29/01/2023
~a broke horse~
In my line of work as a c**t starter and problem solver I often find myself in discussions about what it takes to make a broke horse, the conversation usually varies a little bit discipline to discipline. If you talk to people on the western side of things, usually you’ll hear things like Miles and wet, saddle, blankets, get out and work cattle and on the English side of things it’s all about schooling and programs repetition and consistency
Here’s my take on what goes into building a brave, confident horse that will find success in any discipline.
• whatever you do find ways to make your horse feel successful every time you work with him
• Don’t get stuck focusing on what’s going wrong instead build on whatever positives you have pretty soon there will be a lot less negatives
• Work on yourself, often times I hear people complain about what their horse is doing wrong, but they fail to see how they could improve physically mentally or emotionally to better support the horse or be a stronger leader
• Exposure, Horses will get schooled and educated in an arena, but it’s only when we also expose those horses to new and different things that they truly start to become broke, haul your horses, let them see new places let them do different things, especially that are outside of their normal day to day life.
• Don’t coddle your horses, this doesn’t work with kids, horses or dogs, and coddled horse is not a strong, confident horse
• Not everything that is new is better, study the old masters of Horsemanship. Many times we try to reinvent the wheel, but the foundations of our sport seem to always stay relevant, be a student.
• it doesn’t matter what discipline you ride, balance and rhythm never cease to be important, teach your horse, how to best use himself challenge your horses to better use themselves
• It’s about partnership, not a dictator ship. Nobody likes a task, master, especially a horse. We strive to build a relationship that will eventually become a partnership that has to start somewhere positive.
• If your horse is heavy on his forehand, or braced up throughout his body, the things we ask them to do are going to be challenging to the point that it will become discouraging for the horse to even try. It’s our responsibility to make sure our horse is prepared for what we want to teach them next.
• Find a way to challenge your horse every day, but at the same time, I don’t abandon him or throw him to the wolves what may seem like a challenge to your horse needs to also be something that you know he is capable of doing, and then set it up and allow it to happen, thereby building his confidence
• For thousands of years horses have been ridden into battle things that we perceive as scary or allow our horses to be afraid of would have those warhorses of old, turning in their graves, remember, each, and every horse we ride has come from a line of warhorses at some point in time it’s our job to help them be courageous.
• Time, spend time with your horses don’t just put a foot in the stirrup get on put them through the paces get off and walk away. Spend time sit on your horse talk to a friend drink a beer do different things be that weird person who’s always hanging out with their horse your horse will be the better for it in the end.
• And quit making excuses, I see riders making excuses for the horses and themselves. Constantly, we end up building a stout fence around the possibility of growth in advancement, because of these excuses quit doing it.
• Horses are incredibly resilient and adaptable animals, we need to remember this, and when we do we need to not be afraid to ask for a little more from our horse, often times we fall into a pattern of complacency and boredom, because we are afraid to ask for a little bit more.
• Utilize the best equipment you can afford, I would rather ride a beat up, handmade saddle, then a new, shiny saddle that came out of a factory, I owe it to my horse to put the best possible gear on them.
• And finally, don’t forget being that little kid who is so ate up with a love for horses that even cleaning a stall was a gift, don’t forget what it was like to crave to be around them every minute and I see this, especially for the trainers out there, because sometimes once this becomes a job, we forget that part of it we forget what First motivated us to take this path in life. We are so blessed to get to have horses in our lives. Let’s go out there each and every day and make a commitment to make our horses be as broke and successful as possible, it’s our job and responsibility to the horse to educate them as well as we can.
I believe that if we can be conscious of all these points in our day-to-day life, that this is the recipe to building greatness in a horse, God gives us the raw materials, all wrapped up and hide hair and hooves it’s our job to bring out that huge heart and let that horse realize his full potential.
Shared from an unknown author. Could not agree more.
