It's almost warm enough for me to really get serious about training horses!! Which means set official goals and get my farm horses on a more regular training schedule! I couldn't do it without a Training journal planner!
This year I have major plans for 3 of my miniature farm horses and my pony mare I really want to accomplish some things with!
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| My Pony Mare, Biana. Already a wonderful riding horse but I have plans to train her as a working Farm Horse! |
Setting Goals and Making a Plan for Training Horses
Last year I set my goals for Bianca. The goals were, I wanted her to slow down (she's a bit warm!), I wanted a better whoa and I wanted her to learn some advanced cues, like backing up when I lightly take my legs forward. I used several training DVD's and some youtube videos to develop a plan to accomplish these things. I also joined Mustang Maddy's Club and watched her case studies on the different horses she trained. Very helpful when making my own case studies which gave me a lot of insight into my horses! (A case study page is included in the FULL journal)
I knew to keep on track of a plan and her progress I would need a planner or journal or some sort. I ordered a Horse training journal but it was a waste of money. There weren't any goal setting pages or daily planner pages.. just a bunch of notebook lines and sappy horse quotes. Not what I needed to be successful with my horse! The other horse training journals on the market I found were just plain old notebooks with pretty covers that offered no guidelines in helping me make horse training goals and plans either! Quite useless and uninspiring for the tasks I had in mind.
Being a very planner oriented person I set out to make my own which kept me on track so that I not only stayed the course and accomplished my goals with Bianca. I accomplished more than I set out to do with her!
This is a good article on developing a Training Plan for a horse Develop a Plan that Works
Training Horses with a Purpose!
I'm no professional trainer! In fact, I've only been riding horses for about 2 1/2 years! Just like homesteading and growing food I jumped right in with both feet and didn't look back! I did start out with an excellent trainer and took horsemanship lessons for about 4 months before I got my own horse.
Bianca taught me really fast that to own a horse is to become a trainer. With all the available information out there, learning to train your own horse for your goals isn't that difficult.
Where to start can be difficult though! That's why I start with the goal setter page I created. That is my purpose. After that, I gather the horse training information I need (DVD's, Youtube, Clubs) to set the plan to reach that goal into steps. I record the lesson plan and progress. I take notes and make a case study to help me understand my horse better.
I designed pages for my journal for each of these things.
Training my Farm Horses this year: Goals
- The goal for Bianca this year is to get her to pull a wagon.
- The goal for mini farm horse Comanche is to also pull a wagon, though smaller one! And to work more on Liberty with him. He has a flair for it!
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| Comanche is a larger, stocky mini horse that is very full of himself and really needs a job! |
- My goal for Dreamy is to get her pulling the cart without sass! and team her with Stormy.
- My goal for Willow is to get her broke to drive and pair her with Comanche if Comanche is ready.
Miniature horses can be used for farm work as long as they have appropriate sized equipment. Need more reasons to have a miniature horse check out this post Reasons to have miniature horses on your farm
This is a neat article on Magnificent Miniature Horses that contains a lot of history on the breed.
Also I love this article about the farmer using his miniature horses to mow hay! Mini Horse Haying Talk about goals!!
Training Horses with a Journal Planner
I wouldn't have accomplished my goals last year and I won't accomplish them this year with a record-keeping planner which I am now offering to others to help them achieve their dream goals with training horses! I'm also into natural horse care so I extended the journal to contain DIY herbal remedies for horses and essential oil and herbs for horses guide! There is also a health record sheet!
Not sure about keeping records to reach your goals?
I've got some sample pages of the horse training journal for you to try here for Free. You'll get the cover page, a notes page, and the daily training page to try out.
Training Horses and Natural Horse Care go together!
Taking ultimate care of my horses is important to me. I believe in natural health care for my self and family as well as my horses. The less exposure to chemicals my horses have the better!
Chemical fragrances have been proven to lead to many hormone and health issues for humans. I can't help but think these even less regulated chemicals for horse grooming products are equally or maybe harder on our super sensitive horses.
I mentioned I have 5 DIY herbals for horses in my horse training journal. Here are 2 of the recipes you can try out for free!
Accomplishing Horse Training Goals
I truly, truly hope my post and my journal (free sample pages or the Full version) help you achieve your horse training goals like it has helped me! If a major horse newbie such as myself can train my own horse and accomplish my goals then I know you can too!
If you have any questions about the Horse Training journal and herbs for horses guides please don't hesitate to email me! angie@godsblessingfarm.com
Until next time! Happy homesteading and horse training!
