Trust and respect

Nothing worth having comes easy

Your horse doesn’t learn anything if he is being fearful. First of all he shouldn’t be scared of you or any of the tools you are using.

If your horse does anything out of fear he is most likely just reacting but not thinking. Your horse won’t trust you if he doesn’t respect you and vice versa.

You need to prove to your horse that you are a great leader that he would want to follow. You can earn your horse’s respect and trust by moving their feet which is exactly what they do to each other in the herd.

You have to earn your horses respect and trust - Pure Horsemanship by Glea

Everybody wants their horse to follow them around without you leading them with the lead rope. Horses will pretty much automatically start following you once you have proved to them that you are their herd leader. You and your horse are in your horses eyes a herd but only one of you can be the leader so it’s either you or your horse.

There are lots of different exercises you can do with your horse on the ground to start earning your horse’s respect. You don’t just want to keep lunging your horses in circles as it’s basically just an endless circle and your horse will just go on a autopilot and stop thinking.

You want your horse thinking what he is being asked to do and also guessing what’s coming next. That way he will always keep his attention on you and not so much on what’s going on around him. Your horse should be engaged with you all the time.

It’s very important that you desensitise your horse as much as needed. You have to balance it with sensitising. If your horse is very spooky and nervous he needs lots of desensitising. If your horse is very lazy and not spooky then he doesn’t need as much.

Please get in touch to discuss any problems you may have with your horse 🙂