Lyons suggests teaching your horse some tricks. It’s fun for both the owner and their horse. Tricks give the horse something to think about that’s not like work. “Tricks are great ~ like teaching a horse to lie down,” he says, “but don’t teach mouth tricks to a horse that’s mouthy already.” Josh remembers when he was young, he had a fairly mouthy horse; he wanted to teach him to catch a Frisbee. “My father said, ‘Nope, don’t do it.’ But of course, as a kid, I went ahead, It wasn’t a good idea.” A horse that liked to use his mouth learned to use it even better. When asked what is one of the biggest mistakes he sees, besides repetition and aggravating a horse, he says it’s having a false sense of security. “They think a helmet or protective vest with save them. No gadget can always save you. No horse is 100 percent safe,” he says. “You need to remember, no matter what you’re doing, that you’re in a dangerous situation. “When you’re riding a horse there are two ideas. What you want to do, and what the horse wants to do,” Lyons explains. “Now, one of two things are going to happen. The horse will either do what you want, or he won’t. Then, one of two things are going to happen; you’re either going to stay on that horse, or you’re going to fall off. And, if you fall, one of two things are going to happen; you’re either going to live or you’re going to die,” he smiles. “And if you die; one of two things are going to happen...” His clear, common sense approach breaks down our training issues with horses. Everyone at his clinic left with a smile and a new way of understanding their horse. b The Lyons travel across North America, and also offer DVDs if you can’t make it out to see them. Visit: www.joshlyons.com
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A Sampling of Lyons’ Tips The
three - second rule
Situation: Your horse has just tried to kick you, or disrespect you in a big way. The cure: “For three seconds you scream like a stuck pig. Three seconds, no more, nothing more. You make him stop dead and wonder what the heck you’re going to do. Any more than three seconds is abuse. And do it the very moment the problem occurs or he won’t connect the bad behavior to your obvious insanity. “When your horse disrespects you in any way, he’s taken the first step toward his own little revolution. Act accordingly. Nature has programmed every horse to expect someone/ thing to be a leader. Some horses want to be the boss, others accept the job begrudgingly ~ but all horses expect a leader to exist. If you act the role of subordinate the horse will view that as a call to take over. Never hit a horse, because I can promise you, you will only make the situation worse. Even, if, God forbid, you came at the horse with a baseball bat, you think you have the power to do anything more than the horse that just kicked him in the field? You know, the one your horse just walked away from? If you do strike your horse he will learn something all right, he will learn you really don’t have any way to do much to him. Go ballistic for three seconds and make them worry what you might be capable of. Don’t show him what you aren’t.”
The Disrespectful Horse
“Sometimes it’s just fun when our horses misbehave. The next time he signals his displeasure at anything, even for an instant, you will drop what you’re doing, take his nose between your hands and pet and pet and pet.
Pet him like you’ve had a ‘snoot full’. Pet until he takes his head away ~ and you’ll grab it back and do it some more. Then you’ll start having fun with this. Push your horse a little. Dare him to show aggravation ~ and the moment he does, pet your fool head off. You’ve got to do this until the horse screams “enough!” and tries to pull away. More important, you have to have fun with it and look for excuses to do it. That is what makes you “active.” No longer are you waiting for an attack. Being active puts you in the driver’s seat and gains you respect. This same ‘fix’ works with horses that act like goofs when cinched up. You pull the cinch tight, they throw their head up or dance around, that sorta thing. You’ll need to do this for days if not weeks. It takes time. The beauty of this method is just this: First, acting like the teasing older sibling, antagonizing your horse, is just plain fun. Second, were you to hit your horse, he might be able to tell other horses “I bit her ‘cause she’s always hitting me. She asked for it.” But if you try the opposite approach (the maniacal petter) what’s he gonna say? “I bit her ‘cause she petted me”? You’ll find that when you don’t bring pain or anger into the picture that the horse isn’t so quick to travel to the dark side and that vices just sort of evaporate. This petting thing works because you’re being proactive, teaching the horse that sure, you can bring your teeth close ~ but I’m going to pet the devil out of you. What you’ll start to notice is that they start keeping to themselves, sort of hoping you don’t notice them and start getting all weird again. Ever see a 1200 pound animal try to wish himself invisible?” Photo credit: Page 12, 15, and 14: Kristen Alynn Grace; Page 13 and 14, Charles Hilton
If you rip apart your round bale quick enough, you can eat while you’re lying down; easy breakfast in bed.