First of all, we hope it will get better by trying to let our horse get used to it. By just repeating it over and over again.
I mean… at one point he should start to feel relaxed about that corner in the arena alongside the hedge, right?
But, unfortunately… no.
And since you’re reading this, I’m expecting you’ve realised that it’s not getting better either.
It’s not getting better by just letting your horse experience something over and over again without giving him new information.
In fact, it can only make things worse because it can lead to a pattern of bad behavior.
You can’t expect different results by doing the same thing over and over
Other mistakes we tend to make, is force a horse to go past something and adding even more pressure to the situation.
And of course, this is completely understandable and in the past, I’ve also made this mistake.
Especially when you’re, for example, at a competition and you feel your horse might spook at the judge’s box. Of course you’ll be tempted to just give a bit more leg aid to push him past it.
Or something else we tend to do is trying to distract a horse from the things that’s causing pressure or trying to prevent him from seeing it.
That really is a temporary fix and won’t solve the underlying problem.
Okay, so now you know what not to do.
How do you solve the problem then?
How can you teach your horse to stay more relaxed and have less tension?