Alternative Horsemanship™ with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach teaches horse behavior, horse training, and coaches horseback riders of all experience levels. Offering horsemanship clinics worldwide, distance horse coaching instruction, horse video learning catalog, equine consultations, equine re-education and rehabilitation, colt starting, and lessons. Follow her #alternativehorsemanship on all social media platforms.
Timing Matters
Acknowledgement of the horse trying and searching for what is being asked of him Matters
The Equine's Feedback Matters
The Human having Empathy for what the horse is experiencing Matters
The Human addressing the horse in a manner that builds the animal's trust Matters
Every moment of the interaction Matters
Quality Commuication Matters
Photo Credit: Unknown
Learning how to Learn
I find the way most people offer information to the horse is with an expectation of tolerance by the equine.
Rarely is there any consideration for being able to influence the horse's focus, redirect his thoughts, help him let go of physical tension, or have many of the other tools needed so that he can learn how to think through the unfamiliar, rather than just tolerate it.
Why does it matter?
Because each interaction you're teaching the horse to either become more weary and distrustful of the human experience, or you're increasing his curiosity and building his confidence for all that you ask of him in the future.
The real motivation, even without acknowledging the horse and what he is experiencing, might come from asking oneself, "Wouldn't it be easier to set the horse up for success from the start, rather than having to undo unnecessary traumatic experiences and dangerous coping behaviors created because of hurried, unclear, and lack of quality human communication?"
New Year New Goals- Assessing and Improving the Equine Partnership
I came with these six GOALS to help equine enthusiasts keep perspective when assessing their horse relationship.
I see so many horse people posting photos and referring to the horse like the animal is an accessory.
The focus tends to be on the human agenda, rather than addressing the Quality of what THE HUMAN is bringing to the Equine Partnership.
Too many riders are so very quick to critique the horse without ever acknowledging how their own grey-area, inconsistent, unfair communication is influencing the unwanted responses in the equine.
Buying and selling a variety of different horses isn't going to "fix" anything if the person is still unable to recognize, believe, and address horse behavior nor will it improve their skill-set.
Perhaps let's make the GOAL for the upcoming year to focus on improving ourselves rather than blaming the horse.
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| Building Confidence in the Defensive Horse |
Horsemanship: Reviewing The Release
As with everything much left to interpretation when it comes to terminology in association with horses. I try to be clear and precise in the words that I'm offering, but there still can be a gray area in the human student's understanding.
