Curiosity in horses... a great place to start the Conversation.
Alternative Horsemanship™ with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach shares horse training and horseback rider coaching, philosophies, and approaches she has developed over three decades. Offering horsemanship clinics worldwide, distance horse coaching instruction, equine consultations, equine re-education and rehabilitation, colt starting, and lessons. Follow her #alternativehorsemanship on all social media platforms.
Many times when I'm teaching a student, if a tense moment arises, I will instruct them to pat their horse.
The theme of the past few days has been new folks asking for help with horses that are going "fine" and then the horse "randomly" or suddenly stops, or quits, moving forward.
Most folks approach riding with a focus and priority on the human's wants and a whole lot of emotion.
This filters their perception of why a horse is behaving a certain way, and then they create a "story" around that usually with the plot lot line being them vs. the horse.
Sometimes out of ego but mostly due to instruction from others.
When the story is eliminated, the person can begin to have an empathetic approach and realize all of the unwanted behaviors are a reflection of the horse needing clear, specific, intentional communication to help him receive the same support as if in the herd.
The horse demands a mental presence from the rider that most people have never even considered.
If a quality relationship is desired it takes adaptability, effort, experimenting, and follow-through.
But those traits are becoming less present in our instant gratification society. So our Horsemanship is a reflection of our personal choices. ❤️🐴🐴