Brightbay
Well-Known Member
Some great advice above on rewarding the good behaviour. Just to add a little spin to that, here's another idea that might appeal to the teacher in you 
We tend to focus on the things our horses do that are really annoying or bad... instead, decide what you want your horse to do. So standing quietly with 4 feet on the ground, or stepping back when you point at his chest, or looking at you with a nice relaxed expression. Every time you see your horse do one of the things you've set in your head as "the right thing", tell him how fantastic he is, in a nice horse friendly way (vigorous scratches under mane or on withers... find out where he likes to be scratched
).
The interesting thing about this approach is that when you start focussing on the good things, you suddenly get a lot less bothered by the occasional bad one AND you find the bad ones become a lot less frequent. And suddenly you notice what a great horse you have, and you feel a lot closer to them
Works on kids too, I believe
We tend to focus on the things our horses do that are really annoying or bad... instead, decide what you want your horse to do. So standing quietly with 4 feet on the ground, or stepping back when you point at his chest, or looking at you with a nice relaxed expression. Every time you see your horse do one of the things you've set in your head as "the right thing", tell him how fantastic he is, in a nice horse friendly way (vigorous scratches under mane or on withers... find out where he likes to be scratched
). The interesting thing about this approach is that when you start focussing on the good things, you suddenly get a lot less bothered by the occasional bad one AND you find the bad ones become a lot less frequent. And suddenly you notice what a great horse you have, and you feel a lot closer to them
Works on kids too, I believe