The biggest and most important thing I do with any horse is to lay the proper foundation. I always stress the importance of this because it is essential to the making of a great horse. I can't expect to build a multi-million dollar mansion on the foundation of a tiny shack. I am constructing the horse's training and tool box step by step, making sure everything is learned and understood well before moving on. A respectful, responsive, and willing horse can't be achieved with holes in his training, so that is why I lay the proper foundation from the start. Every horse learns at his own pace, so I must not rush him in to anything. I let the horse set the pace and he will decide when he's ready to move on.

I achieve this great foundation through groundwork, and lots of it! Through groundwork, I can establish a lasting leadership and relationship with the horse, while gaining his respect. Believe it or not, even at the early stages of groundwork, I am already getting body control from the horse. Things like disengaging the hind and yielding the front are going to help me build on those skills under saddle. Even lateral flexion will translate to vertical flexion(collection)!

My goal is to educate. Educate horse owners and riders on how horses think, learn, and react. If you get these key elements, you can learn to apply it and achieve anything with your horse. I see too much false marketing and schemes in the horse industry today and people need to stop falling in to it! No bigger bit, no sharper spur, no longer whip will ever get you anywhere but in to trouble and danger with your horse. It'll just get worse!

The first thing to know is that horses learn best through pressure and release. The key there is RELEASE. Horses learn not from the pressure itself but the RELEASE of pressure. They are smart animals that want to find the correct answer, and you show them their right-doing by releasing the pressure you applied. Treats cause pushy and disrespectful horses, while improperly used bigger bits and painful aids cause fear and the opposite of what results are wanted.

Also know that horses are professional people trainers. They are great at teaching people how to give them release. So when your horse walks off while being mounted, or bolts off to the barn, you can be sure he's outsmarted you. He is trying to be one step ahead of you. He knows that once you get on, you'll start going somewhere, so why not start walking early? He also has figured out that since he gets dismounted and untacked at the barn, the same place, every single day, that he gets rest there. So why not rest earlier and bold towards there? All of this can be fixed by making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard. If he wants to walk off while mounting, fine! If he wants to work, let him work. Lunge him around, change directions, make him work hard. Then rest him, and get back on like nothing happened. Repeat for a couple of times and he soon realizes that it's much easier to stand still while mounting than to walk or run off. If he wants to bolt to the barn, thats totally fine. Let him. But once he gets there, make sure he gets the opposite of what he's expecting. Work his butt off at the barn and then rest him wherever you were riding previously. Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard.

When my colts are first learning groundwork, one of the first things I teach them is lateral flexion. Lateral flexion is bending softly side to side. I teach this to EVERY horse young or old, for 2 reasons.

One, because it's your emergency brake. If he were to ever bolt, shy, or spook. I could bend his head around, stop him, and get his attention. He can't move forward, buck, or rear when his head is bent and his hindquarters are disengaged, so I am safe.

The second reason I teach lateral flexion is because it is your foundation for vertical flexion(collection). Everyone asks me how I get my horses so soft and collected with no contact or effort at all. The secret is not a bigger bit, or more heavy hands. The secret is lateral flexion! If you get your horse super soft(and I mean soft) laterally, vertical flexion comes naturally and so easily. And, not only is it almost effortless, but it is REAL. I see too many artificial headsets today and it sickens me. When a horse's head is tied to their chest, needs constant contact, and their neck is high in the air, that is a simply a superficial headset. That is NOT collection. Collection is when the body is balanced, the hind is driving and engaged, the horse is truly soft, and has his head calmly and correctly lowered. I should be able to collect my horses and have them be just as soft in a rope halter as they are in a curb bit or snaffle. It is not the bit or the hands, but the foundation and the release of pressure!

After the foundation has been laid and basic groundwork is taught to the horse, I can then begin saddle training. Introducing the saddle can be a scary and unnatural thing for a horse, so I must show him there's nothing to be afraid of, This is why I do the groundwork first, so he trusts me and I can build off of the skills he has already learned.

I start by desensitizing with the saddle. To do this, I might start with it on the fence and sending him between me and the saddle, resting him when he bravely looks or investigates it. Then I might start flapping it around closer to him. Eventually, I will have sacked him out to it enough to where I can place it on him with a foot rested and head down, totally unphased by it.

Once he's comfortable with it making noise, and it being around and on him, then I can move to rope and cinch pressure. I will get him used to a back and front cinch. Most horses will buck the first time they experience this pressure, it is totally normal. That's just them trying to figure out what it is and getting used to it. I will roundpen him until he no longer bucks, and then ask him to com in to me and rest. The horse is only allowed to buck for one day. That's it. If he were to buck with it the second day onward, I would make him work for it by moving his feet and changing directions strenuously.

One of the exercises I practice religiously with these horses in the first stages is called the "Human Curry Comb". This involves laying over the horse's back and acting as a sort of brush, petting, rubbing, and scratching the horse until he doesn't react anymore. I will shift my weight, swing my legs, make noise, doing anything to sack them out as far as possible. I will eventually get to the point where I can jump on with no reaction and slide off of the hindquarters. This is a crucial step in getting the horse used to a rider's weight and movement. ​