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Working with obstacles can be a fantastic training tool, but it can also break trust and cause your horse more worry if it is done incorrectly. Often we get over focussed on getting the obstacle done, and this causes us to rush the horse before they are ready. This can shut down curiosity and break their trust in you. This weekend we will learn how to introduce obstacles to our horses in a way that will build confidence and trust, and take a look at the psychology behind how horses deal with spooky things 
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When you feel confronted, defensive or challenged this is opportunity for growth knocking! When we are 'triggered' it is because we feel threatened, and we can use the opportunity to 'pull the thread' and ask ourselves why we are having this reaction to this situation. Fear, anger, defensiveness are all able to be explored to find the unmet need. Self development helps us improve our horsemanship  We must remember that when we are working with any horse, that we are working quietly to preserve sensitivity, not to avoid anxiety If we are working quietly to avoid spiking anxiety we will build anxiety  The New Year is full of promises—promises we make to ourselves for better health, greater wealth, and wiser choices. Beyond resolutions, we might go as far as joining a gym or opening a savings account, but often, our motivation falters there. Here’s the key: you have to do. And the secret? To do, you must decide—truly decide—because it’s a mental game. After all, it’s the old you that smokes, drinks, eats unhealthy food, or skips exercise. The truth is, you haven’t changed... yet. You can change—absolutely, this is a fact. But the problem with New Year’s resolutions is that the old you sets them. You convince yourself that the old you will achieve them. It won’t. It’s the new you that will. So, ask yourself: What would the new me do? To become the new you, you must take the actions of the new you. It may sound strange, but it’s true: the actions of the new you transform the old you into the person you want to be. Your new life will cost you your old one. So take action now. Stand up, do some squats, stretch, run in place, cook a healthy meal. This is your sign.  Saffi gets introduced to the saddle - yep - it starts with it on the fence! Because human beings have brains that allow us to understand and predict an outcome, we live in a world where nearly everything around us is making sense - we see a car, lawnmower, tractor or motorbike and we understand that if can move, and make sound. A horse just sees a silent, stationary object and then finds out it makes noise and moves AFTER it does so. The saddle is the same. We see a saddle and know it goes on the horses back, but they don’t know that until it has happened. My intention when starting horses is to make sure they are not only completely familiar with something, but also confident. My colt starting saddle has been licked, bitten and rubbed on (with safety awareness). This allows the horses to know what it is they are putting on their back. It’s pretty simple, but not common. Think about the last time someone thrust something at you and said “smell this” or “taste this” or “put this on” your first reaction was to pull back and ask what it is and then spend time looking at it It’s a lot easier to get along with horses when we offer them the same courtesy  In our house luck is spelled W.O.R.K As a clinician my horses get seen frequently by a lot of people, in day to day activities, not just in competition. I get told often “You’re so lucky, Boogie is so “Insert positive descriptive word here” It’s not luck. It’s years of investment and work in the horses DAY to DAY activities. Phil and I were chatting this morning about Cowboy Dressage as I have just been judging all weekend. We were talking about the requirements to be a clinician, one of which is riding your score. It takes hard work and consistency to achieve your score across a single test - you basically have to score 7.5 for every manoeuvre on the scoresheet. One or two lesser quality manoeuvres and you are not going to achieve it. This is so important because everyone can ride a 7 or 8 in a single manoeuvre - I was handing them out all weekend. The bit that separates the clinicians from the amateur riders is the ability to produce that consistency over and over - 15 times in a single test. This is how Cowboy Dressage keeps the standards of judges and clinicians so high - you must prove that you are capable of riding at that level not just as a one off, but consistently. As a coach, clinician and judge I was holding myself to these standards long before I joined Cowboy Dressage, but I am glad now I have a tangible measurement of my ongoing self development How do you measure your self development ?  A large part of building confidence and partnership in our horses, is developing their responsibilities. Just like a growing child takes on responsibilities as they grow, to prepare them for adulthood, so to do our horses. This girl holds responsibility by being saddled at liberty, and lining up to the mounting block. Performing these simple tasks at liberty also allow her to show me ‘I’m not ok’ or ‘I’m uncomfortable’ by walking away - this gives me vital information On where she needs support, which helps me not go to fast for the individual horses. My new book available on my website, or train live with me at clinics Australia wide.  Thinking Horse When I’m working with horses I am creating the thinking horse. A problem solver A thinker A conversationalist Interactive horses are confident and willing to think before they react.  Shifting your perspective can help you enjoy your horse time more.
We we’re doing a round table bump in at a recent clinic, and one of the students was talking about a shift in perspective which allowed her to be not only ‘ok’ with a unexpected moment, but to actually consider it beneficial. She was preparing to head to the clinic, and her horse was being a little difficult catch. She said “I walked out and he kind of ran off, but we have been working on him cantering circles around me, with me doing as little as possible, so I just owned him running off and turned it into a canter circle’. This meant they got to work on canter circles, the shift allowed the horse to switch into training mode on his own, and, when she called him off the circle, he came right in, meaning he didn’t get to practice “running away”. It’s a win for everyone. When a horse doesn’t want to be caught, it often leads to two outcomes; We may have chased the horse (oh, you want to run, then run) which uses punishment as a training method. This of course works, but punishment doesn’t really make anyone feel good. Or We get annoyed, a start trying to trap or catch the horse, which can make a game out of it - fun for the horse, but not for the owner. The shift in perspective makes it beneficial for everyone Tk We often associate negativity with obligation. When we feel like we are ‘obligated’ to do things it feels like pressure, and that can cause us to want to push back on it. Kind of like “No one is going to tell me what to do” style. I’m participating in my TKH100 challenge - a 100 day challenge where you commit to doing something with your horse every day, other than just feeding. You can do as little as picking out their feet, a full training session, but you must do more than just feed them. The point being that all the small things make a huge difference. I am only home for a month, so I elected to do 30 days. Im halfway through, and being home there is lots of work to be done, but it is unstructured, as opposed to when I am away teaching clinics each week. A few things that have happened over the past 2 weeks - dogs had an altercation with a deadly brown snake (both are fine), Gallie hurt her eye (she is fine) both of which required vet visits and, in Gallie’s case, treatment multiple times per day. In any case, there have been multiple days that I haven’t wanted to do the challenge. The only thing that got me through was obligation. Knowing that I had committed to myself, my horses and the public that I was going to do it. And you know what ? That’s OK! Sometimes Obligation is the only motivation that you have, so use it! Its not negative, unless we want it to be - I consider it a safety net. My brain can justify anything when it wants to, but when I have the safety net of obligation, It is simple for me. If you are doing something out of obligation every day for weeks, months or years, then yes you may consider if you even want to be doing it at all. For me obligation will get me through those days when I'm too tired or too wired until I get back to doing it because I want to. Look at it this way - many of us have heard of an ‘accountability buddy’ - someone to book in with to go exercise for example. We see this as a positive thing - its just about our attachment or feeling that is generated with the word. Flip the switch on our feelings on obligation, and think of it as the right thing to do.  |
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