Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Another thing that is important in thinking about horses. You only have to be one level above the level of the horse you're handling. None of this #1 boss stuff. You only need enough to convince the horse you have at hand that you are one above him. Take a herd of 10 horses and each one will find a comfortable position in that herd. Every number will be assigned 1-10 in that herd. #2 horse and #10 horse are very different personalities. If I treat a #10 horse with #1 energy it will be ridiculous and it could ruin a perfectly good horse. I only have to use #9 energy with a #10 horse and I'll have a perfectly good relationship with them. Once I gave up fighting every horse as if they were all fighting to be #1, I started to get extraordinary results from enthusiastic horses. Horses that followed me because they chose to follow me not because I intimidated and scared them into following me.

WOW!  I hadn't realized until this post, this is exactly the transition I have been going through.  Now that I have 7 equines (2 mules, 5 horses) from yearling to 25, I find myself treating them differently, and getting better results than when I only had 2 and treated them just the same.  They were mother and daughter, but now I realize how very different their personalities are, and also their relative status in the herd.  jeri

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