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Establishing leadership by controlling movement [video]

The majority of training issues and behavior problems with horses can almost always be traced to leadership.

Horses are herd animals. It's their natural instinct to establish who is the leader in the herd. Watch a group of horses in a pasture, and you'll usually be able to tell fairly quickly which horse is the leader. The other horses show a great deal of respect for the leader, don't invade his or her space, and move when the leader wants them to.

You want your horse to see YOU as the leader. If your horse doesn't see you as the leader, you'll get little respect and the horse will make all the decisions, which can lead to all kinds of behavior and training problems.

The best, most effective way for you to establish leadership is by controlling your horse's movement. And the best place to do that is in the round pen. In the round pen, you have a safe, controlled area where you can control and direct your horse's movement —speed, direction, turns etc. As you start controlling the movement, the horse will eventually make its own decision (not forced) to submit to you and accept you as the leader. This is the foundation of all successful horse training.

To work successfully in the round pen, it's important to know the proper techniques. In my 5-DVD training set, I'll teach you everything you need to know to work with your horse in the round pen —with lots of demonstrations with real horses and real owners. It really works. Stay safe and have fun.