What 'Tricks' Have You Taught Your Horse?

3Beasties

3Beasties

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As Title :biggrin3:

Yesterday, half way round a hack on Missi I suddenly had a strange idea to teach her to stop just by me pulling on her breastplate, I'm not really sure where it came from but before I knew it we were giving it a try :o :biggrin3:

The first four attempts saw me pulling on her breastplate for a a fair few strides before she stopped. Each time the pressure was released straight away and she was given a treat. After that I only needed a small tug to get her to stop. We even managed to do trot to halt. I can't believe how quickly she picked it up!

I thought I'd try it again today fully expecting to have to go through the whole process again but she surprised me by stopping with the smallest squeeze on the breastplate! It amazes me how clever she is :biggrin3:

I've always wanted to be able to ride bareback and bridle-less so I guess this is the first step towards doing it. Now to work on the steering.... :biggrin3:


Sorry for the pointless post, feel free to share any of the 'tricks' you've taught your beasties!
 
Not a trick but superb manner I think, I can stop whilst leading my mare and she will stop next to me, both my 19yo and 2yo do this
 
I saw a Mary King demo once and she said she teaches all her horses to stop when she pulls on a neckstrap. If it's good enough for Mary...

When I had a bad back I taught my pony to pick up his feed bowl when he'd finished eating so I didn't have to bend down :)
 
I teach all my horses to stop when I pull the neck strap.
I taught J Spanish walk which was fun but then he started doing it all the time because he thought it was cool so I had to stop.
I can take Tatts anywhere without leading him he's always done that so it does not count because I did not teach him .
He will stand on the yard where you leave him without moving until he's told that's very useful
They pick up their feet when I say up.
 
I've taught mine to wee in a bucket/upon request - they do wee normally in the stable/field etc just in case people had visions of them crossing their legs and waiting for me to arrive!
It started many years ago when my eventer was obviously desperate to 'go' but wouldn't when at competitions, so I got to training him to wee in a bucket, which progressed to weeing when I whistle. This helped him greatly when out and about and also saves on bedding!
I probably come across as a bit strange now but rest assured I don't do this as a party trick - they generally let me know when they want to wee! (even reading this back sounds strange and I know what I want to say...)
 
I taught my ID mare to stand at the mounting block for me to dismount, s when I got her I was recovering from a broken leg. Over a year later a friend rode her and said 'Do you always get off at the mounting block?'. When asked why, she explained that the mare had officiously taken her to the mounting block so that she could dismount.
 
My horse can touch an object by request, play fetch, pick up an object and swing it, he can hug me, lay down, sit, rear (without a rider), do Spanish walk, place one or two forelegs on objects, climb on a pedestal with all fours, ride bridleless with a neckstrap (I don't consider this a trick, though), bow, let himself be covered with a tarp while lying on his side, let me mount him while he's lying and then stand up by request, lead blindfolded... Can you guess I like teaching tricks? :D
 
Not a trick really, but my girl (3yo) has been taught to step back from the door when i enter with a bucket of food.

She is very food aggressive and will spin her head while mouthing and snaping at you with her ears flat back, its taken a while but now when i open the door she takes two definate steps back and looks at me with such pride in her eyes, its like watching an actor on stage taking their bow at the end of a performance. :cool:
 
Not a trick as such but I always have my horses trained to obey voice commands. My loan horse is great with it when out so I don't have to mess with his mouth as he is quite sensitive with his mouth and leg aids.

I would love to teach them fun tricks I might try on the weekend
 
Beware - trick training gets addictive!

Mine can bow and is just learning to bow with a rider on. He's laid down a couple of times but I don't want to properly teach it until the bow is really established with a rider as its easy to confuse the two.
He can do Spanish walk and is starting basic liberty work (walking alongside, halting when I stop, run when I run, stand until told to move etc).

It's loads of fun!
 
These are great!
I've only managed to teach my two to stop when I give a firm tap on the shoulder and that the word 'and..' means that something is coming up, 'and...whoa, and...terrrrot' etc
 
You asked for it!:
Bareback and bridleless:
IMG_2147_zps07af61aa.jpg

IMG_2155_zps98dd1a33.jpg

Football:
IMG_1852_zps365278c4.jpg

Fetching sticks:
IMG_1806_zps2ecb286a.jpg

Bow:
IMG_1498_zpsa0dbc53f.jpg

Garrocha:
1274406_10153201861665431_1346614157_o_zpsbc80415d.jpg

Spanish walk:
spanishwalk1.jpg

Sit:
2010-04-2711-48-26_EOS0029_resize.jpg

Podium:
Image0643.jpg


Play dead:
2010-04-0111-09-48_EOS0095_resize.jpg

(ok, you got me, I didn't teach that one, we were both just enjoying a roll!)

New goals as he gets fitter after a poorly summer are grown up tricks like flying changes and half pass, hopefully out doing some little ODEs next year...so we do do proper stuff as well!
 
dianchi said:
Not a trick but superb manner I think, I can stop whilst leading my mare and she will stop next to me, both my 19yo and 2yo do this
Click to expand...

This! She also stands patiently if I say "wait", which is ideal if doing gates. Walk through, horse "wait", walk away and go back to close gate, return to horse where she was left. She will also push gates open for me on the command "push", but doesn't if not asked. Smart little thing she is :D

When free schooling, she will come to call and then move off if I say "move away". If you don't tell her to go away, she follows like a little puppy.
 
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Ooh well lets see when leading he will stop when I stop , walk when I walk , trot when I trot and walk back when I walk back He can stamp his foot when I stamp my foot , he comes to call , he will also pick up all his legs when I say I can ride tackles and neck rein he will touch anything that I point at and I can back him up without touching him when I stand behind him ............. it is really quite addictive ;)
 
I have accidentally taught the Shettie to flip the kickbolt when I or daughter am in a stable with one of the others. Must have started with her snuffling spilled food from under the door, bolt flicks over and there's a yell of "Nooooo Trixie!" So now she does it just for the attention, it's a pain.
 
I have no idea who taught him, but Ned stops dead when I take my feet out the stirrups!

He also has now learnt to lift both front hooves up so I can pick them out! Thoroughly chuffed with this as at his old yard I had to fight with him to even get one off the ground without him trying to rear!!
 
I started with full tack, working on neck reining but with the back up of familiar cues. Then I started just using my hand against his neck either side of his wither to steer and realised he was actually very good. I did a lot bareback with a headcollar and rope this summer as he was on light work and I couldn't be bothered to tack up! The most important thing I did was reward the halt cue! He is such a hot head and im not that good bareback yet, so I need to know if his head goes between his knees to buck I can ask for halt and get it! We did a lot of prep and then on a nice chilled sunny day I took it all off. He is fab, I can steer round a whole SJ course with him. Having targets like jumps (even skinnies) or Trec obstacles makes it easier, our tackless dressage is still a little wayward! Transitions and movements are ok but the shapes aren't great! I have to pick my days to play. Today he was leaping around being an eejit and trying to buck me off, so take stayed on and we cantered laps of big field!
 
Ours will 'kiss' for a piece of carrot or apple. When being led all stop when we stop. They move sideways when we say 'over'. The stallion will go to the back of his stable when you hold your index finger up in front of his door. He's been taught to do this so that other people can lead their horses in and out of the barn past him without him being a nuisance. Plus I didn't want people shouting at, or hitting him or frightening him in any way to make him back up.
He's actually very well behaved but he is big and young and can make himself look huge which can frighten those who don't know him or are a bit nervous around horses.
They've also all been taught to stop in front of their stable door and not barge in when brought in at night. They will stand until told to go in. Even the new one (only been with us for 10 days) is picking this up now. I can't stand bargey horses.
 
Mine takes steps back AWAY from the tyre in which his feed is placed. So far we have 4 or 5 steps - always useful to stop them barging heads into feeders. And he puts his head in his halter when it is held in front of his muzzle. All I have to do now is teach him to put his own tack on ;)
 
I have been meaning to teach Pip spanish walk, I think it would be good for him to actually think about what his legs are doing for once :p

After doing carrot stretches for a couple of weeks I only have to rustle the carrot bag to get him to 'bow' :p
 
We have one horse who has been trained to lie down on command, he was like that when we got him, I understand he was trained to do this by his breeder when he was a foal.

My horse (and one or two previous) will do stuff at liberty (not just in a small yard, in a large paddock), like stay with me, follow me, stop when I stop, back up when I back up, jump something I point at, and lunge walk, trot, canter, stop turn around, and do same in other direction without any lunge rein or halter on my horse. They also come from along way away at a run towards me if I ask them to.

It is a fun thing to do to play with your horse at liberty. It all starts on line though.
 
When your horse is a greedy pig it is easy to teach tricks :)

I taught my WB to stand with his front feet on a pedestal in about 10m minutes with a packet of polos and a stick to tap his legs.

He will bow - learnt by doing carrot stretches. Trouble is he sometimes now bows when you unclip his headcollar as I always had to do this first before doing the stretches, he also bows when you are trying to do his girth up of do up his rug up as you touch his tummy and he bows when the physio arrives on the yard because he knows she does carrot stretches with him :D

He also does kissy faces for carrots.

I expect I could teach him more as long as food was involved :)
 
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