I don’t know why it is, but people have the worst time taking responsibilty for their actions, more then any other creature, I believe. Not to exclude myself! It just seems easier, I suppose to just put it off on your horse or somebody else. It’s a shame too, cause all it does is handicap you and your horse from progressing further to better and fuller horsemanship skills and relationship between the two of you. If you are lacking in certain areas of your horsemanship, it will most definatly show up in your horse, and the way in which they behave. The more you can exposse your horse and yourself to different situations and learn from those experiences, the better both of you will be for it. When you don’t know, your horse knows you do not know. They will be apprehensive to do the task that you are asking, if they feel the lack of confidence exuding from your body. You sure wouldn’t want to be riding in a car with someone and your fixen to cross a bridge and the driver startstightening up and acting a little nervous and you ask them if everything is ok and they just say “shut-up” and look ahead it’s fine “trust” me! Well I guess you’d feel reasurred then wouldn’t you? Don’t try to fake your way thru things you’ll only hurt what you have worked hard to gain, trust and respect. Without these two things you would not get very far in the first place. It’s real easy to make excuses about how your horse this and your horse that. Well who’s runnin the outfit? If your horse is unsure and having trouble or walking all over the top of you or not wanting you to touch them – you’ve got serious problems. It’s one thing a young horse being unsure and not knowing about people touching them much or respecting the space each person establishes. With practice it will be alright and you’ll keep them reassured that everything is ok, to be handled and not have to crawl all over you. It’s a whole different issue to have this problem with a horse or horses that’s been around people a great deal. For example, I have this horse I got for riding some other colts for a gentlemen. I had previously had this horse at my place four years earlier as a two year old(for only a couple days), before he ahd traded hands. Nice young horse full of life and no slouch to being mistreated. I got this horse now, four years later and he doesn’t want you to touch this face, head or ears. After some time of slowly approaching his headand ears, he realized we were not going to twist his ears off and he relaxed and allowed his ears to be rubbed and grabbed and pulled gently. Where as before you’d go to bridle him or just move towards his ears and he’d pull his head away quickly. The current owner was not to blame, he was already that way when he bought him. Long story short the “excuse” was given to me later by the original owner that “He’s just that way when he hasn’t got to know you yet.” Well the gentlemen I accuired him from, had him six months and I guess he still hadn’t got to know him yet? What a bunch of B.S. If you are gonna have horses take responsibility for your actions. Quit making excusses. It’s not your horse its you. If the blind leads the blind they’ll only get bumps and bruises. Think about it! Tom Davis – Visit Tom online at www.ColtTrainer.com
