Is your trail horse wearing you out? Does your hunter or jumper not see his own distance to the fence? Barrel horse doesn’t circle a barrel well on his own? Do you feel you need to hold your horse and collect him? Imagine what it would be like if your horse took care of his responsibilities! And yes, those things are the horse's responsibility. You wouldn't have to be a nag and he wouldn't resent you for nagging. How fabulous would THAT be?

IN THIS JUMPING VIDEO -  here's the Gambler's Choice. Which did you choose? What did you think the video was about?The herd? Or the horse with the rider?

 People emailed, posted, FB'd, youtube'd, etc commenting on the herd. Loved it! Amazing! Beautiful! That's great. Now, my herd loves to jump and all the horses that come in for training learn how to love to jump. HOWEVER, my focus in shooting the video was Zorro with Taylor riding bareback in a halter (Taylor's first time doing this particular experience, too).

I didn't realize that people were looking at the video differently than I was. Zorro came to me 7 weeks before shooting the video, a show hunter that regularly bucked it's rider off (last time she was air e-vac'd) and he refused to jump (definitely not good for a hunter).

Check the QUICK TIP near the bottom of this page to help you and your horse right away.

“To become what we are capable of becoming is the only end of life.”
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Check out Lauren’s blog 'Horse Musings' for newly updated and more intensive training tips and turning point concepts.

Got some of the "What's" and missing the "How's, Why's" and "When's"? Heels down is ubiquitous but there's a lot more involved than it sounds.

Awareness is the first step!

Awareness training is tough stuff. Hard to know what you're missing when you're missing it. Interpreter?? I'm here to help you.

I'm asking you to base your view of horsemanship on entirely new criteria. Question even what seems irrefutably true. Bring up any 'We've always done it like this, or This is how you do it'.  Take a week and pretend you’ve never had a horse before if that helps. See how many times your horse CHANGES position while you’re leading it anywhere or doing things like standing still, brushing, how mannerly horse is when you're coming with the feed bucket, etc. Scrutinize the distance to you, angle to you, any change from where you started or even if the horse started a movement and you went along. Even a step, ONE hoof. If you don’t know it’s happening, you're powerless to fix it. Let's get your power going. If you don’t understand what the horse is thinking when this happens and how many points he’s getting, you may not even realize how important these puzzle pieces are to both you and your horse, but in VERY different ways.

 

These are the rock solid foundational concepts we explore in Exceptional Horsemanship. Without this knowledge, your routine walk, trot and canter/lope are not the best they can be. Go for Exceptional! Things you and your horse have never be able to do before will be startlingly improved the very first time with this program.

The truth is, if you aren’t improving, your horse is becoming better at not quite giving you what you’re going for. Your horse isn't going to point out the missing puzzle pieces, but he may swipe the table they're on. Have Lauren show you the pieces and how they fit.

Intention is a learned skill.

QUICK TIP:

While your horse is eating, mess with the ears and legs, picking up feet until the horse either doesn't care you're doing it or likes you doing it! Not all at once, mind you. Just a few minutes each day or whenever you can. And you want this to be without a halter or being tied.

Check back for assessments, things to look for, and how to fix them. Check out the training blog here on the site 'Lauren's Horse Musings' and get you and your horse heading for Exceptional.