J&T STABLES

Don’t Let Small Issues Become Big Ones!



One of the keys to good horsemanship is not letting small issues grow into large ones. Whether the issue is on the ground or in the saddle. Horses, like children, sometimes need behavior to be redirected before it gets ingrained and much more difficult to deal with.

I see horses taking advantage of people all the time. Sometimes the horse pushes over them when they are leading other times its the horse dragging them away when the horse doesn’t want to go into the arena or barn. From the saddle I see horses doing the SAME behaviors pushing into the the rein or leg in a turn or running through the cues for the stop. In all these cases the horse is not taking the handler or rider seriously. These situations could have been avoided if the horse had been conditioned early on to respect it’s handler.

When you watch horses as they interact in a herd environment you will see the small signals they give to one another. A tilt of an ear, a lean this way or that, a quick look or a slight cock of a leg, all of these could be a test to see if another horse is paying attention. If we want to become advanced horsemen and horsewomen we need to learn to recognize these slightest of signals.

A horse does not become pushy or disrespectful overnight. They will test you just like they will test any horse in their herd. They want to see where you are in the leadership hierarchy. It may start with a slight lean into you or a turn of the rump to you. If you don’t recognize these signals for what they are the tests will escalate to a point to where you could need to do something drastic to get the horse to take you seriously. Where as if you recognize these slight signals small corrections will probably be all that’s called for.

You must think like the horse in these situations. The horse thinks much like a child does.  For example your child gets into trouble and you tell them to go and sit on the couch and not to move for 30 minutes as punishment.  While you are not watching the child moves from the cushion on the end of the couch to the middle one.  While it’s no big deal to you the child thinks they just got away with something because you told him “not to move” and he did by switching cushions.  It’s important because of what it means to the child, not to you.  The same goes for the horse but on a much grander scale.  If your horse takes a small step toward you and you step back you failed that test because he just made you yield to him.  You may not think it’s a big deal but to your horse may think it’s a very big deal.  Each time after the horse may get more and more bold till one day you wonder how your horse got so disrespectful.  If we can recognize those early tests and stop those small issue they will never grow into large ones.

We’ve all seen children and horses that are totally out of hand and wonder how they got that way.  Small issues became large ones.  If your horse is doing something you don’t want them to do get them busy and redirect their attention.  Instead allowing them to consistently test you give them a job to do.  Get your horse accustomed to seeking guidance instead of having to discipline them all the time.  If your horse is being pushy start asking them to do some groundwork, ask them to move here move there, go over this go over that, go around this or around that.  If your horse starts testing you under saddle start asking him to pick up a shoulder, move a hip, sidepass anything just get his attention on you and off of his questioning of your leadership.  By doing so you are being a proactive leader and not a constant disciplinarian.  By being proactive when those small issues come up you will never have to face the large ones.

Jason