“How much should I do?” ... is one of the most commonly asked questions we hear in relation to spending time practising with your horse. It is important to remember at this stage, that all of the skills that you are learning are games that horses have been playing amongst themselves since the day they were born and have been honed to perfection over many, many generations.
When we first begin our journey through natural horsemanship, for many horses and humans, the communication we begin to build between us is new and interesting. This is often enough to peak our horse’s curiosity and give us some measure of respect, as they suddenly realise that we are speaking their language. Imagine if you went to a foreign country with a language you were unfamiliar with and suddenly one day came across a person whom you understood. Now imagine that this person has actually only learnt to repeat the right words, to them they have no real meaning as yet. How long do you think it would take you to figure it out?
Horses are extremely intelligent in a prey animal sense and will soon pick up how much you know and how much you don’t know. In this regard, some of you who have been studying the Quantum Savvy programme, may have found your horses getting a little worse as you neared the end of Level 1 and highlights exactly why it is so important to keep progressing. That hard earned respect you gained will soon be lost if you take it for granted. Remember how critical it is for horses to have genuinely good leaders.
So, being progressive is an important component to being successful with horses. This doesn’t mean that you will have to go out there and prove yourself to your horse every time you go near him. However, it does mean that if you let things start to slide and stop being a good alpha for your horse, he may start to look elsewhere for leadership. Through levels 1, 2 & 3 - ‘The Foundation Programme’ - you may find that your horse tests you often. You are still establishing your foundations at this point. Try not to be disheartened if your horse doesn’t always listen to you, or seems to take a step backward now and then. Remember to keep a positive attitude, be solutionary, look for the answers and persevere.
The human desire to always get things right, to not make mistakes, can also tend to make us very pedantic. So many times we hear people say things like “I don’t want to move on until I get it just right / perfect.” Or “I don’t want to do my assignments (our way of giving you personal coaching ) until I can do them all perfectly.” Can you imagine how bored you and your horse will become if you keep doing the same thing over and over until it is perfect? Knowing what you do now about being progressive with horses, do you think it’s more likely that your horse will keep improving by doing the same thing repeatedly, or do you think it possible that he will get bored with it and start looking for holes? Some repetition is necessary to improve your skills. Too much is just plain boring.
Understanding that this is aversion to making mistakes is a human trait and not one of the horse, will help you avoid falling into this trap. Keep progressing and allow your skills to improve with each level. Gain enough knowledge that you understand and can do each task and then move on. You will find that the next level will be the one that really improves the previous one.
Be very conscious of what phase you begin with. If you start at phase 2 or 3, you will probably cause opposition reflex and actually cause your horse to become dull. The way your horse responds is a direct result of your feel, or lack of it.
Read More Road To Horsemanship articles.
- By Meredith Ransley, Quantum Savvy.