Miniature horses are just plain AWESOME. They are so tiny, so feisty and are willing to do anything. It’s like having a big dog who’s poops smell better. So that’s what we’re going to do. Treat them like a big dog!
Step 1 – to training your mini – take them for a walk. Need to take your dog for a walk in the morning fine, bring your mini along with you. Kill 2 birds with 1 lead rope. Or some thing like that.
The key to taking your mini for a walk is to start introducing voice commands. So when you set off, say “walk-on” and then move off. When you stop say “whoa” and mean it. Whoa means stop always. And it doesn’t mean stop and wiggle, it means stop and stand. Don’t panic if you have a wiggly beastie. Whoa means stop, if you only get a “1 Mississippi” before they want to move off again then be sure to say “walk-on” before they decide it’s time to break the whoa. Slowly increase your Mississippi counts longer and longer until you can whoa happily without moving for a good 30 seconds to a minute.
Did you realize minis are well, mini? The are also fearless in most cases and will do just about anything you ask them to up to and including jumping into your vehicle. You don’t need a horse trailer most the time to get them out and about. So pop them in the back of your SUV or if you’re really daring apparently they will craw into your pickup truck too. Don’t ask. It’s better if you use a ramp to get them into your vehicle.
Lastly, tie your mini up. Going out to do chores? Or have to clean some tack or just sweeping out the barn? Go grab your mini and tie it up. I’m not talking about cross ties. Go tie it to a tree, the truck, fence post, or anything else you can think of. Why? because 90% of being a good driving horse is standing still. Granted, you should never tie a hitched horse but learning to tie is learning patience. So tie tie tie.
Training your mini to drive step 1 checklist
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- Learn to tie
- Take your mini for a walk (yes like a dog)
- Teach it voice commands “walk-on” and “Whoa”
- Take your mini for a car ride to new places and repeat steps 1-3
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