Larry Trocha Training Stable

1. Rearing
2. Kicking
3. Biting
4. Barn sour or refuses to leave other horses
5. Runs over the top of you
6. Pushes you around and won't behave
7. Won't respond to cues
8. Bad manners and general lack of respect
9. Takes off with you for no reason
10. Balks and refuses to go forward
11. Spooks all the time
12. Out of control or no control at all
13. Stiff, heavy and hard in the mouth
14. Ignores leg pressure
15. Won't stop, turn or go where you want
16. Won't lope slow on a loose rein

If your horse has any of the problems listed above or is just difficult to train in general, then the following information may be just what you're looking for.

You see, what every single one of these behavior problems have in common is that their ROOT CAUSE is the horse's lack of respect for the people who ride and handle them. As a horse owner, this type of behavior can be hard to figure out. That's because its kind of like a "catch 22" situation...The horse misbehaves because he doesn't respect you. And he doesn't respect you because you can't control him. And you can't control him because he weighs 1000 pounds and is misbehaving. It's a vicious circle and a tough combination to deal with if you don't know how to handle it.

In the beginning stages, many horse owners aren't even aware that their horse is being disrespectful toward them. They have a hard time recognizing it. That's because this behavior starts out very subtly and gradually gets worse over time. This "respect" thing is a natural part of a horse's instinct and is related to dominant or submissive behavior when relating to other animals.

In a herd of horses, every member has his place in the pecking order. The top horse is dominate over all the other horses. And, the horse at the bottom is submissive to all the other horses in the herd. The dominant horses have the respect of the submissive horses and always get their own way. The submissive horses get no respect from the dominant horses andare always being pushed around. The horses in the middle will be dominant to certain members and submissive to others. It's the natural way of the horse. In all relationships, in all encounters with others, a horse will be either dominant or submissive.

How does a horse become dominant? He becomes the dominate horse if he can CONTROL the other horse and make him move out of his way. If he can control the other horse, he in affect, becomes the submissive horse's leader. A dominant horse will be the one who kicks or bites any horse who crowds him or invades his space. He will also exhibit his dominance by crowding, pushing or invading the space of other horses. He's exerting his control.

Read the two paragraphs above again. They are key.

Now, it's not always the biggest or physically strongest horse who is dominant. Sometimes its a small horse. But it is always a horse that is willing to "impose his will" that wins dominance over the other horses.When I was a kid, I had a little 14 hand tall palomino stallion. He ran with all the other horses out in the pasture. Even though he was the smallest horse of the bunch, he ruled over every single horse in the herd.Why? How? Because he really wanted to and was willing to fight for it. You see, he had the willingness to fight for dominance. He certainly wasn't the strongest horse in the herd. But he was the one who, "in the blink of an eye", would turn and kick the heck out of any other horse that tried to push him around.

Now, the vast majority of horses prefer not to fight. They are timid by nature. They may put on a good bluff but when their bluff is called, they back right down. So, any horse that exhibits even a little bit of aggressiveness is usually the winner.

Okay, so how does all of this relate to you and your horse's behavior problems? Well, like it or not, the horse sees his relationship with you the same way he sees it with another horse. One of you is going to be dominant and the other is going to be submissive. Naturally, the horse would like to be the one who is dominate. Now, if the horse insists on getting his own way and you don't correct him, you are in for trouble. He'll get bolder and bolder and that's when the behavior problems start. Be aware, bad behavior doesn't happen over night. It comes on little by little.

To have a good relationship with your horse, you have to be the dominant partner in the relationship. You have to make sure the horse sees you as his leader. This is what wins his respect, trust, and willingness to please you. How do you go about this? Well, there are several different methods to get this done but in reality there is a definite "right way" and a definite "wrong way" to go about it.

One way is to just do what another horse would do out in the pasture -- turn around and "whomp the bejeezus" out of the horse every time he does something wrong. This will gain his respect... and it will get him to mind you. However, with this type of treatment, he will not trust you. He'll be afraid of you. (Of course, with really bad or dangerous horses, this is a lot better than doing nothing at all).

On the other side of that coin, trying to "pet" the horse into respecting you definitely won't work. Feeding him cookie treats won't do it either. You have probably already tried both and found they only make the horse worse. Gaining your horse's respect and trust requires the proper balance of training, discipline and rewarding the horse's willingness to try for you.

Read the above line again.

Knowing how to do this is the key to transforming your problem horse into a dream horse. The kind of horse you have always wanted. It's also the key to maintaining a good relationship with your horse. Keeping a good horse good. I just can't emphasize this "respect and trust" enough. Without it, you just don't have a good horse. You'll have hell training him. And you'll have hell handling him.

The techniques used to gain a horse's respect and trust are not complicated or difficult to learn. Just about anybody can do it if they know what to do. To achieve good results, a horseman needs to know what training methods to use, how to apply those methods and why those methods are appropriate. This subject is so important, I intended to produce several training videos explaining it . Of course the challenge has always been to figure out a way to present the information in a way that people could totally understand. I kid you not, I spent more than a few nights lying awake thinking about it.

Well, as of right now, I don't have to rack my brain thinking about it any more. That's because another trainer has just produced the "ideal" video series that shows how to achieve this. He did such an outstanding job, I doubt I could do better.

I think this new training video series will help you tremendously. I've supplied some information about it. To check it out, click here.