I want to emphasize that a horse is a brain on four legs. The brain determines everything a horse is doing or trying to do. The brain determines how a horse moves and how it feels about that movement.
“Reward the smallest try.” That is a common mantra recited over and over in the horse training world. It’s a good concept that if followed can lead to a happy and contented horse. But what is a reward?
It is almost unheard of that a horse has zero focus, but a lot of people are taught that a horse’s attention is either on or it’s off. There is a belief among some that a horse only has room for one thought in its head.
I have never thought of good horsemanship as a discipline in itself. In my mind, it has always been a foundational element of everything we do with a horse.
I am very pleased to see that nowadays more people are teaching the importance of taking their horse’s opinion into account during the training process.
