Things you do that you need to stop #2

Things you do that you need to stop doing to a horse #2

Being oblivious to when you let go and release the pressure to a horse.

It might be dropping the lead rope, letting go of the rein, when you stop kicking, pushing, hauling on a horse. Or just when you move away.

When you stop asking or applying pressure to a horse it has great meaning.

It means to the horse that it should do whatever it was doing at the time again - as it made you stop asking, applying pressure to them or made you move away from them.

It can teach them things.

If you are oblivious this has meaning, it can result in you teaching horses bad habits as well as un-training good things. It can also cause horses to get confused and become anxious working with you. This is because you are not predictable or reliable in what you do or ask of them.

It is being oblivious that can contribute to things such as leaning on bits, dull responses to forward, poor turning and stopping, horses that crowd, food aggression, walking away from mounting blocks, horses that are difficult to lead that drag you around or stop and won’t move, horses that don’t get on trailers, won’t be caught etc.

Be conscious of what the horse is doing when you let go, remove pressure, go quiet or walk away…and make sure it is what you expect the horse to be doing.