Heed the Warning: Don’t Make a Big Deal out of Anything!
Somewhere in Les Vogt’s foundation level of Cowhorse U. program, he says, “Don’t make a big deal out of anything you don’t want to be a big deal.” Well, I didn’t heed the warning, and I think I may now be suffering the consequences.
Les also says that you basically have two horses to train, the right side of the horse and the left side. This is how the big deal started—I only trained one horse.
First I noticed that, ya, Leo was doing a turn-on-the-forehand to the left. But then I realized that somewhere along the line, he totally forgot how to do it to the right (my fault for sure – practice both sides consistently goof!). I also realized the I DIDN’T HAVE THE NECK!!! ACH! I realized that even on his good side, his head was up in the air and pulling hard on the bit all the way around. Yikes!
Solution, I thought = get annoying with the bit. Alternate pulls until he drops his head and gets off the bit. That worked pretty good on his good side. I have the neck…in one direction.
I kept trying for the turn-on-the-forehand on his bad side. He would back up, go sideways, and almost always try to go forward. He would push through the bit and walk on. When he did that I would get more aggressive with the bit, not a dead pull, but obnoxious alternate tugs. If he even made a step in the right direction, I would release and tell him what a good boy he was. BUT, I think I tried too many times, for too long, two days in a row. He finally, out of frustration, brought his front two hoofs off the ground. Continue Reading »
