Welkom at article #5 of the series ’10 lessons learned from a true Horseman’. In the last article you would have been able to read how you can be sure the mechanics in your horses brain cLICKED.
In this article I would like to explain to you how you can constantly keep your horse convinced that he is loved and you are doing things WITH him and FOR him instead of TO him. In an earlier article we already spoke about how to remind your horse that he can trust you. In this article I will show you an example of how to use this in a later stadium.
During the NH Experience this year (2015) guest instructor Berni Zambail helped my students and my both to constantly revert to the first exercise we both like to teach our students; ‘Trust me’. This exercise helps your horse to start focusing on your body language whenever he gets unconfident and find security with you, in the beginning through simple patterns like waving your stick or rope around with rhythm.
A clear example of how to practice this later was the first private lesson I had during the course with Varox. Varox is a horse with a full backpack of not-so-nice history and this was the first time he came to an extern course with me on a big (busy competition) terrain. He was upset of course with all the different things going on and constantly threatened to lose his attention to other things (which would usually lead to an attempt to pull loose and leave).
With some effort, we finally arrived at the arena and Berni offered to play with him for a bit first to show what he would do in my place.
Berni knew how to get his attention almost immediately and ofcourse there were a couple of specators that were a bit shocked by his offered clarity towards the horse. What showed itself very seen though was that, next to the needed ‘phase 4’ here and there, a rub, smile and an encouragement always followed right away. The sharper the correction, the longer and friendlier the following encouragement offered.
And so it was obvious to everyone present that the horse, after his first surprise over the fact that this man knew what he was doing, sought his guidance and confidence from Berni because he knew he would not be criticized but would be constantly thanked and praised for his try to make the right choices. This is also the Horseman I wrote about in ‘How to recognize a true Horseman?’
So what was the lesson we can learn from this?
Remember that the relationship with your horse is like a bank account; if you take more than you’ve put into it you’ll get in debt. When that happens you’ve lost your horses trust and he will get either unconfident or angry and start making choices without involving you.
The trick to keep your bank account full is to thank your horse, to reward him, hug him… every time he tries, you make a mistake involving him, or he needs a correction.
Even the bible tells us that after every correction, there should be an increase of love. 😉 Shouldn’t we then understand too?
Teach yourself to really see every try your horse gives you and to reward him for it with your hands, your stick, your rope, your legs when riding, your voice (unless you’re frustrated!) and smile, even if his try wasn’t perfect. This way you help him grow into a confident student and constantly remind him of this ‘Maybe you needed a correction, but I still love you and you are safe with me.’ Just like with a child you want to teach your horse ‘Making mistakes doesn’t make you a bad horse.’
I challenge you for the coming weeks after every correction you do with your horse to force yourself to smile, rub your horse and remember that you love him. Only after doing this ask him again to give your exercise a try. I can guarantee you that two things will then happen:
- You will be less frustrated and actually learn to love your horse even more.
- Your horse will start to act less like a prey animal and become less defensive (or even aggressive) towards you and put more effort into doing what you’ve asked because he feels safer and more appreciated.
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