The duration of the work with the horse must be commensurate
with the difficulty of what we are doing, with the ability to perform
that the horse is expressing at the moment, and with the physical
effort required. Each of these aspects is equally important, and
plays a role in achieving our purpose, and maximizes the time
we spend with our horse.
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express himself, we give him the possibility to understand
completely, and choose to participate in what’s happening. In
addition to that, we can use something a horse understand, like
food, as a reason for the action, and set up the situation where
the horse can see it, so he will try to reach the food, and perform
what we are asking. One of the ways we apply this situation is
when we want the horse to do something that can be difficult,
like getting on a plastic tarp. If properly used, the tarp is a great
training tool when working with horses that are not held with
tack. From the sensory perspective, the challenge that we are
asking the horse to overcome is to step on something that covers
the “true ground”, and that makes noises when he gets on it.
The way we make the horse want to get on the tarp is to simply
set up the situation in the horse’s presence, and put some hay,
or other food on it, and ask the horse to get on. Our tarp needs
to be large enough that, in order to reach the hay the horse will
need to be on it. Using the tarp is a very versatile and effective
way to demonstrate to the horse that what we present to him has
a value, and that following our lead is a good idea. Obviously we
cannot use force, or words, to convince the horse of this fact,
we need to use our behavior, and the senses as vectors for the
information we are giving to the horse.
This approach is coming from a very different point of view than
making the horse experience discomfort or pain, if he is not performing.
No individual would freely consider another, as a leader,
when what they experience from him is source of discomfort, or
pain. What works is creating for the horse an interest in the action
we are proposing. This is what allows us to quickly establish
a relationship of collaboration. This kind of relationship is the one
we can benefit from, later in other circumstances, because the
horse has the ability to connect a situation to an individual, and
also do it through time.
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