Ask-Tell-INSIST
Written by Kellyn
Possibly the most important thing I have ever learned concerning horses is the ask-Tell-INSIST method. I learned this when I was in 4-H from a trainer in Colorado, Roy Yates. This method can be applied to almost everything you do with your horse, and it's very simple. First, you ask your horse to do something, lets say for example you want him to trot on a lunge line. So first, ask him to trot by clucking. If he does trot, excellent, you needn't go any farther. However, if he does not trot, then you need to tell him to trot. You can do this by clucking more vigorously, or maybe by moving your lunge whip a little behind him. Once again, if he trots, wonderful! If not, keep going to the insist part. You've asked by clucking, and got no response. Then you told him by clucking and moving your whip, and still got no response. So now its time to cluck a little, but then bring your lunge whip around and either smack the ground behind him or around him, or if you must, pop him with the end of it. The important thing with the insist is to make sure you are being fair and getting a response. You MUST get a response in this stage, or else the entire excersize has been pointless. So do what you must (without being abusive, of course) to get the desired result. By using this method, soon you will only have to ask, and your horse will listen.
I use this in everything I do with a horse, but forethought is involved. This means that for everything you want your horse to do, you must have planned in advance what your different ask, tell and insist cues will be. If you go into it not knowing this, the horse will win, the excersize will be pointless, and you'll probably get very frustrated (yes, I know this from experience). Another important comment here would be to progress quickly through ask, tell, and insist. If you ask and nothing happens, go IMMEDIATLEY to the tell phase. Similarly, if nothing happens when you tell, progress immediatley to the insist phase. This is the only way this method works. If you ask and wait, then you tell and wait, then you insist and wait, the horse does not connect them, but rather thinks of them as three different things, and ends up wondering why you're smacking him when you didn't ask him to do anything in the first place!
So remember, ask, Tell, and INSIST in everything you do, and your horse will become lighter. By using this in teaching the horse to lead, he'll walk better with you. By doing this when asking the horse to move forward under saddle, you'll soon have him to the point where when you squeeze ever so slightly, he'll be more than willing to walk out. Just remember to be fair, and plan everything out in advance.
