Ep 138: Developing Your Horse’s Potential
I’m a big believer that there is always more–more opportunities to pursue, new heights to reach, and new ideas to consider. I find a sense of excitement in knowing that I’m not even close to scratching the surface of my full potential.
When we practice this mindset, we’re always striving to seek growth. We’re training our minds to avoid complacency, and to always be seeking things that make our best even better. And, we train our horses’ minds the same way.
When you’re working with your horse, you are training your horse to think and understand the responses you are asking for. You are training them to always be looking for the next response–the next opportunity to find the right answer. The way you establish that thought process is by providing the release.
To train your horse’s mind to think and understand, they must understand what the release truly means. The release is not meant to signal the horse to disengage the thinking side of its brain. It is not a cue that tells the horse that it is done working and can become distracted. Instead, it is a signal that means ‘relax, and wait for the next cue.’
Without the release, the signals you send your horse mean nothing. In my experience, I have wasted my time and effort by providing a cue without providing the release at the appropriate time. The precision of your release is critical to developing your horse’s potential, and this is a skill that takes a considerable amount of time and effort to perfect.
In order for us to reach the highest level of potential with our horses, we must first develop the potential within ourselves. When we become better teachers, our horses become better learners.
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