#68 Small Stuff to Big CHANGE

#68 Small Stuff to Big Changes

The other day I worked with a woman and her horse who had characteristics of  somewhat being high-strong, nervous, pushy, dominating, disrespectful and just a tad scary  (the horse, not the lady !).
      
  1.)   I reminded her that "he who moves his feet first, loses" when it comes to the dominance and respect game.  This is so easy to forget and so incredibly important to remember.  It is the lead horse (should be you) who stands his ground, and the other darlings move away- this is on ground or under saddle (horse decides to go left when you want to go right and you allow it - not good;  horse moves into your space and you move over - not cool).  

Your little darlings figures, in his horse mind, that he cannot depend on you for safety since you can't even stand your ground - translated, you are not a good, strong, confident leader.

Walk Stop  Corinne & Dakota

Walk/stop exercise  Henry & Dennis

      2.)   A simple "walk-stop" exercise - one of the greatest exercises in the whole world, I think.  Walk alongside your horse 3 steps, then a complete stop,  Then start again.  Over and over again.  They begin to listen to you and focus on you and be in tune with you.  They become very calm when they do this.  This is great for calming down, and also for slowing down your horse and/or speeding him up - it works great both ways.  Great under saddle too!


    3.)   If your darling pushes or crosses over in front of you when you are leading or walking with her, just stop and YOU push him AWAY from you - in other words, you move his feet.

Pretty much that is all we did and the result and change were quite amazing to see - so simple but we just don't think about it.
Your darlings love nothing better than to know 'THE RULES' and learn easily and quickly that as long as I try and listen to my horse partner I don't have to be nervous or pushy or domineering and I can trust - WHY? - because she quietly and politely taught me the rules and I now know the rules.  So I always, always get the right answer.

These simple little steps create huge changes.  Give them a try.
 

Adventure Horse Riding in NYS            Smilla13@gmail.com  (Mary Dixon)         www.RideNYS.com