29/09/2025
Key facts 👌 🔑 🌟
Thought for the day:
If your horse displays habitual unwanted behaviours rather than responding to a request from us the way forward is not always the way we would like it to be.
Here is an example.
If we ask a horse to move and it props and tosses it’s head or braces on our legs or runs backwards etc we should keep asking and add some incentive.
If we stop asking (release pressure) we are in effect training the unwanted behaviour using the same technique that we can use to train the behaviours we want.
Some points to remember.
This is not always easy for us or the horse.
It’s rarely a pretty process on a horse with a bad habit.
It can take quite a bit to change something that has become a strong habit.
Ridden unwanted habits cannot always be changed from the ground although it helps if we make sure our set up on the ground is good.
Well set up young horses that have no pre conceived ideas about being ridden may test these behaviours but don’t continue to display them providing we don’t quit asking.
When you start to continue the ask to change the habit often the horse will try the evasion harder to get his release so things may get worse before they get better.
Sometimes we have to be stubborn and always we have to be consistent.
Things don’t always appear to others how we would like them to.
We don’t want to punish the horse but making it more comfortable wont create a new habit.
The flip side is when you do get even a little of the change you are after do everything in your power to make the horse comfortable.
Catch the problem in it’s infancy and your horse and you will never have to sort out these misunderstandings.
Sometimes it can be as simple as a redirection but not always.
Problems in older horses often teach us much more than training young horses.
Remember if your horse runs to the gate or another horse etc and you stop riding your making a much bigger issue to work out later.
It’s just how things are.
