Exercise 1

LEADING

Stand still and set up your rope. The idea is that your horse has half the 14ft rope length and you have the other. As I expect the rope to have a little sag in it, the ideal is that your horse is about 6ft away from you when you’re walking.

How to do it

1 Once your rope length is sorted, walk away from your horse so that he’s in the four or five o’clock position to your right shoulder. Imagine that 12 o’clock is directly in front of you, three o’clock is level with your right shoulder, and six o’clock is directly behind you.

2 Now keep walking and trust that your horse maintains his distance — most will want to creep forwards.

3 You have two options if this happens. First, you can stop and back your horse up to put him back into his place relative to you. (You will need to follow exercise 2 for this).

4 Your second option is to turn abruptly to the right, making him stop while you walk through his path, and then carry on once the position is re-established.

5 If your horse has the opposite problem and is hanging back, then you can turn sharply to the left, looking over your left shoulder at his bottom as you turn to add energy and playing a little game of ‘don’t let me catch your bottom’ to make him follow you a bit faster.

6 Practise the leading (increasing your speed when you’re ready) and turning, being really conscious of your horse’s position relative to you. You want to teach him to take responsibility to orientate himself to you. Don’t worry about getting to a destination until you have got this sorted in a field or arena just wandering about.