reinersblog.com

Take a day to do nothing. Find a pasture or lot with a bunch of horses in it. Find a fence or somethin to sit on and get comfortable. Then just watch.

Watch how the horses interact. How they “train” each other. How the young ones learn from the older ones. How a look and twitch of the ears let’s the others know they are pushing the limits. How they buddy up together. How all the little groups all come together and get along when the weather gets bad.

Watch their footwork and movements. How each foot is placed with precision. How they know when to work off their hindquarters and when to work on the forehand. How each one has a different gait. Their facial expressions and moods.

Now, when you’re training do you think you have to force a horse to do something or show him what you want and get out of his way? Do you think it’d be best to try and refine a horse’s natural abilities or try to rough him into something he probably never can do well? How can you help a horse to do their best to highlight their strengths and minimize their weaknesses?

These are living breathing animals. They have physical and mental personalities. They have likes and dislikes. They’ve got experience…some good, some bad. They can sense your voice and touch. They don’t know about registries, futurities, shows, trophies or paychecks…and don’t really give a damn about em. Eatin, sleepin, and messin in the stall is what’s important.

We have ideas about what horses should and shouldn’t do. They got ideas about what they should and shouldn’t do. Since we’re gonna partner up we gotta have some discussions and work out some compromises. They’re gonna have to tolerate some things and we’re gonna have to tolerate some things. Just like people we gotta deal with it, don’t always work out.  That’s not good or bad, it just is.

Can we make a horse do what we want? Yeah, but do you want to? Wouldn’t it be better if we helped them to want to do it? We can jerk a rein or stab a spur to get them to do something. Wouldn’t it be fair if they kicked us half way across the barn if we didn’t feed them on time? Maybe next time we don’t give them the proper cues they throw us over the arena fence…that’d be fair.

These days we got a lot of information and stuff available. Natural horsemanship, joinin up, round pens, square pens, forty dollar halters, clinics, internet, TV, etc. But their still horses. They don’t give a damn about any of that stuff unless it means better feed, more sleep and bigger stalls to mess in.

We’re supposed to be the smart ones here. Look around a horse show or training barn sometimes and see if you think that’s true. Bits and spurs and all that are training AIDS. The only real training TOOL you got sets between your ears. Try to reach a little deeper into the toolbox before you pull out one of those aids.