In the blog, “Horse Issues, Separating Symptoms from the Root Cause”, the number two root cause that I talked about is lack of training. I put a link to that blog here, if you’d like to go back and read it. In this post I will expand on the #2 root cause which is a lack of training.
When we talk about training, remember there are two parts to train, there’s the part of training their mind to accept the task that we’re asked the horse to do and there is the part of training that is training the muscles in the body to physically do the tasks that we’re asking the horse to do.
Both of these two parts have to come together in order for the horse to do what we’re asking it to do. If either part is lacking, then it is a lack of training either mental or physical
There are big obvious things that we think about as far as horse training like asking the horse to go forward asking the horses stop turn left turn right, and not be scared of spooky objects. That’s some of the basic things that we all think about as far as training that every horse needs to know
All of those things have pretty serious consequences if your horse was not taught these in the beginning when he was started. If your horse was started by almost any experience colt starter, all of these should have been covered when the horse was originally started, but occasionally something does get missed, or maybe it was trained, but it didn’t soak in it the time.
The basic training for all horses is pretty much the same. After the horse passes that stage, then it goes on to training that is more specific to the event that the horse will be doing. That might be trail riding, riding English and showing in English classes or riding western and doing ranch work, pleasure, or different types of things that the horse could be asked to do. Then at that point the training will be geared more towards the career that the horse will be going into.
If you show your horse in a ranch class, then one of the things you will want him to do is drag a log. The task of him dragging that log involves two parts, the first part is mentally he has to not be afraid of the log and second he has to physically be able to pull that long and steer in the direction that you’re asking him to go.
All in that one task you could have the lack of training as far as he is afraid of the log itself, you can have the lack of training that he does not want the rope to touch his hip. You could have a lack of training that he’s not steering one-handed while you’re dragging the log, and you could also have the lack of training that he does not know how to pull the weight of the log. Those are all possible lack of training issues that you could have in that one task of pulling that log.
Some of those lack of training issues are mental such as being afraid of the log, and some of those lack of training issues are physical as far as him using his strength to pull the log.
There also might be several parts of that task that your horse is lacking in training if he’s never pulled a log before, then you have to work all of those parts of pulling it.
Whether you are a professional trainer or not, you as the rider are the one who is responsible for recognizing which parts of the training the horse needs.
Once you have broke down all the pieces of the tasks that you’re asking your horse to do, and you have recognized which parts that the horse is lacking in, then everything gets easier from there. The problem comes in when we think that the horse should know how to do an action as a whole, when actually one of the pieces of training is missing.
If you have a horse that is not wanting to perform the task that you’re asking it to do, break down the different parts of that task and identify which of those parts your horse is lacking in training. Those parts could be physical, or could be metal, and it could be a little piece of the task that you’re asking for. Just because the horse does not want to do the task as a whole does not mean that the whole task is lacking in training.
As riders, our quest to become a better horse person is never ending. We are always striving to become a better horse rider and handler and companion to our horse. As long as you are striving to be a better companion to your horse, your horse journey will always be successful.
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