Are you strong enough for your horse?

A lot of well meaning equestrians come to me with big behavioural issues thinking the problem they are having is they aren’t strong enough to man handle their horse, their not brave enough to buck out their horse.

They want to know how to deal with their fear and make their horse behave itself.

Is this you?

The big mistake they are making is that they are thinking leadership is a show of strength and power. You horse doesn’t need you to be the boss but they do need you to lead with confidence so that they can follow. If they think you cannot lead with confidence and give enough direction for them to succeed at meeting your expectations of a “well behaved” horse then they take the lead and horses don’t make good life choices for humans.

There is one caveat here - that what you release for, you reinforce.

So if you ask you horse to do something they don’t want to do and they don’t respond the way you wanted them too and then maybe you’re feeling scared or confused and conflicted on how to get them to actually do it because you have released the pressure for the behaviour you didn’t want you have cued that behaviour in to that ask.

So part of being a leader for your horse is trying to ask things of your horse where you aren’t over facing them or yourself or tipping them over threshold. This in itself is inevitable, we will do it by accident so its important that when we break that confidence and trust in us we find a positive note to finish on, take the goal off the table and focus on rebuilding the trust and confidence between horse and rider.

The only way to reach those big audacious goals you have set for yourself and your horse is by building and strengthening your confidence and trust in each other.

And that’s why the second pillar inside the Holistic Horse Handling Methodology is Compassionate Leadership skills.

Who do you have to be for your horse to have confidence and trust in you and what you are asking of them? Who do you have to be to be comfortable giving your horse direction and your horse seeking it from you?

Have a gap and want to become a compassionate leader?