Training horses: what’s the most important thing?

The most important thing that you need to train a horse properly is…

TRUST

A horse that trusts “his/her human” will be much easier to train than a suspicious horse. A horse is a herd animal, which is why it is not so difficult to build a connection with a horse IF you take the time for it. It happens very often that horses are trained immediately without the owner or trainer taking time to get to know the horse better and vice versa: that the horse has time to get to know his/her trainer and gets a chance to be curious about his/her trainer.

First, there should be curiosity and the desire to make contact. Only from that, trust and confidence can grow. Therefore, the first part of the Horsefulness method always is Liberty Connection Training or “connecting and communicating with the horse at liberty.” Here, the word “training” does not mean “training” as in “training horses” but as in “training ourselves” to learn the language of the horse.  We learn about and mimic the natural herd behavior, which is primarily the need to socialize and be together.

Horses love to work together with you and do things for you. When the connection is strong, your horse will do his/her best to understand you during training, even when it becomes difficult. However, if the horse does not trust you enough yet, and does not like being with you, he/she will think about getting away from you when it becomes slightly more difficult. He/she usually does not succeed at this (you are holding the horse or you are sitting on it), creating even more stress and making the horse even less susceptible to your questions.

Ask yourself “Have I taken enough time to build a good and strong relationship with my horse before I started training my horse?” If so, “Do I work on keeping that relationship strong enough?”