I can remember vividly, an experience that
helped change my view of reprimanding and
disciplining horses. I was at a local horse
competition and watched as a young girl took
her borrowed horse into the arena to “daub
the cow.” “Daubing the cow” is where you
take a long pole, with the end dipped in
paint, and try ride your horse close enough
to get even a little bit of paint on the
cow. I remember thinking that this young
girl was going to have a hard time doing
this because her horse was only direct
reined not neck reined. As I had thought,
she was having a hard time controlling her
horse and the pole at the same time and was
not successful in marking the cow. After
this girl rode frustrated out of the arena,
she proceeded to hit the horse hard many
times in the head and neck. She was
reprimanding him for what she discerned as
disobedience, but was really a lack of
communication; her horse was not trained to
rein with one hand. It made me realize that
often we will get frustrated and will take
it out on our horse. This is the exact wrong
thing to do.
It is so vitally important that you do not
get angry at our horses, or if you do, it
had better be a very good reason, such as
the horse is threatening you. Often it is so
hard for us to teach the horse what we want.
We understand what we want so clearly, but
our horses just do not think as we do. If
you are trying to teach your horse something
and he seems not to get it, it will do no
good to start hitting the horse or jerking
on its mouth or spurring it in the belly.
These things only teach your horse to fear
you and when they fear you, they cannot
trust you. You should be working toward a
feeling of mutual trust between you and your
horse. I have heard story after story of
someone beating on their horse when it did
not perform to the required level. It is
important to learn to not strike or beat on
your horse when you are frustrated. We need
to teach our horses that they can trust us;
that we will not fly off the handle at the
first irritation that arises. Work to get
your horses trust and learn to hold your
temper.
