Horse Help Concepts- The Box an Alternative Horsemanship tool

 The "Box"

I developed the concept of "the Box" because I was finding too many people wanting to be polite and kind in their communication with their horses, but were lacking specificity, boundaries, or spatial awareness.
The concept of the Box was to give the humans a mental image of where they needed their horse to be to communicate clearly without being distracted by the horse's counteroffers of often leaking, fleeing, drifting, or pushing into them movement.
When we start, the BOX is a stationary concept with the horse at a standstill, and the goal is to help the horse's brain and body stay within the imaginary boundary.
One purpose of the BOX is to "create" time for the human to assess the horse's communication through his subtle body language and patterned behaviors.
The BOX helps folks who are unintentionally reactive or "waiting" for dramatic or unwanted movement before intervening, creating late timing or delayed communication.
It allows for the human to practice learning how to proactively direct the horse's thought or redirect his focus BEFORE asking for movement.
It is an opportunity for the human to practice checking in with the horse to both visually recognize if there is a physical brace and to learn how to feel any heaviness on the lead rope. This "tells" the handler what needs to be addressed before asking more of the equine.
It is a safe place to address the horse's defensiveness towards physical and spatial pressure.
It allows for follow-through communication to help drain the horse's tension or physical resistance whether it be in the horse’s poll, jaw, neck, shoulders, ribcage, front legs, or hindquarters.
It helps refine specificity as to where the horse needs to be mentally and spatially, is an evaluation opportunity to recognize defensive equine feedback or potential physical tension, and can create time for a pause in both the person and horse to mentally process what happened in the communication.
It is the segment or a link between one moment and the next, that creates a non-critical, emotionally neutral, safe place for the horse "to be."
As a herd animal, this can have value to him as it is similar to the feedback he would be getting if he was in with a herd of horses.
The BOX eventually transfers into forward movement and riding.
Follow up regarding a question about the BOX concept...
If you're visualizing the Box as the goal being the horse is not moving, then you're missing the point. The goal is to be able to influence the horse's thoughts before his movement.
Most people are continuously chasing after the horse trying to "catch up." I have found using the visualization tool of the Box, allows people to be more proactive in addressing the horse's brain, rather than fixating on trying to contain unwanted movement after the fact.
The BOX is not a solution. It is one of the many ingredients that go into creating an opportunity for a two-way conversation with the horse.
But if the horse is mentally constantly 10 steps ahead and physically fleeing from the human, the person has no ability to influence what is about to happen.
So even though initially, it is stationary, it is not about the horse obediently not moving his feet. It is an opportunity for him to learn how to slow down and check, and receive clear guidance and communication for doing so. He learns that he doesn't need to flee every time he is concerned and instead checks in with the human for support.

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Sam