The most important principle of horse training is to make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy, which involves allowing your horse to explore its options. However, it is very important not to always think about and action the “make the wrong thing hard” part. It is far more productive if...

Warwick revisits Making the Wrong Thing Hard and the Right Thing Easy by demonstrating many examples of it, from the simple act of standing with your horse to picking up feet, when a horse spooks at something, jumping and trailer loading.

This principle explains how the old saying of Don’t Go To Bed Angry applies to horse training. When your horse is no longer relaxed, you need to get him relaxed again before proceeding. (Like a married couple, if anything has built up during the day, get rid of it before you go to bed.)

Warwick takes a deeper dive into the principle of Don’t Go To Bed Angry and shows you the practical tools that he uses to create relaxation and responsiveness both on the ground and under saddle.

Warwick describes the principle of Do The Opposite in order to get your horse mentally and physically balanced so that you are working with or riding a relaxed, safe and confident horse.

Taking a deeper dive into the Do The Opposite principle, Warwick gives practical examples of the balancing act both on the ground and under saddle including “collection”. Warwick also shows some examples with a jumping horse and explains his basic body control exercise, the Left/Right exercise.

This principle is one of the foundations of Warwick’s training process. A horse is always looking for the place that they feel most comfortable. They have an uncanny ability to remember where they get rest and where they work. In this episode, Warwick will illustrate a typical dressage lesson and...

Taking a deeper dive into the Choose Where You Work and Choose Where You Rest principle, Warwick addresses spooking and how it could be related to where your horse is attracted to versus repelled from. You will also see an example of a first ride in a big arena and why all of the reasons people s...

In any sport or discipline, whether horse related or not, people at high levels of the sport know the importance of perfecting the basics. This is what the Donkey Kong principle is all about. When you perfect the basics, the hard stuff, the stuff that comes later on, is EASY! Starting over from t...

This principle is similar to how we teach children to count before they add, and add before they multiply, because the answer to the current question lies in the previous teaching. Warwick walks you through examples with horses on the ground and in the saddle, as well as addressing how to use thi...

Otherwise known as order of cues, this principle is very important in teaching a horse how to respond to subtlety. This is about teaching your horse something as opposed to just getting them to do something. If you are ever in doubt about the application of aids, just think about how a horse woul...

Everything your horse learns that is good is due to anticipation. Everything your horse learns that is not so good, is due to anticipation. Warwick will show you how to use Anticipation to your advantage and how you can solve problems if you’ve inadvertently taught your horse to do something that...

Anytime you are asking a horse to do two or more things at once they need to know them perfectly well separately. When you put them together and it is not working you need to mentally isolate the one that is not working, separate it and correct the issue before recombining them.

When solving a problem you need to make sure the tool or exercise you are using to solve the problem is fully functional before you use it.

When you use this principle, it ensures your horse doesn’t have any difficulty finding the answer to the question and also helps you identify the start of any problems.

This principle could also be called “Work with the horse that is in front of you right now”. This principle ensures that you are working on the issue at hand and not yesterdays. This is the principle that has more to do with you than the horse.

In this Principles of Training in Action Warwick works with Kristin, a grand prix dressage rider and her young imported gelding Dream. Dream has been known to “porpoise” around, which is a small buck and he is not “straight”. Watch as Warwick diagnoses the underlying problems and explains what pr...

The second part of Dream and Kristin.

This video is an episode of The Principles Of Training where Warwick travels to Australia to work with master horseman Luke Thomas. Once a year Luke has a job halter breaking 150 unweaned Thoroughbred weanlings, and Warwick was interested in learning Luke’s process. This episode covers the first ...

Part 2 of Warwick’s sessions with Luke Thomas and the Thoroughbred foals.

In this episode, Warwick explores the principle of Work With The Horse You Have Today, going further into the human aspect of training by expounding on American philosopher Wayne Dyer's quote "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change". The horse featured in this e...

In part 2 of the Rearing Eventer, Warwick uses the mare's new found ability to find a happy place, and get her to where she will approach the scary banners in his arena. Then, after 5 weeks with him, he takes the mare home and helps her and her trainer with a jumping session, where they use the t...

In this video, Warwick rides his horse Bundy in what would be a "normal" session for them and points out the Principles of Training to explain why he does what and when, as well as highlighting what he calls the “focus work under saddle.”

After many people watched the livestream of Warwick & Robyn compete in the reining at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, there were many questions on the Sliding Stop. In this episode of the Principles in Action, Warwick demonstrates the early stages of teaching the stop with his horse Bundy, who h...