Get out of my space!!

I've had horses for a while. When I was about 10 yrs old we got a couple of horses and what I learned was from trial and error. And one of the first things involved holding onto your horse. And that is - if a 10 yr old child gives a horse a long lead (hooked to a nylon halter) it can get a head start and break away in a split second and then she'll spend the next 3 hrs chasing them all over the township. So I learned right away to hold them up closer to the halter.

Fast forward to the clinic. Lesson one - get your horse out of your space and hold that leadrope about 4' from his face. He needs to be able to move around. Given the Fight or Flight tendancy a horse will take to flight and if you stop him from this he will want to fight. Let him move around if he wants - that's his business. As long as he stays out of your space!!

Okay, so we're at the clinic and they come out with the hula hoops and put them on the ground a bit out from the wall and evenly spaced. The hoops were for us to stand in - so that we would have a real idea of where our space was. And then for 30-40 min we worked on lessons. The sending away lesson:
The horse is next to you and you want him to back away. Maybe just one step at first but straight away later.
#1 give the pinning your ears back look at him >:
#2 point your finger at him (toward the way you want him to go, which is backward) and wag your finger
#3 if he doesn't back up then wag the rope
#4 if he doesn't back up wag harder until you're flailing it.
But as soon as he even takes a small step back you need to relax. And have a relaxed stance.
Then bring your horse back in and do this again and again.

Lesson two - walking with your horse:
Hold him at 4' and start walking.
To get him out of your space rhythmically swing your arm.
Jiggle the rope to slow him.
Pull fwd on the rope/halter to speed him up or use the end of the rope on his butt.
Change speeds and get him to change speeds too.