Back to basics

I’ve taken myself back to my books & training DVDs to re-examine our relationship. Sometimes you have light bulb moments and then wonder how on earth you didn’t see these things before! Sometimes you are too close to your own horse to see what’s happening. Sometimes you just need to re-examine things. If things are going wrong and your horse isn’t doing what you asked, you probably asked it wrong.
Most important is to observe your horse. I thought I was doing this, but now I’m looking again, and seeing things I didn’t see before, or had interpreted wrong. Ask yourself whether the horse is confident or unconfident in each situation; this may change from day to day & moment to moment. Just because they’re fine with something one day doesn’t mean it is okay (safe, as they see it) the next. You need to look at it from their point of view. There might be a lion behind that log pile today, even if there wasn’t yesterday. If you can convince your horse that you are going to keep it safe & be the leader your horse needs you to be, then it will be much easier for the horse to trust you. But you have to prove it, and with a sceptical, nervous horse like Lucie, you may have to prove it every day & in every way.

I’m saying all this because although I read it, talk it, know it – I forget! So these are some of the things I’ve been reminding myself of.

Video filming is also a very revealing tool; for me, it’s sufficiently embarrassing to motivate me to do something about improving my body language. Also I see what is happening with the horse beside me, and can observe her body language too.