Personal Space

If some random person you didn’t know came up to your house and rang the doorbell, would you let them inside, no questions asked? 

Of course not - because you don’t know them and they could cause you potential harm. I want you to have this thought in mind in relation to horses. When I am working with a horse I do not know, or one I don’t trust, I make it a point to keep that horse out of my personal space, and to mostly stay out of his. As far as I’m concerned, he’s like a creepy joe-shmo roaming the streets that is up to no good. 

The reason why: 
If you do not have the horse’s respect, focus, and control of his feet, then you are at risk if he is close to you. Horses do not realize how powerful they are and how delicate we are in relation to them. Most of the time if they hurt us, it is by accident! Getting bitten, kicked, struck, trampled, etc. by a horse can only happen if he gets in your personal space. 

However - once you have built a foundation of respect/trust and have the ability to control the horse’s feet, inviting your horse into your space to reward, give attention, etc. is not a big deal. Because of the foundation you have built, you can now trust that the horse isn’t going to do something to hurt you - on purpose or by accident. 

Always remember - while we love our horses, we have to respect how powerful they are and take steps to stay safe. You can’t train the horse or ride if you are injured!

Allow Your Horse to Make Mistakes 

When training horses, it is so important for us to allow them to commit to a mistake or make the wrong decision, and then correct them AFTERWARD. The problem that many of us as horse owners have is we become what I call “preventers” - we constantly try to prevent our horse from making mistakes, instead of allowing them to learn from them. What slowly starts to happen is you develop all of these weird habits to prevent your horse from doing negative things. 

Here are some examples:

“I always lead him in first from the pasture at feeding time because if I don’t, he is out of control and runs me over.”

“I avoid that side of the arena because he always acts up over there.” 

“I need to always have contact and pull on my reins because the minute I give him slack, he builds speed.” 

“When I ride my horse, I make sure that my legs don’t touch his sides, because if they do, he goes too fast and gets really nervous.”

Sound familiar? 

 The problem is, “preventing” everyday behaviors with your horse doesn’t get rid of the issues. 

Here’s why:
When you allow your horse to commit to a mistake or do a negative behavior, and then correct him afterward, you allow him the opportunity to LEARN from his OWN decision making. If you are consistent, the horse eventually learns to not make that decision or do that behavior anymore. In a way he almost teaches himself through his own decision making, positive or negative, with your guidance. 

However, when you are constantly “preventing” he never actually learns to stop making the decision or stop doing the behavior. Instead you hang in this purgatory of half covering up/avoiding the problem, and half letting him continue to get away with it.

Remember: Every time your horse makes a mistake, it is an OPPORTUNITY TO TEACH. Let him commit to mistakes, and then correct afterward.