Training Tip: Equal Responsibilities

In your partnership with your horse, you have certain responsibilities and your horse has certain responsibilities. Your responsibility is to be black and white – to make training easy for the horse to understand. Whenever you are a shade of gray, it makes you unclear or inconsistent, which is unfair to the horse and makes it hard for him to understand what you want him to do. Your horse’s responsibility is to respect you. He may not always do everything right, but he should always try to find the right answer. A disrespectful horse doesn’t try. He doesn’t care. He is only concerned about what he wants and what you can give him. Your job is to teach the horse to be respectful by moving his feet forwards, backwards, left and right and always rewarding the slightest try. You’ll always start gently and finish gently, but you’ll be willing to do what you have to do to get the job done. You’ll do it as easy as possible, but as firm as necessary.