As leaders, we can teach our horses to deal with anxiety caused by other horses or their environment. What they learn is to release tension under pressure and focus or follow our direction and energy. Throughout this, they build confidence and an ability to deal with high levels of pressure. Thus, their herd problems decrease or disappear entirely, while at the same time their trust in you increases exponentially.
Horses are curious creatures. As a prey animal, their thinking is fear-based. Learn to turn fear into curiosity!
Defining success. Creating a space where your horse can always succeed and you can always feel great about it.
Finding our Ground Zero – the place we can always start successfully from.
We move forward when the horse is in release and following our focus. Why you should never force a horse through an obstacle.
We build it on the ground, then ride it in the saddle.
Does it really matter where your horse is, or what he is doing when you’re leading him? It might not be a big deal to you, but the conversations that you have (or don’t have) when you’re leading him form the foundation of his entire social structure. It’s a big deal for your horse. With a little know-how you can use leading to form a corner stone of a solid leadership agreement with your horse – one in which he’ll trust you and follow, both in and out of the saddle.
What does Sir Isaac Newton have to do with horse training? Well, his 3rd law of motion is tied in to how you ride your horse in some very obvious ways that you likely haven’t thought about – but when you do it might change how you ride from now on. So lets explore!
This article is the second of a three part series. I got to writing it and found it was a very deep – but very important – topic. How we work with our horse’s thoughts defines our relationship and establishes our credibility as leaders.
We make sense of the world using the information we have and our personal beliefs and values. We also have an expectation that everyone we interact with shares those beliefs and values. It’s called the False Consensus Effect. We even do this with horses! That leads to frustrated people with frustrated horses. Lets move beyond that!