The first horse that I belonged to was called Luke. Well, when he came to live with me his name was Sebastian, but I couldn’t let him carry that burden for the rest of his life. He didn’t deserve that. So Luke became the name he answered to when I called him for dinner or when he ordered coffee at Starbucks and when the bakery asked what name he wanted on his birthday cake.
Timing Of The Aids
One Horse, Two Sides
Most of us appreciate that all horses are different. When training, what works for one horse may not be the best approach for another. The almost infinite variations of a horse’s nature combined with their varied experiences (nature plus nurture) mean the chance is almost zero in finding two horses responding identically to identical training.
Primary And Secondary Thoughts
So the reason we need to know what a horse’s primary and secondary thoughts are is that it lets us know how available a horse is to learning. We should always be trying to have the conversation we are having with our horse be the primary focus. It’s a non-stop battle because we are constantly competing with the rest of the world for our horse’s attention. This also means that while other things occupy a horse’s primary thoughts, we will never help our horse find softness and willingness.