Know What Works for Your Horse

Over the years I have followed many big name trainers. In the interest of being a "good student" I have tended to err on the side of sticking to the technique until I got it "right" and got the result I was looking for. This can be a good strategy when you are first learning a skill and putting yourself under the guidance of someone with more skills and experience than you have. But there comes a point where you have to listen to your own skills and experience. And at that point, sticking with a technique to get it "right"' can mean that you are not getting results in the way that would work best for you and your horse.

During the process of solving this bridling issue, I chose to pay attention to "what works" for Gunny and apply that information to our interactions. In the past year or so I have been focusing on making my horsemanship mine. And one piece of that is knowing my horse well enough to know what works. Part of this was making a list of things that work and don't work for Gunny or only work with limited success. A short version of that list is:

• Reverse psychology doesn't work with Gunny. For example, asking him to walk faster when you really want him to decide that walking faster isn't fun and you would like him to walk slower.
• Being direct and clear about what I want does work.
• Clicker training doesn't work with Gunny. His attitude goes downhill as he demands treats and perceives that he is "making me" give him treats. 
• Praise and petting do work for Gunny to let him know when I like something.
• Limiting options works for Gunny
• Respecting Gunny's space will cause Gunny to be respectful of my space. Trying to make Gunny be respectful of my space first results in defensiveness and resentment. 

This list shows that what works for Gunny definitely is in direct contradiction to some of the more popular training techniques that are prevalent today. Trying to make those techniques work resulted in a lot of frustration on both our parts.

Looking at what has worked well and what hasn't worked well for your horse and analyzing what you know about how your horse behaves in the herd can provide some ideas of which direction to go next time you would like to change something in your interactions with your horse.