During a lunch break at a recent clinic, I was asked about my career as a scientist. I explained that I studied how hormones in fetal brains determine the timing of birth.
Then I was asked how I got into that field of research. I said that it began when I was a very small child and I was taught the alphabet. I became a very good reader. It progressed from there.
From time to time, people ask me how I became so good at reading horses and working with them. My answer is that it began when I was a kid; I had a job picking up horse poo for hours at a riding school on weekends. I learned to be really good at picking up poo. My skills as a horse person progressed from there.
We all hope we can bring out the best in our horses, and we can be proud of what our horse can do. But how do we ensure we do that?
It starts with everything we teach them from their very first experience with humans. It progresses with everything that follows from there, with no gaps.
When we hit a wall with our horse's progress, we should ask ourselves: have we reached the emotional or physical limit of what it is capable of reaching, or did we leave gaps in the things that came before? One of those options we can address and fix.
