5 fun tricks to easily train your horse

Teaching a horse tricks is always fun—and it should remain that way. It’s especially a great option when you need some variety or if your horse is young or cannot be ridden for some other reason. We've gathered the treats and present you with five fun tricks that you can relatively easily teach your (young) horse.

You may also like to read: 10 tips: How to work with and train your youngster and be succesful

Advertisement

All the tricks in this article are illustrated and explained by a reader, Christine Larsen, who, along with her young Haflinger, loves practicing tricks in the riding arena. You can follow Christine on Instagram @christine.fogh.

Trick 1: The Kiss

This is a relatively easy trick to teach your horse. It gives a great sense of how you and your horse learn together. Plus, it doesn’t require much skill from the horse compared to other tricks.

How to train the trick:

1. Hold a treat in front of your own mouth while giving your cue. Provide both a physical cue—such as pointing to your mouth with a finger—and a verbal cue like "kiss."
2. As the horse approaches your mouth to get the treat, reward it with your opposite hand. This way, your horse will learn to do the trick without you needing to hold the treat in front of your mouth each time. Eventually, you’ll be able to simply point to your mouth and say “kiss.”

Trick 2: The Smile

Teaching your horse to flehmen—what we also call a smile—is both cute and funny. However, it does require a bit of thought from your horse. Any horse can learn it, as long as you’re patient enough.

How to train the trick:

1. Hold a treat in your hand and point at the horse’s muzzle while raising your hand towards the air. From the beginning, associate this with a command. It's important to keep the same command throughout the process, otherwise, you’ll have to re-teach the horse the trick with a new signal.
2. When the horse lifts its upper lip to reach for the treat, praise and reward it.
3. As your horse begins to understand the concept, you can gradually extend the time it holds its lip up. Do this by continuing to give the signal until the horse keeps its lip raised for the desired length of time. It's crucial to take small steps, not expecting the horse to hold its lip up for many seconds during the first few attempts.
4. Later in the process, you can choose to hold the treat in your opposite hand, so the horse no longer “needs” a treat to perform the trick but receives the reward afterward.

Trick 3: Parking

This trick is incredibly useful, even for young horses—after all, they’ll likely be ridden at some point. It can be both dangerous and annoying to have a horse that walks off on its own when you’re trying to mount.

How to train the trick:

1. Stand on a mounting block.
2. Start by praising the horse every time it seeks your attention while you’re on the block.
3. Once the horse associates the block with a treat, you can start to “align” the horse—requiring it to stand in a position where you could mount.
4. Adjust the horse as you’d like and gradually use smaller and smaller cues.
5. Eventually, the horse will do it effortlessly when you ask.

Trick 4: Backing Up

Another fun trick is teaching your horse to back up while you walk alongside it. It’s always useful to be able to get your horse to back up on command. If you get too close to the horse’s hindquarters, be mindful to protect yourself.

How to train the trick:

1. Stand with the horse, using a lead rope attached to its halter.
2. Shake the rope side to side, gradually increasing the intensity until the horse responds by stepping backward. Praise the horse.
3. Repeat this while you start moving further down the horse's body. This way, the horse learns to back up even when you aren’t standing at its head or shoulder.
4. When you eventually reach the horse’s hindquarters, introduce a signal at the same time as you give a slight shake to the rope. For example, you could tap the horse’s hindquarters twice as a cue.
5. Once the horse backs up just by tapping, drop the rope and practice the trick without it—of course, only in a closed arena or paddock.

Trick 5: Laying Down

It is indeed possible to teach your horse to lie down on command—even though it’s not a dog! This trick primarily requires that you know the situations where the horse naturally wants to lie down and use them as tools in your training. It takes a long time to teach, requiring a great number of repetitions. But where there’s a will, there’s a way!

How to train the trick:

1. A good method is to get your horse wet, encouraging it to roll. Spray it with water or wet it with a sponge, then let it out in a place where it enjoys rolling. Start in a quiet area without too many distractions, like an empty paddock or riding arena, if your horse is comfortable being alone.
2. When you see the horse preparing to scrape the ground and lower its head, give the cue you want the horse to associate with lying down. You could, for example, stomp your feet a bit and crouch while saying "lie down" or "down."
3. When the horse lies down to roll, quickly reward it with a treat while it’s still down. If you can’t manage that, do it as soon as it gets up.
4. As the horse becomes more comfortable lying down around people, interrupt it when it starts scraping and lowering its head, and give a treat. This teaches the horse that it’s the act of lying down, not just rolling, that earns the reward.
5. You can also give your horse plenty of treats while it’s lying down, so it learns that the longer it stays down, the more treats it gets—helping it feel comfortable with the process.
6. Gradually, try to stand up more and more until you can eventually stand next to the horse while it lies down.

You may also like to read: 6 useful groundwork exercises