Let Your Horse Make The Mistake!

Before you poo-poo the idea, hear me out!

One way to really affect your relationship with your horse in a negative way is to micromanage their behaviour.

As the perfectionists we are, it is super hard to let our horse make a mistake when we feel it is about to happen. In response, we create pressure when our horse is still doing the right thing.

If the pressure is there for the right AND the wrong behavior, there is no incentive for our horse to seek the answer.

So to help them continue to seek the right answer - let them make the mistake!

Once they've made the mistake, correct them. Let them keep making the mistake over and over until they figure out what the correct answer is and choose to do it. This creates willingness.

Create a work ethic in your horse where they are looking for the correct answer to the ask. Create a curious horse that engages in your training and enjoys learning.

Don’t create a horse that stops asking questions, stops looking for answers and sometimes starts arguing with you.

Support your horse’s training by understanding the full concepts of Trainability - the program that teaches you how to create a confident, willing and curious companion - view more details on the program here.

Training Trainability In Action

I am in a pretty lucky situation - I have the best of all best friends with a multitude of horses, so when mine is out of work (clumsy little clutz he is!), she let’s me play with some of her other horses.

Not many people get that chance - thanks Bestie!

But what it does mean is that I end up working with horses that don’t work to MY expectation.

They aren’t nasty horses - in fact, they are all very affectionate and sweet.

They aren’t naughty horses (mostly) - but they do have a few tricks or habits that, while not creating a real drama, aren’t ideal from my point of view.

In no way do I blame the owner of these horses, or the previous rider, or the horses themselves. This is just what ends up happening over time when people of different skill sets work with horses of different and ever-evolving skill sets. (In actual fact, these horses are exceptionally loved and well-treated, and the owners very intelligent).

But what it does mean for me is that I get to work through these little issues with the horse - and I love doing it!

I get to put into practice the lessons from the Holistic Horse Handling Program and see them come to life. I get to see the horse underneath that wants to look after people and be looked after. I get to see that sometimes, our horses have a lot more to say.

Today I had the joy of working with a very sweet Thoroughbred with a very subtle issue. He was tense when being tacked up - so tense, that he would have a little freak, break away from the tie rail, and take himself back to his feed yard.

To one observer, they might see a naughty horse that learnt that pulling back got him free and away from work. Another might observe that there was too much activity nearby providing over-stimulation.

To those who have trained under Katie, you would recognise that the breathing had become shallow, the body tense, and that he could no longer ‘submit’ to being tied if you brought the saddle near.

The First Do No Harm skillset identified that there was no pain with riding. The Compassionate Leadership skills saw that he became stressed when he was being saddled. So our goal - to show him that he would only be saddled WHEN HE WAS READY TO CONTINUE.

The process allowed him to think, instead of react, to the stimulus; to process what was there and have the opportunity to tell us when he was ready to continue.

• It meant giving him an avenue to communicate he was ready (we worked on that over the last few weeks).

• It meant giving him a way of expressing that he wasn’t ready (and because this is a new option for him, boy did he have fun saying no for a while!).

• It meant taking everything back to basics to understand where the problem lies and what else we needed to do to help him overcome it.

I could have chosen to ride him into submission for an hour, working out his niggles all the way, but that would only mean that the next ride would be the same - or worse.

Instead I chose to spend 45 minutes working with him and 10 minutes in the saddle, but by the end of the session he was relaxed, releasing his tension and taking in lessons and new cues in moments instead of minutes. And it means that next ride, it wont take forever to tack him up, with our ride starting off all tense and agitated. It means next ride, his acceptance of tacking up will be faster and allow him to relax, understand and process his learning.

It’s the difference between a WILLING HORSE and a SUBMISSIVE HORSE - and that is the hugest difference in the world once you experience it.

Would you like your horse to be willing to work with you, instead of just submitting?

Click here to view the Program