We named our company Mastery Horsemanship for a reason. Primarily because I wanted to promote excellence in training, but also because I wanted a green light to dive into nuance.

Many trainers stick to "black and white" rules of training. Good and bad, right and wrong, best and worst. It's very binary. "My way or the highway."

With Mastery, we can uncover clues that help us begin to excel with EVERY horse, in EVERY situation, with EVERY person, because we accept nuance and variability as part of the map to success.

With all that said, here is today's lesson.

What you focus on matters.

Pop quiz:
My horse reacts to the saddle by bucking and jumping. Should I...

A) allow him?
B) stop him?

Nuance is important here. Should I focus on the saddle, making changes to help him feel more comfortable? Or should I shut it down and help him focus on his job rather than the thing that's making him uncomfortable?

Pop quiz #2:
My horse is scared of the dark corner in the arena. Should I...

A) change things to make him more comfortable?
B) help him focus on me and the job rather than the scary place?

Again, nuance is important here. What I can say without reservation is that most people automatically seek to make the experience more comfortable. It's not wrong. It's just singular. There is another path forward.

That path is teaching the horse to listen to the leader in spite of the distractions. Mitigating distractions isn't always possible. Therefore, using them to train focus despite them is a paramount quality of a good trainer.

Should you focus on what's causing the reaction, or should you focus on responsiveness in your horse despite the stimulus?

One horse may be in need of a softer touch, a guiding hand, whereas another may be ready to be pushed to explore the job. But here's the cool part.

If you creatively challenge yourself not to instinctively react to their reaction, you will finally find yourself using scary stimuli or discomfort as training opportunities rather than things to avoid.

What you focus on matters. Changing your focus to responding well despite the stimulus, instead of trying to diminish the stimulus to get easier responses, can make all the difference.

Each experience is different. Log this as something useful for your future. Not a rule, but a tool.

Thanks for reading. ​Don