation. Including once up in saddle. By the time I take them out of the arena for their first ride, when I feel they are ready for that, this is what inevitably happens nearly every time: you run across something eventually that spooks/scares them because it might be something they are seeing for the first time. Their first instinctive prey animal reaction is always a startle in place; you probably know what I'm talking about. That sudden jump/startle they do when scared and the legs shoot out braced for flight. However, the horses I train....their second kneejerk response there, instantly, is to then shoot their head over to the side like we've practiced a hundred times on the ground before, and they beg for support. Loving support. I bond from there, stroke the face they are holding over to the side and they sigh, relieved with a, "Whew, thanks. I feel much better now."

The true beauty of natural horsemanship training, done right, done consistently, you literally take the "flight response" out of a pure-flight prey animal. And they continually turn to you for help/support instead. And that is truly magical. Works with every horse, every time.

Maybe read this over a couple of times until you really grasp it all, because I know at first it can seem complicated when it's actually not. And my Whispering Way 12-Step Total Training System DVD set teaches all of this thoroughly, simply, step-by-step, and you can order that set here: CLICK HERE -- it helps a lot to watch my videos because I teach visually so you can see exactly how to use your hands, your body language, etc., for if/when you get stuck. And it'll start coming together for you. It does incredible things for horses -- and for the human teaching them, and it's honestly about: love. And about nurturing support of the horse, to help him find his way with us. A thing of beauty, you'll see, once you get this down!

 

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