Training Tip: Choose Your Horse’s First Trail Wisely

When you ride your horse outside for the first time, I’ve found that it is best if you can give him a path to follow so that you can just put some steady miles under his feet. Ideally, I like to take my horses out on a wide dirt road where I can walk, trot and canter. What you don’t want to do is take the horse on a narrow trail because he’ll feel trapped and claustrophobic. And if he did get scared or overreacted to something, you wouldn’t have room to move his feet and get him to use the thinking side of his brain. Remember, anytime a horse uses the reactive side of his brain, you need to move his feet forwards, backwards, left and right to get him to relax and use the thinking side of his brain. The more changes of direction you do, the quicker the horse will use the thinking side of his brain and pay attention to you.