While it is possible to have correctness and mental softness, it is NOT automatically true that one leads to the other. Yet so many instructors and trainers talk as if you can’t have one without the other.
In essence, the emotional anxiety at the beginning determined the horse’s thoughts to run, pull away, call out, try going the other way, etc. It is only by changing the emotions that the horse was able to listen and follow a feel.
It’s okay if sometimes we stop repeating an exercise for the wrong reason or at the wrong time. Not a problem. We can fix that the next time. But we must never stop asking the questions, why did I ask my horse that and why did I stop asking my horse that?
