The first thing I do when I get a horse in for training is to take notice of the dynamic between the horse and the owner.
What’s important here is to not just look at the horse alone.
And to not only focus on solving the horse’s insecurities and problems without taking into account the role of the owner.
It’s what I’ve done in the past and it turns out I was doing horses an injustice.
Because it’s about the combination.
I’ve heard it countless times: one rider has difficulties getting on and the other one doesn’t think about it and has no problem at all.
One has difficulties getting the horse on the trailer and someone else has no difficulties at all.
So it’s interesting to see how the conversation between the horse and the owner goes. Like with this combination at TRT Live.
What do we see?
From the beginning when I look at the combination, I try to feel how this conversation is going and what positions they are both in.
I generally see people having one out of three roles: the mummy, the dictator or the mentor.
What role do you think the girl takes on from the short clip above?
Did you see her response when her horse dragged her out of the arena?
The dictator would have tried to correct the horse, believing the horse was making her look stupid.
The girl, however, was trying to give her horse reassurance by patting her and basically saying: “Don’t worry, it’s okay.”
But sometimes the ‘threat’ outweighs the reassurance. You can try to tell your horse it’s okay, but they might not believe you and become even more insecure.
It’s important to understand what role you typically take on. And also what your thoughts are and how you enter the space of conversation.
Want to know what steps I took with this horse to reduce his insecurities and him pushing into you?
Because we received so many positieve responses to our previous case study we shared (remember the guy with the pony?), we decided to share this one as well.
You can watch it here:
I hope you enjoyed this training session and that it has given you inspiration!
Every horse can be confident and relaxed in every situation. It’s all about giving your horse the right tools.
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