I believe that many horse people suffer a severe affliction, a curse if you like, that dooms them and their horses to ordinariness. I call it exercise fixation.
This post is a bit of a snooze so I apologise for that. However, the subject came up recently in conversation and it was suggested that it is such an important concept that I should write about it.
Feel needs to be learned. Students don’t learn feel from a trainer. They learn feel from a horse. A trainer can help you learn what to look for in a horse that is responding to good or poor feel. But it is the horse that is the teacher.
A lack of clarity is the most common form of abuse we impose on horses. And to avoid being unclear, we must be crystal clear in ourselves if we are to have any chance of bringing clarity to a horse
Anytime we feel a brace or resistance in our horse we are learning the limit of our relationship. A big part of training is to eliminate any and all ‘no-go’ areas of working together. A lack of softness to an idea is a horse telling you the limits of your relationship have been reached.