Make Me Worthy Of My Horse

want it right now! This might be okay for buying a television and taking a vacation but it just doesnt work as well for our horses.
Using pressurefree methods may take considerably longer but in my experience these methods consistently yield far more positive and permanent results. Heres an example For many years a client of mine has routinely asked me to introduce trailer loading and transport to every one of her young horses. We typically begin this procedure as early as is practical oftentimes loading the dam into the trailer with her monthold foal so baby gets used to the idea of hopping into a dark scary cave long before its ever dark and scary. On occasion Ive had to work with yearlings my client purchased that have been transported to her place and most of them have varying levels of fear about trailering. This is where that shortcut approach no longer looks as expedient as it did when we were trying to rush that horse through her training by force. Now I have to start from scratch and wait until the horse understands that he no longer should expect negative reinforcement or fearful tactics and the process takes a lot longer than it would have had we simply allowed her to learn at her own pace to begin with.
Trust is neither owed nor automatic trust must be earned. Safety however should be automatic the horse should never be put in a position where he has to earn the right to feel okay. Unfortunately this very premise is at the heart of virtually every commonlyaccepted training method in use today. Socalled natural horsemanship techniques still utilise fear and pressure as operant modifiers the stick with a flag or bag attached to it being an example. If the horse does not perform according to our wishes we flap the bag directing the horse otherwise. That is not communication its fearbased habituation the horse complies because of his fear of the bag. Another example is one I see all too often shaking the lead rope to get the horse to back up. This is one of the worst examples of training and only instils fear of pressure and discomfort. We shake the rope its uncomfortable and so the horse tries to avoid the sensation and retreat to safety. The horse learns to do this only when we stop shaking the rope thereby