The problem i have with stopping to praise often is that my horse anticipates that we will be stopping and when! She pretty much stops to praise on her own now...
Well, I don't let horses stop unless I ask the, BUT the big thing to help you get past this, is to ask for a little more. It is possible she is getting bored. Ask for more head down or staying in gait on a loose rein or faster gait, etc and when their is progress, then stop and praise.
Ivy! Thank you! This video is Life-changing!!! So helpful to me... Not only to be patient with my horses, and keep my expectations of them at a level where they can succeed every time... But ALSO be patient & give MYSELF the respect & opportunities to repeat a new skill hundreds (& a hundred hundreds) of times before I expect to be proficient! Thank you!
Sorry an add popped up! As a prey animal he learns by not being killed by the predator. which means hes a first time learner. So your technkque to stop and prakse is torally correct. John Lyons is a griller. Please dont quote him! As to teaching the gait, you are repeating what you already taught him you want to build his muscles. Keep up the great work!
So, in some ways, I totally agree. You make good points and I have given it a lot of thought. I mainly made this video for the riders. Often we see trainers in videos make a difference really fast and think that if we don't get results in 1 day, maybe 2 days, we give up because it isn't working. You are right, we don't want to ask for the same thing over and over and over and over! BUT if I am training my horse to do something, say sidepass from the saddle, during training, if I get one step, I stop and praise. The horse gives me another step, but this doesn't mean he will do 20 steps, or do it in every location, or for every rider, with every saddle, on every day. It needs to be practiced before you can expect a horse to just do it. Thank you for your really thoughtful comments! Keep them coming!
