Is your use of pressure and release antagonising conflict?

Are you training pressure/release, or are you having a power over conversation antagonising conflict?

We don't want every training session we are working on cuing to turn in to a power over, submission to conversation when it comes to negative reinforcement. This can really quickly result in conflict in your relationship with your horse and escalate you in to using positive punishment to "correct" the behaviours you triggered from your horse - the ones we label as “resistance”.

If we see every "resistance" as a naughty horse we miss their cues like, "I'm in pain, I don't understand, I can't do it, I need a break, I'm giving my best effort, I don't feel safe, I don't have trust and confidence in you as a leader".

If we take the idea of resistance to follow pressure means “my horse is being naughty and I have to get stronger” off the table, we can figure out what our horse really needs from us. Rarely is it that we need to be stronger and more powerful. Often it is that we need to be more sensitive and tuned in to how they want to asked and how we can more effectively motivate them. Often, they need us to be more compassionate leaders.

This is why the Holistic Horse Handling Methodology focuses on 3 key pillars: Compassionate Leadership, Willingness and Emotional Agility. If you are interesting in working in a way with your horse that takes the "because I told you to" conversation to a true partenership without conflict, register your interest here: