Pat them. Pat them, pat them, pat them. If your horse even thinks about thinking about how to think about the thing you want him to think about, PAT HIM.
Praise every right thing, all of the time.
DO NOT ‘make the right thing easy and make the wrong thing hard’.
JUST MAKE THE RIGHT THING EASY, and forget about any botched efforts or wrong answers. Don’t take it personally if the horse doesn’t get it right first time. He doesn’t speak your language. He doesn’t understand your ambitions. He doesn’t understand conflict through the lens of human interpretation. He just knows how to horse, yet he is willing to learn, adapt and change for YOU. Make sure you do the same for HIM.
Horses are the only animal on the planet willing to try for us and to give us everything they have, for absolutely no return for themselves whatsoever.
If you do not foster the horse’s desire to try, you will lose this most precious gift.
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