This message is from: "the Sessoms'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Any tips on training a yearling to move into a fast walk or a trot on > the lead line????? When I walk Aagot in her paddock, I swear, she goes > much slower than her regular walk just to 'get my goose'.
Has anyone responed to you yet? I tend to be very wordy, and did not want to clog the Fjord list up so am trying to respond privately. If you have internet access, you might try to find websites about Natural Horsemanship, or get some books. It really works better than "traditional" training methods with my 2 Fjords. You are going to be teaching the horse to respect you as its leader. Horses and most animals have a natural reflex called the Opposition Reflex. If you push them they push back. If you pull them, they pull back. So by pulling harder on the lead, the horse pulls harder back, it is just a reflex, like your knee jerk reflex. They really don't think about it much, they just do it, nothing personal usually. Think of it this way, if a strange man came up to you, grabbed your wrist, what would you do? I would pull back to get my wrist away, a natural reflex. Opposition reflex. What if the man could not speak your language, or speak at all? He wants to lead you somewhere, or teach you how to dance. So he pulls lightly on your wrist (pressure) and does not pull harder when you pull back, he keeps the same pressure on your wrist the whole time so you do not get scared or mad, and he follows your wrist in whatever direction you take it, until you finally push your wrist at him, or in a certain direction, say West, towards where he is leading you, and he lets it go. Whew, you say, what a relief, that's how I get him to let go and leave me alone! Then he takes your wrist again, and puts pressure on you again in that direction, and you remember the quickest way to get him to let go is to move in that direction. So you move that way, and he lets go again. And we do this many times until you realize he does not hurt you but he is asking you for something, and you have to figure it out. So at first you may only move your wrist that direction, but if he keeps asking you and he asks for a little bit more each time, you eventually lean your body in that direction, finally take a step, and finally he can lead you to where he wants you to go. ANd maybe then, when you get there, he will leave you alone again! This is just some of natural horsemanship. Mamma horse pushes on baby horse to teach him to watch her and let her direct his movements in the herd to keep him safe. Dominant horses chase other horses away from food. So you, as human, need to become the dominant horse in the horse's mind, by teaching your horse to move away from pressure when you put "pressure" on it, and pressure can be physical, as in pressure on the lead rope putting pressure on the halter to lead it, or it can be mental, as during training when you are asking the horse to do something and it does not want to do it.
