WHAT MATTERS MOST TO HORSES? This 13 Year Old Knows!

Juliana Newton became the proud new owner of five year old Neeko just a few weeks ago, but already they are on their way to becoming an outstanding team. To ensure they develop confidence and trust in each other, Juliana took it upon herself to spend time working with him on the ground... in hand, on the lunge line, and in bomb-proofing exercises.  Not bad for a thirteen year old!  I was so impressed I had to find out more.

Me: "Juliana, your riding instructor is also your trainer. Why are you doing this stuff with your horse rather than letting her do it?"

Juliana: "Because I'm the one who's going to be riding him. I want him to trust ME. Plus, I'll be taking him to horse shows so I want to make sure he's not going to be afraid of anything."

Me: "Did your instructor tell you to start doing this groundwork with Neeko?"
Juliana: "No, but she teaches us that we need to be good leaders to our horses, and she wants us to do stuff like this."

Me: "In doing this type of work with Neeko, have you run into anything yet that you felt you couldn't handle on your own? Anything that might have scared you?"

Juliana: "Not on the ground, but when I took him trail-riding for the first time he was afraid of the bridge."

Me: "How did you handle that?"

Juliana: "I let him sniff it, and then we walked away from it. We kept going back to it, and then he just went across it. He was nervous about it though. He circled around a few times after we got across, but then he was fine."

Juliana using a bag of empty soda cans to do some bomb-proofing with Neeko.

Me: "What advice would you give to other riders your age about doing groundwork and bomb-proofing with their horses?"
Juliana: "I would tell them to do it for their horses. All the riding is for us. But this kind of stuff is for our horses. It helps them be okay with us riding them.

Well said! Juliana knows that, to horses, nothing replaces good leadership. Thanks to an instructor who knows the same goes for riding students, Juliana is well on her way to becoming what every rider should strive to be... A Leader Prepared to Handle Anything! I think Neeko is one lucky boy!

Whether you are a riding instructor who wants to teach or a student who wants to learn the basics of providing good leadership to horses, The ALPHA Equestrian Challenge is for you! Order here or through Amazon.com.  Available in Kindle version too!

A KIND TALK ABOUT BEING MEAN TO HORSE: Why Being TOO Nice is Not Nice At All

Put the words 'mean' and 'horse' in one sentence and you're bound to provoke passionate responses from horse-lovers! I created quite a stir with my last blog post by stating "riders who can't bring the mean when needed get hurt by horses." So many great comments warrant a follow-up. Mean is a harsh word, indeed. It makes us uncomfortable, especially when talking about the animals we love. As one reader put it, "The word mean shouldn't even be considered in horsemanship." I disagree. Many years ago I could have used a kind talk about being mean to horses. Other riders might benefit from such a talk as well, so here goes.

It is nice to be nice to horses, but being inappropriately nice is just plain mean. Since they are prey animals and we are predators, we must be nice to them to convince them we mean no harm. But while we are being nice we can't lose sight of the fact that we are not the only threat horses have to worry about. They can't do much for us calmly unless they have some inkling that we are tough enough to protect them from all the other predators. Riders who are nice ALL the time aren't very convincing.

When horses doubt our ability to keep them safe, they start asking us to toughen up and get with the program. They do so by presenting annoying, pushy, obstinate, spooky and aggressive behaviors. We tend to think of these as "bad" behaviors but they are not bad at all. They are just horses' way of telling us to do what we are supposed to do: be better leaders! Responding to these behaviors with inappropriate niceness, confusion or fear gives horses even more reason to feel insecure with us. Not cool, especially since horses have only one way of telling us we are letting them down in the leadership department - by escalating their "bad" behaviors. That is how nice riders turn nice horses into anxiety-ridden basket cases.

Don't go there. Recognize every "bad" horse behavior as a learning experience for you. Avoid making excuses for these behaviors (avoid that like the plague!) and just learn how to correct them effectively. Show your horse you have some toughness in you by learning how to make him mind his manners fairly and firmly. Develop good horse-handling skills by spending some time working with your horse on the ground in leading and lunging exercises. Then take your horse through some bomb-proofing exercises to prove to him you can protect him from anything. Don't just ride your horse's back - let him know you HAVE his back!

​Taking the first step toward becoming a leader prepared to handle anything might make you feel like a big meanie. That's because the energy it takes to buck up and be assertive is very similar to the energy it takes to get angry. While directing that type of energy toward horses seems mean (see illustration), it's not. It is infinitely nicer than being inappropriately nice. Take that first step to be nice to your horse...and to yourself as well. You'll get over feeling mean about it when you realize how much calmer it allows your horse to behave in your presence.

These folks are showing off their toughest faces and their meanest faces. Can you tell the difference? It's hard to feel/look tough and feel/look nice at the same time. I wouldn't leave you hanging. The mean faces are on the top row, tough faces on the bottom row.