Re: RC: dealing with refusals-how far do you push them?

[Abby Bloxsom <goneriding@snet.net>]

> quick question- if you ask your horse to cross a ditch
> or go a certain way.(anything they do not like..), and
> they refuse, is it imperative to continue to force
> them?  when do you end the fight?  I am afraid that if
> i let her turn away, she will refuse again later on
> something else, but i hate to "beat"her into
> submission- Help!!

Sonya - 
I was raised to believe that if you quit at a fight, you lose.  Don't
start a fight you can't win.  Well, I've modified that a bit over the
years to revise what I see as "quitting".

Used to be if I said "I'm riding you through that water" that it meant
exactly that.  I would make this side of the water infinitely more scary
than the other side.  This worked with lots of horses, mostly just
pigheaded, but not the really scared ones.  Sometimes it made them even
more scared.

Somewhere along the way I decided I would say "I can wait longer than
you can" and just sit there.  I kept the horse pointed at the water, and
waited.  They would go backward and forward and side to side, but I
always kept them faced toward the water. This worked with many more
horses, and the scaredy cats usually got around to trusting me.  But I
did meet a horse who could wait longer than I could (literally HOURS).

Now, I say "Let's go through the water", and if it's so hard that it
takes me more than about 5 minutes or so of pointing and waiting, I just
get off and lead the horse across.  Unfortunately, this method usually
gets me wet.  I've walked through waist-high water in my leather boots
and breeches, but have found that the horses seem to just want a
confident leader.  The scaredy ones, the pigheaded ones, and yes even
the horse that could wait longer than I could.  She will now cross any
water, as long as I give her a few minutes to decide she trusts me.  I
NEVER rush them.  EVER.

-Abby
-- 
* * *
Abby Bloxsom
ARICP Certified Instructor
Level III Recreational and Distance Riding
Colebrook, CT USA
dearab@horsecom.net
goneriding@snet.net