Ep 60: The Value of Your Horse’s Confidence
As trainers, we cannot underestimate the value of a horse’s confidence.
When a horse becomes frustrated and insecure, there is a good chance that animal will be more resistant to the cues you are providing. On the contrary, when a horse is confident and secure with what is going on, they are much more responsive and willing to perform the actions you are asking for.
To build your horse’s confidence, you often have to go back to the fundamentals before moving forward. I’ll be the first to admit that fundamentals can be boring. But, those fundamentals are an extremely necessary confidence-building tool. Those fundamentals are what builds the horse’s confidence in your feel, timing, and balance.
From the horse’s perspective, you cannot do too many repetitions of those fundamental exercises.
Think about some of the top NBA players in the world. Those athletes will shoot, on average, 300-500 jump shots a day. This isn’t because they don’t know how to do it. They perfected their jump shots a long time ago. But, they continue repeating those shots so that they can stay at the level they are at. This repetition creates muscle memory so that when they are in a high-pressure game situation, their body position defaults to the correct position. They repeat those shots so that they have confidence that they will make those shots consistently, no matter the circumstances. The same theory applies to horsemanship.
The things it takes to make a great horse are easy to do. But, these things are also easy to put to the wayside. As you climb the ladder of success, it is tempting to get away from the methods that got you to where you are now. When you become successful in a certain area of your life, don’t vary from the methods that got you to that point. The more consistent you are, the better your program becomes.
Each time I swing my leg over my horse’s back, my primary goal is the level of confidence my horse has at the end of that training session. Even if the exercises we do feel boring to me, I have to remind myself that it’s not about me. It’s about my horse. The progression of our training that day isn’t about what I wanted to get done that day. It is about what my horse needed from me that day.
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