It’s Christmas and gift-giving season.
I have been thinking, if I were Santa, what is the one training skill I would want to give every horse person for Christmas? Many things come to mind - feel, patience, kindness, a questioning mind, etc.
But if I were pressed to choose just one power I’d want every horse person to possess, I guess it would be the ability to direct a horse’s thoughts as the first step to asking a horse to do something.
I know I harp on this topic a lot, but it continues to amaze me how few people don’t even understand the principle, let alone how to put it into practice. Most people recognise the importance of a horse’s thinking in regulating both the physical and emotional sides of horses. However, so few people really understand how to direct a horse’s thoughts or even recognise when it happens. People confuse what a horse is doing with what it is thinking. They are not the same thing.
It’s hard to inspire a horse to think to the left when it believes thinking to the right is a much better idea. And when the horse turns to the left, people often believe the horse is now thinking to the left because that’s where its feet are moving. But this may not be true, and recognising where a horse is directing its thoughts and when its thought changes is a skill that eludes many people.
How many instructors have you known who emphasise and focus on teaching how to direct a horse’s thoughts? Compare that number with the instructors you have known whose main focus is teaching how to get a horse to move and its biomechanics.
Both are important, but in my view, directing a horse’s thoughts should always precede driving the movement. However, it is my experience that most people do it the other way around. When we learn to direct a horse’s thoughts, applying aids that we use to block unwanted responses, like using an outside rein to block drifting to the outside of a circle, are unnecessary and redundant. When we learn to direct a horse’s thoughts, you and your horse are invested in working together because you share the same idea. Unfortunately, most people apply the principle that driving movement will elicit a change in a horse’s thinking. Rarely does driving the feet result in the change of thought we are striving to achieve.
There are many other skills I would like to pass on to people to help their horsemanship, but none are more important than being able to direct a horse’s thoughts. When I learned this foundational principle, it changed everything about the way I worked with horses. It’s hard, and it’s frustrating at times. But when it comes together, it is like every day is Christmas for you and your horse.
Happy Christmas.
