In my last post, I outlined some of the important differences between a horse being light and a horse being soft and how you can test when your horse is one or the other. If you have not yet read that post, please do before reading this article.
TRAINING FOR SOFTNESS - Part 1
This is a very brief and cursory explanation I believe we need to understand how to train softness in a horse. I could go on in much more depth about these concepts. However, now that you have a rudimentary understanding of lightness and softness, the next post will try to cover the principles of teaching softness to a horse.
TRANSITIONS
WHY I USE A FLAG IN TRAINING
HOLD ON KIV
STRAIGHTNESS AND EMOTIONS
While a horse is emotionally anxious I know there are many ways we can make crookedness uncomfortable enough to force its body to work with a fair degree of straightness. But I don’t believe that when a horse is emotionally anxious it can find straightness itself - we have to impose it. A chronically troubled horse will always be chronically crooked.