Teaching Your Horse To Overcome Fears

A practical guide to using reward-based training techniques to create a true partnership with your horse. This leads to lifelong connection, effective problem-solving and joyful performance.

"De-Spook" Your Horse An umbrella opening, a tree branch creaking, a tarp flapping in the wind, a dusty shadow in the back of the barn -- what seems benign to the human eye often terrifies a horse. His immediate response? Screech to a halt, buck, twirl, and run like the dickens! What can a rider do but hang on? In fact, there is plenty a rider can do to "de-spook" a horse, and Teaching Your Horse to Overcome Fears tells you how. Following the advice of renowned trainers such as John Lotito, Pat Parelli, and Mark Rashid, you'll learn how to reprogram your horse's fear response so that, when startled, he may unnerve you, but he won't unseat you. These trainers offer proven tips on training your horse in a manner that is gentle, effective, and long-lasting. And you'll delve into the most exciting "alternative" therapies for high-strung horses, including herbal remedies, aromatherapy, shamaniac healing, and body work.

This book describes how every horse can be handled and ridden without the use of fear or force. Starts with an unhandled foal and covers starting a horse under saddle without bucking, chasing and fighting. The book also covers trailer loading, leg handling, riding, leading and common problems people have with horses. This book challenges many of the accepted practices used in horse training today.

Regardless of the type of riding you do (or even if you don't ride), the principles taught in 'Confident Rider Confident Horse' will help you to improve your horse riding confidence, your horse's confidence, understand and communicate better with your horse, and develop a trusting and willing partnership. Anne Gage, a respected clinician, horse trainer and riding coach, shares effective and proven techniques she has learned from her own personal journey of losing and regaining her confidence. The book not only provides insight into what causes your fear (you may call it anxiety, tension or lack of confidence) and how to manage it but also helps you understand your horse - why he behaves the way he does and how your behaviour affects him. You will learn practical exercises that will keep you and your horse calm, confident and connected whether you are on the ground or in the saddle.

Veteran and novice riders alike fear the sport they love. Fear takes many forms -- fear of injury; fear of failure; fear of performance. The authors, Dr. Jordan and Mr. De Michele, address all these fears as well as other horse related phobias with proven, psychologically based techniques.Overcoming the Fear of Riding is founded on the psychological principles of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), which counselors and psychologists have used successfully for three decades to help people reduce emotional distress.REBT shows how the rider can reduce anxiety, channel positive energy, and use inner thoughts to the best advantage. It helps riders end nervousness and negative thoughts that sabotage their riding experience. The book also helps post-trauma riders, whose fears may prevent them from resuming riding after an accident; competitive riders whose fears may interfere with show performance; and casual riders, who would like to derive more pleasure from leisure riding. The authors use many case studies and interviews with well-known Western and English riders.

If you understand how your horse learns and why your training is effective, you can train faster, more ethically, and more sympathetically. Emma Lethbridge thoroughly but simply explains learning theory, and how to apply it in a way that is both efficient for training and holds the horse’s welfare paramount. Knowing Your Horse will be a key resource for those wishing to better understand their horse’s behavior, and to make the most of that understanding to improve their training techniques.

Riding Home:The Power of Horses to Heal, Horse Nation's must read book of 2016, is the first and only book to scientifically and experientially explain why horses have the extraordinary ability to emotionally transform the lives of thousands of men, women and children, whether they are horse lovers, or suffering from deep psychological wounds. It is a book for anyone who wants to experience the joy, wonder, self-awareness and peace of mind that comes from creating a horse/human relationship, and it puts forth and clarifies the principles of today's Natural Horsemanship (or what was once referred to as "Horse Whispering") Everyone knows someone who needs help: a husband, a wife, a partner, a child, a friend, a troubled teenager, a war veteran with PTSD, someone with autism, an addiction, anyone in emotional pain or who has lost their way. Riding Home provides riveting examples of how Equine Therapy has become one of today's most effective cutting-edge methods of healing. Horses help us discover hidden parts of ourselves, whether we're seven or seventy. They model relationships that demonstrate acceptance, kindness, honesty, tolerance, patience, justice, compassion, and forgiveness. Horses cause all of us to become better people, better parents, better partners, and better friends. A horse can be our greatest teacher, for horses have no egos, they never lie, they're never wrong and they manifest unparalleled compassion. It is this amazing power of horses to heal and teach us about ourselves that is accessible to anyone and found in the pages of Tim Hayes's Riding Home. The information and lists of therapeutic and non-therapeutic equine programs, which are contained in the book, are also available at the book's website.

Train your horse to embrace a life around humans. Focusing on developing the skills vital for every domesticated horse, this guide stresses the importance of creating an atmosphere where both trainer and horse can overcome fear and cultivate mutual respect. With a series of tests to gauge your horse’s knowledge and training exercises to enrich and strengthen your horse’s comfort around people, you can increase attentiveness, boost confidence, and help your horse reach his full potential.