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Use of the three p's - patience, persistence and positive reinforcement - is vital when training horses. Before undertaking the rewarding task of teaching your horse to do what is desired, you must understand these basics. Following these basic tips will provide the foundations of a great relationship between horse and rider.

Let's start with patience, as that may be the most important quality in a good trainer. Patience is required when teaching a horse anything that is new to him. Horses are prey animals and are aware of this fact. As the sun sets, watch horses in their pens or pasture. If there's a herd, you'll see them gather into their group for safety. They may be seen standing head to tail and side by side. Standing like this helps them to spot potential danger from different directions. Watch a horse unfamiliar with water and you'll notice anything from simple hesitance to dangerous raring up, which can get a rider thrown. Serious injury or worse could befall both horse and rider. Therefore, it is imperative that your horse be trained with much patience and that he learns to trust you not to take him into a situation that could be dangerous.

Horse and rider can develop a mutual trust and a confident partnership when due patience has been employed in training. It often surprises those new to horse training that one can remove or reduce the fear of impending doom felt by most horses at their exposure to new objects and situations. A horse can be scared of percieved threats, no matter how silly they may sound, such as the flapping of a shirt on a washing line. Patient training will teach your horse to feel as relaxed as you are about the flapping laundry, and he will trust you enough to walk past it without getting spooked.

Horse trainers need persistence to get good results. Repetition when practicing your exercises helps to build trust and confidence between horse and trainer. Professional horse trainers begin with ground work which may at first seem tedious. Ground work means exactly that - not actually getting up and riding. But trainers understand that horses are no different than children learning to walk. Just as a baby must learn to sit up, then crawl, then walk, a horse must learn the basics of polite and safe behaviour near humans before they can be tacked up and ridden.

For your horse to understand what is expected of him, you will need to be persistent and practice tasks together many times. The horse needs to know what is expected of him. Your horse needs to know to be still when you bring out the tack, for example. This is unnatural for your horse. It requires persistence to teach this. You need to be the more persistent one. If he runs off when you approach, you will need to persist, as allowing him to resist or avoid you even once will give him the idea that he can indeed do so. Persistence in training may also be termed consistency.

As a trainer you will need to use lots of positive reinforcement with your horse. A horse will usually just love to please you and should see you as leader of the herd. Lifelong friendships can be developed between horse and rider where each understands their role in the relationship.

Positive reinforcement can be very simple gestures or words of approval, of making your horse feel appreciated. Horses are very perceptive and can feel your emotional state. If you feel happy with the progress of a particular exercise, allow the horse to feel that emotion too.

As a word of warning, it is unwise to try to train your horse when you are in a bad mood or stressed out. Your horse will sense your mood and may decide not to cooperate. This has less to do with rebelliousness and more to do with the horse's fear. If you haven't developed the necessary trust as yet, the horse may be apprehensive and wary of what you may do when you are upset.

No matter what type of riding or event you wish to persue, it is the ultimate goal of the horse trainer to build a bond of trust between horse and rider. These horse training basics stay the same whether you choose to ride simply for pleasure or in competitions, in either English or Western riding style. The 3 p’s principles – patience, persistence, and positive reinforcement – can be applied to any breed of horse for a successful training experience.