Exercises to boost your horse's manners

These exercises are quick so I decided to put them all in one article. But beside being quick they're very useful if your horse is quite cheeky!

Exercise one: stand by mounting block

Even if you don't use the good old mounting block to get on, this will allow you to trust your horse that he will stand nicely wherever you leave him. Approach leading from the offside so you can correct him if he tries to move. When you're sure he won't walk away, walk around and stand on the mounting block as you would do for mounting. Then climb down and repeat, this time leading from the nearside and acting as you would to mount.

Exercise two: walk in the track

As your horse's day-to-day life is probably in the arena's track just counting steps, he might become a little bit cheeky by cutting corners and doing similar things which can be really annoying. So simply spend time walking and, if you want, trotting on both reins along the arena while correcting his mistakes.