What You Need
When you have a horse, you need things. There’s no getting around it. You need a saddle and a bridle if you are going to ride him. You need a barn. You need a pasture or a pen to keep him in. You need hay and grain and medical equipment, a vet on call and a farrier who comes every month or so. And you need a lot of money to pay for it all. But what you also need, what is sometimes in short supply, but crucial to your horse’s well-being, is patience.
A horse is an amazing creature. He is 1200 pounds of muscle and power that allows us to sit on his back and control him in any way we want. Think about that. Think about the miracle it is that we are able to control such an animal. But sometimes we can’t control him. Many times this is because of the rider’s lack of patience. He gets frustrated because the horse won't do what he wants or the rider doesn't know how to ask the horse to do what he wants. When riders run into problems, they sometimes lose patience. But patience is the key to horse ownership.
Every horse is different and every horse needs to be treated as a unique individual. Some horses take longer to train than other horses. This will require more patience on your part. This does not mean the horse is dumb or stubborn—it just means that you need to be patient. For example, I have one horse that tends to get frustrated very easily. He will actually stop in his tracks, stomp his foot and shake his head no when he doesn’t understand something. Some people would get mad and force him to do what they want him to do. What I do with this particular horse is, just stop. I stop doing what I am teaching him and go on to something else that he knows. When I feel he has calmed down and is ready to try it again, then I will go back and attempt it another time. 99% of the time he will get it the second time around and I have a happy horse that has learned something without being forced with negativity from me. You cannot fight a horse—he will always win. If you think you have won because you have forced him to do something, you haven't. All you really have done is make the horse hate what he is doing and you’ve taken away his willingness to be your partner.
Now don’t get this mixed up with spoiling your horse. You don’t want to let him walk all over you and get away with misbehavior. You need to keep yourself at the top of the pecking order. What you want to do is teach him to want to please you, like a wild horse wants to please the herd leader. You want to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard. I will discuss this at length in my next article.
When you are handling your horse, think about why he does or doesn't do something. Put yourself in his shoes, so to speak. My friend got a new pony for her daughter. She had him on the cross-ties while she was brushing his face. He didn't like it and was moving his head away. Her first inclination was to hold him still and force him to let her brush him. But instead, she stopped and thought about why he was doing that. Normally he doesn’t resist anything so it made her wonder what was up. She got a softer brush and he was a different pony. His head dropped, his eyes got soft and he then loved being brushed. Something as simple as using a different brush can change the way your horse acts.
Here is an example of how losing your patience not only doesn’t work, but can make things worse. This same friend looked at a horse for sale. The seller put him on the lunge line. This was a nervous, sensitive horse. Because the seller didn’t communicate his cues effectively, the horse didn’t understand what direction the seller wanted him to go in and he picked the wrong direction. The seller got after him with the lunge whip and reprimanded him. This caused the horse to become confused and then more nervous. He ended up getting tangled in the lunge line and being reprimanded further. He was scared out of his wits and after that, he couldn’t do anything right. He was lost. And he certainly didn’t want to please the person who was confusing him and upsetting him. Luckily, my friend saw through all this and bought him anyway. She brought him home and treated him with consistency and patience. That was 7 years ago. He’s her favorite horse and he seems to love her. And he never does anything wrong. Because she’s patient with him.
If you are having problems with your horse, ask for help. It does not mean you are any less of a rider or handler. I still ask for help when I am stumped. Someone else might have a different idea, something that never occurred to you and it just might work. With horses, there are some basics you can go by, but beyond that, it’s a lot of trial and error.
And always remember, the second you lose your patience, is the second you lose your horse.
Micaela Zanat has been riding and training horses in Texas and New Jersey using resistance-free training and natural horsemanship methods since 1995. She recently relocated to Califon where she specializes in western riding and barrel racing.