John Chatterton’s Ten Steps of Training

When your horse looks to you as a good mate, your horse will stand quietly next to you as he knows this is a safe place to be.

Tying your horse up for long periods of time is not teaching your horse to stand still – John constantly hears talk of the tree of knowledge or the patience pole which can actually cause issues such as fidgeting, pawing and pulling back – when the horse finally stands quietly they have actually given up and switched off, you haven’t taught them anything.

“In my method, Standing Still becomes 80% of training and the step we return to most often when there is a problem with any of the steps.

“The way I teach horses to stand still is quite simple – it involves mastering my pull-and-release technique where you STEP AWAY from your horse and draw and quickly release (never hold), make sure you always step away when you do your draw-and-release.

“The reason why I step away is so that the horse never associates the correction with you, you are never the bad guy as you are moving away from the horse. You are always the good guy and you are always their comfort zone.”

A lot of training methods rely on you being the boss, the leader, the dominant one in the horse-human relationship with the belief that this is the best way to control a horse and be safe around them.

When the horse makes what the handler perceives to be a mistake, there’s lots of going mad at the horse or yelling at them, growling at them or backing them up and even chasing them in circles.

All of these are a form of intimidation to the horse and I never do this.

“My way is to perform the draw-and-release technique whilst stepping away, then re-setting them back in position with a rub on the neck to reward them and say you are safe standing still here with me – my horse always knows that I am the comfort zone.”

There’s no pressure next to John, just safety and kindness.

Once you master this technique you can easily teach your horse to stand still as standing still becomes the horses decision.

If your horse learns that standing still and relaxing is much more comfortable than moving around, they will choose standing still for themselves.

Master the technique and you will also be able to fix any problem you may find. It is very important to understand it is a DRAW and RELEASE, never a jerk and a hold.

We now call the pull-and-release a ‘draw-and-release’ because people sometimes misunderstand this technique and wrongly jerk the lead and release OR jerk the lead and hold that pressure.

That teaches the horse to go into fight mode. You MUST draw the lead smoothly and quickly RELEASE the lead.

John could never understand when he took his horses to the show why they would always stand quietly at the truck, not fidgeting or pawing which is what he saw with other horses many times (some were even hobbled), and then he realised that he had taught his horses to stand still (Step Two) before tying them up or doing anything else.

Once your horse has been taught to stand still on a loose lead – all horse handling becomes very calm and easy.

Your horse will stand still for – picking up feet, washing, brushing, handling, rugging, bridling, saddling, getting on their back and much much more!

No more problems for you or for any professional horse handler such as the Vet, Farrier or the Dentist.

THEN you can stop, relax and change to the other side. This is the reward – never rub your horse or pat your horse in training and never touch your horse in two different spots on that one side when you are working with them as this will just confuse them.

In this step – we start with the nose which is very important as horses use their nose to investigate. Cupping your hand on the muzzle between the mouth and the nostril, you must wait for your horse to relax and soften into your hand – a lot of horses will snatch their head away or evade your hand especially if they have been nose-twitched or they may keep moving away from your hand but go with them and if they are too pushy and do not give you that 1% try, or if they decide to move their feet, go back to Step Two Standing Still, where you will step away and do your draw-and-release, put them back in position, facing the same way, a rub on the neck for being back in position and then try again on that spot you were working on (eg the nose).

Make sure you do not change sides until you get the 1%. Never look for 100% – he will eventually give you that 100% but by starting off looking for that small effort, it really builds their confidence to give you more.

We start with the nose – and you will follow the above instructions for all parts of the body remembering to change to the other side once you get the 1% try. The nose, the eye, the ear, the mouth, inside the mouth, the girth area (and here you can pre-condition your horse to the girth in preparation for saddling when that time comes by using the lead around the girth area – this is the only time you will use the rope, all other parts of the body you will touch with your hand only), the flank, the tail, under the tail, down the legs and eventually picking up the feet.

Working on the nose is really important for many reasons. You may find when you start this exercise that your horse may turn his head away from your hand and try and evade you, keep persisting because when you get the nose exercise right and your horse starts looking for your hand and relaxes easily into it, you will find many benefits.

It becomes especially important when float loading – if your horse gets a little nervous you can put your hand out for him to smell it and this becomes very reassuring for the horse and gives him confidence. John sees this every day in his work.

By nature, a horse will turn away from a situation they are uncomfortable with. We want to change that mind-set and encourage them to flex towards us.

Learning flexion gives us control not only of the horse’s body, but also his mind. Your horse needs to be able to flex in order for you to feel safe in spooky situations.

A lot of horses tend to look away and blank the handler out.

“I like my horses to turn their head and look at me when I go to their hindquarter. It tells me they are communicating with me rather than blanking out and looking at other things.”

Learning to flex will improve your horses response to leg aids, bending through their neck and back and relaxing their back muscles.

Your horse will become more supple for work under saddle.

There are five stages to Flexing – all are done on both sides of the horse:

• Flexing with the tail – picking up the tail giving the tail a little tug, eventually we want the horse to flex around to that side holding the tail.
• Flexing to you through the lead when standing in the girth area.
• Flexing away from you – whilst you are standing on the mounting block.
• Flexing from behind through the lead.
• Flexing underneath while in the leading position.

“Incorrect tying up training is the basis of so many problems with the horses I work with.

Poor tying up training can lead to issues such as difficulty leading, being anxious and pushy, pulling back, rushing out of the float, not wanting to come forwards.

If they are taught correctly to yield to pressure and do not develop a fear of restraint, they are much safer to be around and will have less fear based issues.

I don’t know about you, but I would far rather have a horse whose mind-set is trusting, yielding and willing.”

John Chatterton teaches all horses to:

• Lower their head when pulling up on the lead (upward pressure).
• Yield to pressure over the poll.
• Yield downwards when pulling down on the lead (stepping on the lead).
• Come forward to release pressure.
• Lower their head on a verbal signal.

When a horse has learned all these things he is less likely to panic if he gets his head under his lead rope when tied up, if he steps on his lead, if he gets a foot caught in a fence or over a lead rope when tied up.

A horse which gives to pressure instead of panicking is a much safer horse in general and a much safer horse for humans to be around.

Following my step Eight Spooky Stuff training results in a very safe horse both on the ground and when ridden.

Horses that are prone to shying will especially benefit from this training.

It is very important to understand that we are not conditioning to objects, we are giving your horse a fright, allowing them to run away and experience that it was uncomfortable running away when they got a fright, and eventually learn that they are safe standing still.

We can’t possibly condition our horses to every object that they will see that may frighten them, so this training teaches your horse to choose to stay with you and be safe standing still.

Here’s a little story about two pink pigs : –

When I first came to Australia I bought a young buckskin gelding that hadn’t been trained very well.

I decided to desensitise him to as many objects as I could think of – a tarp ,umbrella, plastic bags, rattly objects, a stock whip and eventually I could even shoot my rifle off him.

One day out mustering behind an old farm out ran two little pink pigs!

My horse shit himself – panicked, reared up and was out of his mind scared about those two pink pigs and I thought to myself  “well I have only conditioned my horse to objects and I forgot all about pink pigs”.

So then I made a long lead, spooked my horse with an object, let him run away, did my draw-and-release for running away and slowly he learned that standing still was safe.

Eventually,if he saw a new object that spooked him, he would choose to stand still – he may still be shaking but he never ran away from it.

It is very important that you have worked through all the previous Steps before attempting Step Eight.

It is also very important that you have control of the spooky object/s that you are going to use. You need to know how to place yourself in safe positions when teaching your horse this step.

One of the most important things to understand when teaching Step Eight, is that its OK for your horse to run away if he is frightened.

He needs to be allowed to make that mistake. Let him go, even if he wants to go to the end of your very long lead (30 foot lead) then you will do your draw-and-release, draw-and-release until he comes back towards you.

Then reset him back in position where the comfort zone is, rub him on the neck for being back in position and try again.

Soon he will stand while you move the spooky object around him, he will want to look at it and want to inspect it.

If I teach the long-reining first, I can teach my horse to walk in a circle and correctly bend into the circle.”

Most people when they first try and lunge their horse, have to chase them to get them to move forward and horses despise being chased (especially mares).

Teach your horse to listen to your verbal cues of walk, trot, canter on the long-reins, then when you progress to lunging, your horse will happily go forward on those cues while you stand still in the middle of the circle.

There is no need to chase your horse with a lunge whip or flag because the signals are clear and your horse is willing to go forward, and transition up and down and stop.

Lunging is a partnership, and should never be chasing. Good lunging is best achieved through long-reining first as a foundation skill.