It is not just you.

Often, in my clinics, I get people coming from a natural horsemanship background. It is wonderful. I promote traditional and natural training so long as it is ethical, kind, progressive, and rewarding. What is interesting about some (not all) natural horsemanship teaching or philosophy is that it is all about the human.

In other words, your horse is never wrong. There is this pervasive idea that horses can already do everything and we just need to ask them right, right? We just need to "get out of the way."

As a result of this heavily adopted idea, people come to me, asking how to "do it right." They say, "I must be doing it wrong. It is my fault. I know he knows how and I am not asking right."

Here is the truth. It is not always about you. Your horse does NOT know how to do everything. In fact, your horse knows very little and is easily confused. What fools people is when an expert rider gets on and achieves things that the novice rider could not. It makes it feel like the horse knew it all along. But that is not what is happening.

In that scenario, an expert rider blocks all misdirection and balance issues, creating an opening for the right thing to happen. They did not just cue the thing you wanted; they prevented all the minor confusions in the horse.

Let me say that again. Expert riders do not just cue things. They prevent things the horse is naturally trying to do that would inhibit the thing you want from happening.

Here is an example:

A novice rider asks a horse to canter and fails.

An expert rider asks a horse to canter; the horse tries five different things, the rider corrects each thing, the horse finds the canter, and the rider rewards the horse.

Trainers often sell the idea that if you know how to ask right, you will get it. They sell techniques. But the truth is, half of horse training is not signaling correctly; it is blocking unwanted things, allowing natural confusion and trial and error to end in a desired result.

Let me sum up. Horses do not know everything. Even highly trained horses get confused when a rider with different feel and timing sits atop them. Horses need time to figure out what you want. It is not always about you.

It is true that there are methods and techniques that are sort of slower or backwards. But even those, with persistent training, start to make sense. So it is not really all about learning to be perfect so your horse can magically understand you. It is often about learning how to kindly say "no thank you" as they explore their own ideas.

The best riders in the world understand horse development. They believe growth and new understanding are on the horizon and not intrinsic. To become a great rider, you will need to begin believing that, perhaps, there is a better way to ask, but also that this is just a natural process of confusion leading to understanding with patient practice.

Horses are a wonderful source of life and fulfillment.
Here's to our success with them. Together we can all be great. ​Don