Does your horse know how to seek the release of pressure?

When we are building in cuing and language, pressure/release or negative reinforcement is quite often the tool used, especially once we are in the saddle.

The problem is that the motivation for the horse to follow our aids is relief from pressure. How scary, uncomfortable or painful does a pressure have to be for your horse to seek relief from it?

What we really want our horses to do with pressure is to seek it for direction.

So if I have a new student enquiry for a behavioural issue, after ruling out pain related issues, quite often it is a relationship to the use of pressure as a training tool that is creating the behavioural issue.

If you main motivation to perform a task was for relief from anywhere from mild discomfort to pain, how motivated would you be to seek the answer and engage willingly?

When we focus on the quality of relationship, we can understand our horses better and delve deeper into what truly motivates them.

If you're ready build the relationship of your dreams with your horse, check out our free connection training.