How cool would it be to have your horse walk beside you as if you were leading him with an invisible lead line? It's not really magic. It's simply good horsemanship that leads you to this kind of relationship with your horse. To get there, you'll need to perfect several separate horse training lessons.
Developing an invisible connection is a matter of fine-tuning certain signals until they are second nature to the horse and to us. Because the training depends on developing specific cues, you can do this training whether you have a round pen or just a small corral. Being specific enough is key.
You're going to "talk" to several spots on the horse's body. When we talk to the horse's hip, we're telling him to move forward. When we talk to his nose or shoulder, we're telling the part of the horse to either come toward us or move away. If you can control the hip, nose and shoulder, then you can position the horse anywhere.
Halterless Leading
- Talk to the horse's hip, nose and shoulder separately.
- Work on making perfect half-turns to the outside and inside at the fence.
- Use a series of outside turns to teach the horse to walk with you.
- Train your horse to come to you, using inside turns.
- Smile and walk proudly beside your horse, realizing that it will take practice before you can show off.
Communication Tools
We're going to use the same cues that we did when we taught the horse round-pen language. In fact, being able to have your horse go to the left, go to the right, stop, face you, and move away from you on cue are prerequisites for halterless leading. We'll review the cues, and then fine-tune them, until they seem invisible.
With the horse loose in a round pen or small corral, look at a spot about the size of a quarter on the top of your horse's left hip. Using your body language, a kiss and perhaps the movement of a lariat, tell that spot to push the horse forward, going to the left around the pen. Only use the amount of stimulation necessary to get the response you want. The moment the horse begins to move or to speed up, relax your posture to tell the horse that he did what you wanted.
If you need more speed, ask again. This pressure and release-of-pressure will become extremely important when you're communicating that you want the horse to step up when he's beside you.
Just as you put pressure on a spot on the horse's hip to get him to move forward, you are going to talk to quarter-sized spots on your horse's nose and shoulder. When you put pressure on the nose spot, you psychologically block the horse's forward motion. As you increase or maintain that pressure, the horse moves away from that pressure and begins to make an outside turn. As he begins to make the turn and you back off, relieving that pressure, he learns that pressure on the nose means, "outside turn."
Sometimes a horse will travel around the pen with his nose to the outside of the pen. That's when you have to talk to the spot on his shoulder, further blocking his forward movement and telling him, "Move the shoulder away from me." Again, release him the moment you see his shoulder begin to make the turn.
You are going to use the same language to ask for a turn to the inside. With the horse moving forward, put pressure on his nose by getting out in front of him to block his forward path. But step away, to invite him to make the turn toward you.
If the horse begins an outside turn, try to cut off the "wrong" turn and ask again for the correct one. It is helpful if you say out loud what you want, and focus your eyes on the part of the body that you're talking to: "Nose to the right." By trial-and-error, the horse learns to match your body language with the correct move. Don't get too hung up on formalizing your body language. Just be yourself, and it will be much easier for both you and the horse. Use the kissing sound to tell the horse, "Move something."
