EPISODE 30: CREATING A Naughty Horse

This weeks podcast is about how to (or how NOT to) create a “naughty” horse. It is so important to understand where a horse is coming from and why they do the things they do.

‘The horse does one of two things. He does what he thinks he’s supposed to do, or He does what he thinks he needs to do to survive.’ -Ray Hunt

Horses aren't born with naughty habits, although some do have more of a tendency to learn them, everything that a horse learns is taught.

Horses often learn by accident, they learn by the ‘release of pressure’.

This highlights the importance when working with young horses to make their first experiences good ones. Whatever we learn first gets engraved in our brains and is what we tend to revert back to when we are put under pressure. Horse’s are no different. Therefore, when we are handling young horses we are setting them up for the rest of their lives

Unfavourable behaviour is a product of numerous factors and we have to be aware of the motivation and feelings behind the behaviour. Ignorance and lack of empathy can compact these issues. It is our job as owners to learn as much as we can to avoid this.

‘The key is not to focus on what the horse is doing wrong, focus on teaching them what we WANT them to do instead.’

When you start at the start and get the foundations right, often the problems go away.