Learning something new:

We all know what it is like when you learn something new. But what about when it comes to your horse? Lets take a minute to think about how they feel when they are learning something new. One thing you have to ask yourself is, is your horse ready to learn something new? How confident are you at teaching your horse? Have you got a clear path in your mind of where you want you and your horse to be? Because taking small steps and setting up small goals will help not only yourself but your horse too. Having a clear mind on where you want you and your horse to be will help make training more manageable and lets take into account that some horses learn faster than others and some may just need a little more encouragement. Here are a few things that will help you and your horse to have the best learning experience.

Be patient: Let’s not push too far too soon. Being patient will help your horse learn in the best way. Horses can feel human emotions. If you get stressed or angry. Your horse can feel it. They are very sensitive animals believe it or not. If they feel your bad energy, they will find it harder to learn and feel discouraged. A bit like us humans, if we were learning something new and someone spoke to us in a manner that made us feel uncomfortable or anxious, our confidence would dip and our anxiety would be through the roof and we would be put off wanting to learn.

Practice little and often: Giving your horse time to think and reboot. We all know when we learn something new it can be mentally exhausting and not giving yourself time to process the information can be overwhelming. So you could imagine how a horse would feel if we overloaded their brains and not giving them a break or time to process. Don’t keep pushing. Pushing your horse too much can lead to either boredom or your horse shutting down. Meaning, it won’t want to work.

Always end on a good note: When your horse is learning something and gets the most littlest thing right, end it! End it with a positive experience for your horse. It sets a good foundation and keeps encouraging the horse and yourself to keep learning! We all know that excitement feeling when we have achieved something. That feeling encourages to keep going and to look forward to the next session.

Treating and praise: This will help keep your horse engaged and motivated to learn. Praising will boost your horses confidence up and keep both yourself and your horses confidence up by keeping it positive.