Allowing your Horse to make Mistakes

Horses are not all that different from children. In order for a horse to learn, they have to be allowed to make mistakes. If our parents never let us fall down, we never would have learned to walk and later run. When learning multiplication tables, if your a child gets it wrong, you don’t move on to division! It can’t work. It is much the same for horses. If we, as riders are always trying to prevent mistakes, our horses will never learn. We will become responsible for things we shouldn’t be (ie. frame, balance, rhythmn) If this happens we will never be able to ride softly and quietly. We have to allow them to make decisions. They will either make the right choice or the wrong choice. If they make the right choice, Great! The lesson is being learned. If they make the wrong decision, oh well, it just gives us a chance to make a correction and provide the horse another opportunity to learn.

If you feel like you are having to ride really physically all the time, consider how you got there… Have you been accepting responsibility for things you shouldn’t? Are you taking away your horses ability to learn? Let them make mistakes, don’t panic and turn training into a learning process for you both!