Back To Articles Horses Reaction To Training
Each horse reacts differently to training. And some training methods work better for one horse but not so well on another. If you find this you must try and see if your horse prefers a different approach - See Speak to your horse article.
It’s best if you really understand your horse so you are able to communicate with your horse. A horse’s intelligence isn’t as big as most horse owners think. A horse has little power to reason and if he doesn’t want to do something he won’t.
Some people think you can reason with a horse but this way of thinking does more harm then good, as these same people would punish their horse for not obeying there commands. Often the horse doesn’t understand the command because as they haven’t been taught this instruction or signal and so the horse just doesn’t understand.
And there is nothing more destructive to horse training than to punish your horse when he does not know what you are punishing him for.
You can take advantage of the horse's inability to reason so that you can accomplish anything with him. When training a horse you don’t need strength - you just need knowledge.
It’s best to train your horse as a colt and as you repeat the constant commands you are teaching him these become habits. This sets your horse up to become a perfectly trained horse that listens to your every command. But on the other-hand if you teach your horse bad habits this too can become part of his behaviour.
© Jake Hamilton 2009 All rights reserved