What Your Horse Trainer Can't Teach You

Why are the great trainers great? What do they have that the rest of us do not have? They all use different methods, and they all may claim that their methods are superior, but all of their different methods bring them success. When you try to emulate them, you get nowhere or only fleeting results, what gives?

The answer is timing. They have it, all great trainers, all great horse people, whether they show or not, have it. It is why some people succeed while others fail. There is no magic bullet in horse training, there is no super training method that works the same on every horse every time. No, truly, what good trainers have is timing.

Timing is feel, and feel has to come organically. You have to be able to shut out all the outside noise and the internal chatter, you have to stop the world and connect with your horse. This isn't magic, its not supernatural, it's feeling movement, tension, and intent. Horses are tactile animals, they communicate through touch, and while we are yelling and pushing and thumping they are tuning us out: the conversation is unilateral, and they're only half paying attention. When we sit still they can finally hear us, and more importantly, we can finally hear them.

Timing means responding to the horse's intention to halt before it has halted. It is knowing how to stop giving the cue the instant the horse begins to respond.

Have you ever heard of someone complain about their horse anticipating a movement? The horse felt the cue before the rider gave it, and the rider is complaining! This is the opposite of feel. The horse was in essence finishing his rider's sentence and the rider is annoyed! He will then punish the horse for hearing what the rider was about to say before he said it.

A great way to practice feel is to get on a broke horse in a round pen and merely do transitions. Walk, halt, walk, halt, with your eyes closed, you will feel the horse ease into the halt, you will feel the horse prepare to walk, this is when you stop giving the cue, not after the horse has stopped or started, but when he begins to respond. If he needs you to continue to cue or he reverses his intentions, let him, its not his fault you've made him sluggish, just try again in a few steps or seconds. Soon you will feel the horse start to execute almost before you give the cue. You were feeling, and by doing so, you gave the horse room to feel.

Enjoy that moment, enjoy what you have just taught one another, because now you are learning what all those clinics could never teach - feel.