How to create a safe horse that wants to look after you (video/audio)

In this video, Katie shares her tips on creating a safe horse that wants to look after you.

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What is the biggest mistake we can make when training?

What is the biggest error we make with our horses?

One of the biggest human errors I believe that we make with our horses in training is expecting a certain task is achieved to our expectations. That success is only valid if the horse performs to a particular, pre-determined level.

Going in to a training session with this as our goal posts is a sure fire way to get ourselves in arguments with our horses, turn our horses sour and get stuck in our training. Or even worse create big, dangerous behavioural problems.

Having a task achieved to our expectations doesn't factor in whether our horse is trying, giving us yeses or nos or is an active willing participant in our training.

It doesn't tease out whether our horses understand or can do what we're asking or if they have an underlying issue that needs addressing.

Rather than setting our goal posts to whether or not we achieve a certain task to our expectations we should be structuring our training session around our horses yeses. When our horse consecutively says yes to our ask we are setting our standards and rewarding for willingness and their active engagement in our training session.

Long term this means that we don't need loads of pressure for big challenging asks, because we've already geared our horses to be agreeable with what we are asking rather than getting the yeses through intense pressure and stress.

It also means we can trouble shoot the “no” before it becomes a bigger problem.

A lot of horses have legitimate reasons for their no’s, and when we address them we can unravel some big behavioural issues and solve them quickly so that our horse is a lot happier to work with us.

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Is forced consent still a yes?

Is forced consent still consent?

We were having a discussion in our stronger bond community about how I ask Fitty if he wants his rug on and I let him tell me yes or no.

This flies in the face of everything we are taught in the horse industry. The horse must do as its told otherwise it will be the boss!!

I admit it was initially an uncomfortable conversation for me. It went against everything I have been taught to let my horse say no to me!!

This is where we have started to tier our yeses to find out truly if they are a yes or if they are a yes because they have no other option. In certain scenarios we can give the horse a choice. One scenario is whether or not they want a rug. If he were old, underweight or clipped I would tell him he had no choice but as it is, I'm happy for him to tell me what he wants.

So here's a little break down as I see it:

• Submission, your horse is saying yes because it has no other option

• Disobedience, your horse is saying no because they are challenging you

• Willingness, your horse is saying yes because they are actively engaged in the exercise and you're building their yes muscle

• Consent, your horse has the option to say no and sometimes does but you are asking for permission to do something with them and they are consenting the ask.

• Choice, you are giving the horse a choice of 2 options and they are allowed to pick.

There are certain times and places for all these forms of yeses. The deeper the connection and the better you open the lines of communication the clearer you and your horse will work through these conversations without their behaviour escalating.

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