I learned many years ago that being good with horses required a large degree of ‘feel’. For a long time, I worked hard at learning to apply feel in everything I did around a horse. But it was something reserved only for when I was around horses.
Choose the method that best addresses and changes the real cause of the problem. This usually means addressing something far more basic than the problem itself.
Michèle and I have a herd of 5 horses. They are all aging and well past their prime. My pony, Chops, is fast approaching her 36th birthday, and I have noticed a few behavioural changes I had never seen before.
It is important to keep in mind why we ask something of a horse and know when we have achieved our goal, in order to know when to quit asking. On its own, ground work has no purpose. There are no Olympic or World Cup competitions in ground work.
