Over the years I have worked with a lot of people who are trying to better horse people. Some have made amazing changes in a short time. Some people make slow and plodding progress and others appear to be exactly where they were 10 or more years ago.
A Visit From An Old Friend
Bruce said, “Mate, this is what I have learned and the only stuff that I am sure about. The first 500 horses taught me how to stay on. The second 500 horses taught me how to be good at getting a horse to do stuff. The next 500 horses taught me that if I don’t get in the way of what a horse wants to do, they all seem pretty happy.”
Contractual Trust
Learning to Wait
Waiting has always been a challenge for me. I think those early years of learning to be effective also taught me that horses were meant to be on my schedule, not me on theirs. But my friend showed me that to get something done when a horse was not ready was an abuse of power and privilege – it’s what bullies do, not horsemen. My job was to either wait for them to be ready or find a way to help them become ready.
Using Feel To Change A Horse's Thought
It has been drummed into most of us that when we apply a feel to teach a task, our horse learns the meaning of the feel by the timing of our release. We know this. We all learn it and we all apply it to some degree. It is a mantra that a horse learns from the release of pressure, not the application of pressure.
Solly Figures Out Western Saddles
This is from the most recent clinic I finished yesterday. The horse is Solly who is a 3 1/2 year old. This is the second clinic in 5 weeks that I worked with Solly. Originally it was intended that I would get him started under saddle for Lorena Russell. However, on the first day Lorena and I agreed he would benefit greatly from another 6 to 12 months of maturing - physically, mentally and emotionally - before he becomes a riding horse.