Complicated Horses

• Work ethic is something that should develop throughout the training process; if it does not, do you have a “princess” on your hands? If you do, remember that a princess is created; you must make the horse responsible for his own behaviour.

When training begins to work, your horse will feel protected because he has an authority figure he can depend on. This will help remove fear, which will increase his ability to be attentive to the task at hand. When he is aware of what’s going on, he can think and respond in the way he thinks we want him to. This effort should be encouraged so he can start to believe in himself and his own judgment, which will build self-esteem and confidence. He will anticipate less because he has accepted the responsibility to pay attention, and will try to be right because he knows he can be successful. We can remove confusion and fear by allowing him make mistakes and then correcting rather than punishing him. This success will help him let go of past issues or fear through association with past events because he is proud of what he has accomplished and encouraged to learn, rather than devastated by uncertainty, fear, and confusion.

I could ramble on for a long time about some of the intangible issues involved in horse training. As mentioned earlier, it is not about technique. It is an approach. It is about trying to be open-minded enough to put yourself in your horse’s shoes and think about what else could be going on. Training is a hugely stressful experience for horses and many of them barely survive it on an emotional level. If you allow your horse to be emotional, if you allow him the intelligence I know he has, if you allow him to be who he is and don’t try to put him in a box, he will be much more successful. Don’t give up on him just because he is complicated.