Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

At 09:00 AM 8/23/2004, Jody Rogers-Buttram wrote:
> being able to dominate them.  When I say that, I mean that you can control 
> their MIND.  You must let them know you are the boss.

What ever happened to respect, please and thank you?  Controlling a horse's 
mind is a lot of work.  Getting voluntary compliance is easier.  Why work 
so hard?

> They learn that you 1) are not there to hurt them. 2) That you will ask 
> certain things and they will give to YOUR will.  and 3) that just because 
> you do ask them to go against their will, you are their friend and buddy.

This presumes a horse's will is being gone against!  I doubt a horse will 
do anything *against it's will* without physical force.  When a horse 
complies with your request, his will has changed!  His will then is 
*parallel* with your will, and you have not asked them to go against their 
will.

Good horse training involves the human discovering how to get a horse to 
*change* it's will, not go against it.

As I said above, why work so hard?  Why spend the energy thinking about and 
coming at an issue as if it was antagonistic when it really isn't?  Why 
define something in a way that just thinking about it is 
adversarial?  Horses are *herd* animals.  They do things because the herd 
is doing them and for a herd member, doing what the herd does is the path 
to safety, food and water.  They don't do most things because a dominant 
animal in the herd forces them to.  A human can decide which path to take - 
the hard one, involving more energy (dominance) or the easy one, involving 
asking a horse to change it's will.  I go for easy every day.

________________________________
   Lif Strand      fasterhorses.com
           Quemado NM USA