| If you watch a herd of horses turned out you will | | | | not been ridden for a while, so you got to do it. It will |
| notice that there are pretty set behavioral patterns. | | | | not work! Your horse will feel your tension - but does |
| Everyone knows his or her place in the pecking order. | | | | not know the reason. This will now make your horse |
| There are usually no big surprises for anybody | | | | nervous - and it usually ends up in some kind of a |
| involved. This is how horses live. | | | | mess. |
| Now we enter the picture - and that is where things | | | | This is many times more important when you are |
| can get complicated. The horse pretty much expects | | | | training a horse. If you are very patient on time and |
| that our behavior is as consistent as the behavior of | | | | very pushy the next time, your training will not progress |
| the herd members. And this is not always the case - | | | | very well. Actually it would probably work better, if you |
| and can potentially confuse the horse. | | | | are pushy all the time - the horse will adjust to that. |
| They say, if you have a dog long enough, you look like | | | | I have found that people that are very balanced in their |
| your dog and your dog looks like you. I hope this is true | | | | own behavior very often have the best results in |
| - my dogs are pretty good looking. | | | | training horses. There are no surprises for the horse |
| The morale behind that applies to horses, too. I have | | | | and the horse will concentrate on the training itself. Wild |
| seen many times that the behavior of the horse and | | | | swings in our behavior will confuse the horse. The |
| the owner are very similar. The easy going relaxed | | | | horse will pay more attention to our behavior than the |
| guy has a easy going relaxed horse. And the hyped | | | | actual training. |
| up flaky guy has a hyped up flaky horse. | | | | There is no easy solution to this problem. As far as |
| There is a very important point to this. If our behavior is | | | | training goes - if you cannot be consistent in your |
| not consistent we can have a very negative impact | | | | behavior you will have problems. |
| on the behavior of our horse. | | | | My advice for trained horses always is: If you are |
| You go out there one nice day pretty relaxed, call your | | | | stressed out for some reason, and think you "have to |
| horse and halter it, walk to the hitch rail and saddle the | | | | ride" the horse - don't do it. Just spend some time with |
| horse. If your horse does something not quite right, you | | | | the horse, give it some brushing or scratching - and |
| quietly but firmly correct it - and things are just fine. | | | | that is it. You will not confuse your horse with |
| You will have a nice ride. | | | | inconsistent behavior - and it might just get you settled |
| Another day you are stressed out - but the horse has | | | | down. Horses are pretty good at that! |