In essence, the emotional anxiety at the beginning determined the horse’s thoughts to run, pull away, call out, try going the other way, etc. It is only by changing the emotions that the horse was able to listen and follow a feel.
I get pleasure and I make a living working with horses and horse people, but my aim is not to use horses as a means towards self-improvement. If I need fixing, I have the help of a wonderful wife and wonderful friends for that.
In my opinion the most important skill we can teach a horse is to lead brilliantly. Partly this is because most of us spend more time leading our horses than any other single task. But even more importantly leading is one of the earliest training tasks that sets up our relationship with our horse.
Our expectations of our horses tell the world something about our expectations of ourselves. Every horse and every rider has issues – that’s normal and it’s okay. But to be content to leave those issues inside our horse is not being a good horse person practicing good horsemanship.
I think I meet 4 or 5 people a year who tell me that their horse hates men. Almost always the horse is a mare. They tell me how cranky their horse behaves when handled by men.
