Zen Horse

Training Tip of the Week Be Immediate

By Clinton Anderson

Be quick to recognize and correct your horse's mistakes.When it comes to correcting or rewarding your horse's behavior, you must be immediate in your actions. The quicker you make your horse feel uncomfortable for unacceptable behavior (vigorously backing him in a circle if he invades your space), the faster he'll learn not to do it. If you let him come into your hula hoop space (the four foot circle that surrounds you) and wait ten minutes before correcting his pushy behavior, it will take him a lot longer to connect the uncomfortable feeling of having to back away from you with pushing into your space. As soon as your horse makes a mistake, you have to be quick to recognize it and correct it.

At the same time, the faster you recognize when your horse tries for you and gives you the correct response, the more he'll try to please you and the faster he'll catch on to the lesson. In fact, when I'm first teaching a horse a lesson, if he even thinks about doing the right thing, I reward him. You reward your horse by releasing pressure and letting him rest.
When a correction is over, it's over.

A word of caution when correcting your horse: there should be no emotions involved. Don't lose your temper or get angry - when a correction is over, it's over. Get in and get out and act like nothing ever happened. Think about horses out in the pasture together at feeding time - the dominant mare will keep her pasture mates away from the grain, but twenty minutes later they'll be standing head to tail swishing flies off each other. They don't hold a grudge and neither should you.

Check out Clinton Anderson's website at www.downunderhorsemanship.com