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The Key To Training Your Horse

Your relationship with your horse is the key to the success of your training.

It may not warrant a lot of thought, but the strength of our relationship with our horse will determine the speed at which said horse will respond to your training.

Relationships are intrinsically fluid and dynamic by nature. They are influenced daily by how each of us feel, the external stressors, our personalities, our hormones, and heck, sometimes just the weather! There is little different in a human to human relationship to that we experience with any other animal, including horses - except we can generally communicate a little easier with other people.

It is inevitable that one day you will have an amazing training session with your horse, and the next one of the worst experiences in the arena possible. But it is how YOU handle this with your horse that will determine the ultimate outcome - that being the strengthening of a relationship and a better ride next time, or the deterioration of the relationship and an even worse ride to come.

There are several key things you always should remember when working on your bond or training with your horse:

• A horse is a horse - while he can sense you are stressed, he doesn't understand that it is because so-and-so said something to you at work, he just knows your stressed. Breathe and take the time to be with your horse without distractions.

• A horse is a creature with personality and therefore emotions. When working with your horse, it is important not to become emotionally reactive in the training, as this will impede your thought processes and your horse will react accordingly.

• Whenever possible, always finish on a positive note, even if it means you take it right down to the very basics of training. Not only will you feel better that your horse responded correctly, your horse will remember that the work finished not because he was naughty, but because he did something correct.

• NEVER EVER use punishment as a tool for training.

• Keep in mind that every moment you spend with your horse is a moment that could either make or break your relationship.

7 Ways You Can Destroy Your Relationship With Your Horse

1. All work and no plays makes Jack a dull boy

Hopefully, we will not be witnessing another event like that in The Shining, but it is an accurate statement nonetheless.

If all we do with our horse is the basic care routine and work, we miss the opportunities to create bonds based on affection. In affect, we become boring, with our horses become bored with our routine,- to the point they may try to avoid it altogether.

2. Allowing your horse to set the rules

A horse that has to step up as the alpha when they are with us results in the loss of respect for us. Politely reinforcing discipline through our activities will allow us to identify and settle leadership challenges.

3. Not releasing the pressure

Have you ever had someone keep pushing and pushing and pushing til you want to scream “enough”? Our horses learn to seek release from our aids (pressure), but get easily confused and frustrated when we don’t apply the release correctly or at all.

4. Hurting, bullying or scaring our horse

It may seem logical, but it is still done these days. A horse will not bond with you and become your willing work partner if you hurt it or chase it around the yard with a flag on a stick. They may eventually learn to obey you, but they never become your partner, only your tool. These types of horses may become dangerous and eventually euthanased.

5. Letting them deal with their own emotional crisis

In this case, we are talking about sudden causes of anxiety, not social interactions.

When your horse is faced with something terrifying, and we step up as the leader to show them how to work through those emotions, we take the opportunity to prove ourselves to our horse. If we leave it to our horses how best to figure it out, well, most of the time they way they deal isn’t the way we want them to.

6. Pushing the pace too fast - or too slow

Our horses are all uniquely different, in shape, size, colour but also personality and learning capabilities. This means that we cannot expect our horses to all grow and develop in the same way.

When we force our horses to try to learn something new too fast, we create stress and anxiety that is not conducive to stabilising our relationship. If we go to slow, we may create frustrations. It is key that we adjust our training pace and activities to each of our horses development.

7. Neglecting to properly fit tack or address pain issues

Pain is an unpleasant experience that many of our horses experience at one time or another. When we are the cause of that pain, either via using poorly fitted tack, or working their body incorrectly, or even working them when they have a brewing hoof abscess, our horses begin to associate us with the pain - and believe me, that is not a positive bonding thought.

Do you need support with your relationship?

How To Identify If Your Relationship With Your Horse Needs Improving

You love your horse. right?

We know you do - it is why we are here, too!

But does your horse love & respect you back?

It may seem a fickle question, but it is one that we should ask.

Our relationship with our horse has a massive impact on our training. And our training has a massive impact on our relationship. Every form of interaction determines what you can expect from your horse in turn.

So, what are the signs you should be looking for that indicate you need to work on your relationship with your horse?

You are regularly frustrated with your horse - or yourself

You try your best, your work yourself and your horse hard, but you just don’t seem to be getting anywhere. Yep, you are feeling the very beginnings of frustration.

Unfortunately, frustration can lead to feelings of irritation, distance or just a lack of appreciation. And don’t think for a moment that your horse isn’t feeling those emotions from you.

If you are getting frustrated or irritated, it is time to step back and focus on the real reason you are here - to love and be loved by that majestic beast in your paddock.

Your horse is “pushy”

Is you horse disrespectful of your personal space? Do they almost step on you when you lead them, or mow you down when you let them out?

Or perhaps they are becoming aggressive and pushy at feed time, knowing that you will hand them their food immediately should they push.

A horse that is not respecting your boundaries may be testing you, but if you are seeing this happen frequently, it’s time to get your horse focusing on respecting you.

Your horse spooks - a lot

It can be scary, frustrating or just plain irritating when our horse regularly spooks. But it is our responsibility, as the leader of your horse-y group, to ensure your horse is confident, relaxed and curious. If you horse is spooking, it is unlikely that it is feeling any of those moods, and means you need to work on your relationship foundations.

You only see your horse at feed-time and for work

Imagine this: You get to see your significant other/best friend/favourite sibling every day for dinner but the only thing you get to do discuss is a business meeting. No “what are we doing this weekend”, “how was your day” or “where shall we take our next holiday”. Just budgets, margin, profits or sales.

It might be ok for a day or two, but would get pretty stale in a short time.

It is exactly the same for our horses when we do nothing more besides work them or feed them. They quickly associate their activity with us with either feeding (YAY!) or work (not always so yay). After a while, they will even get to know your routine, and may start taking diversionary tactics to avoid less ‘pleasant’ time with us.

You’re not ‘in the moment’ with your horse

If you find yourself going through a mental checklist of to-do’s, or constantly worrying about something else, when you are spending time with your horse, chances are you need to refocus on your relationship.

We understand that life is busy and full of stresses, but when you focus on anything but your horse, you are not helping your bond. Unfortunately, our horses can pick up on these sentiments as well, which may exasperate the rift in your bond as well.

So how can we improve or tweak our relationship with our horse? Have a look at this free online course Building Connection