Horse Obstacles Training: Step by Step

It doesn’t matter what discipline you are in, your horse will have obstacles to face... even if it’s the trailer ride to get there.

Obstacles are a good way to establish leadership, build confidence, and teach your horse to read patterns. I like to use a variety of obstacles but as I approach each obstacle, I only have one goal in mind — reward the try.

By consistently rewarding the try and not pushing them over each obstacle on the first approach, you will build confidence in your horse. He will gain confidence in me knowing that I won’t put him into a situation that will harm him, and confidence in himself by conquering scary things.

Two Most Common Training Mistakes

Here are two mistakes I see most often:

1. In the first scenario, Jill camps out at one obstacle with the attitude that her and her horse are going to go over it, even if it takes all day. The positives of this approach is it will show her...