Professionals in the horse training industry do not work on blind faith or chance, Professional horse trainer Gordon Adair offers Natural Horse Training Courses with steps and requirements that both two and four legged students learn. The moment horses are touched these steps and requirements are reviewed, everyday and every horse, it may take a few minutes to the days time allotment, your horse determines what needs to be taught each day.

Anyone who touches horses are teachers whether they want to be or not. People will train horses in a positive or a negative direction depending on what they allow. Horses do not know wright from wrong, they only know what we accept so, the higher the standards the better they will be.

Horses who spook are merely uneducated and are reacting based on their natural instincts to fear unfamiliar objects, noises, smell, or touch. We must teach horses to face their fears and look to us for guidance. Desensitizing is a tool to educate horses how to act in the human world when frightened.

So, when should you begin a desensitizing program or should you? Well, frankly, you don't have a choice if you want to be part of your horse's life. A horse's fear insures survival as it does humans. We must teach our students the human world and what is not a threat. Knowing you must desensitize then when should you start. The answer is you have already started. Every movement you make is desensitizing your horse as with brushing, hand movements, and lead and jacket movement. A desensitizing program should be a casual everyday introduction not be thought as a step instead, as a part of teaching. Whenever horses show concern you must take the time to teach there is nothing to fear otherwise, they will continue showing concern forever. Soon your horses will trust you and think every scary thing is a test so, they will not show fear.

Start desensitizing with everyday occurrences, don't hold back. Contact free leading, obstacle challenges, saddle, riding, and trail riding will present further desensitizing.

Leading your horse to the tack area is one of the most important training steps of your ride. During this leading time you can analyze what mood horses are in and how they will respond. If your horse is in a defiant mood, you should postpone riding and work on ground requirements until they pass. When horses are allowed to exhibit bad behavior, they are being told their actions are acceptable. Because horses are creatures of habit their actions while being led will continue into riding. You must always ask yourself - At what point should I start requiring my horse to be the best?

Leading should be done on either side of your horse to place yourself in the safest position.

There should be a forcefield around your body, which protects you from being knocked down. This forcefield is used when you move towards your horse requiring the body to yield.

Requiring your horse to yield the hindquarters teaches sideways movement, to move the hindquarters away from humans, and to face for guidance.

Backing should be done as you move towards your horse and standing still while the horse moves away.

Send out and reversing is for longeing or leading at any distance, and to send your horse through a gate turn and face you.

Here are my requirements for "contact free leading". Chief passes at the minimum requirements with the understanding that continued practice will be done along the way. If you have concerns or time, practice until the requirements are done halter-less with little cue movement before advancing. Professionals move quickly because of time and financial reasons. If you are doing the teaching take your time and achieve the best performances.

At some point you will need to control your horse without a halter, lead, and a vegetable stick. This is why your cues in Contact Free Leading are based on our movements, liberty Leading is the next step.

Freedom to leave is the best way to test your Contact Free Leading and see how your horse grades you. When given the chance horses will always tell the truth about if they respect you and understand what you teach.

Our job is to train horses how to act in the human world. Horses must be given the chance to make decisions, then we correct or reward. Testing is how we determine if our horses are making the right decisions and of course - if we are good leaders and trainers. The more freedom we give the better the test.

Turning away and force field turns into your horse are the same.

Not backing is corrected by pinching the shoulder muscle. You are biting your horse so, be careful not to be bitten back.

Attacking the rear to be faced is the same which, allows the use of the forty-five degree angle movements to help forward movement.

When everything is done correctly your horse will stay with you!

Testing your leading and communication skills with obstacles is part of Gordon's training program for building direction, confidence, and partnership. Doing what horses want is easy, doing what they don't want is much harder and requires good communication and horsemanship skills. Training the student and horse with obstacles in controlled safe environment allows better direction and establishes good habits. Horses will challenge when they lack confidence, they cannot learn in fear mode, they react from habit.

Allowing horses the freedom to say no is a better test then doing it for them, every horse will say no to something.

Being "willing" is the most important achievement in communication accomplishments

Testing your skills before you are in a bad situation allows you to know your limits and improves your response time