Timing Your Release

The pressure you put on a horse (physical or mental, direct or indirect) motivates him to do something. The release of your pressure tells the horse he did the right thing. It's a pretty simple concept.

Something important that we need to think about, though, is the timing of our release. The timing is the most important part. If you release too early or too late, you could unintentionally teach your horse something that you don't necessarily want him to learn.

Lets talk about what happens when we ask a horse to do something...

Let's imagine that you are sitting in a chair, with your legs and arms crossed, slouching like as if you were lounging at home watching the television. 

Now, let's say I walk into the room and ask you to stand on one foot and touch your left index finger to your nose. What happens? Do you just end up in the position I asked for? No, I don't imagine it works quite that way.

Before you end up on one foot, with your left index finger on your nose, you have to move your body out of the position that it was in to begin with (slouched, with you arms and legs crossed), and then move them where I asked for them to be. So before you do something, you have to get ready for it.

Even before you moved and got yourself ready for that position I asked for, you probably thought to yourself, "Is this guy serious?!" When I ask someone to do this in a clinic, they always laugh before they do anything else, so I know for sure that's what they're thinking! So, before you even got ready to do something, you had to consider it- you have to think about doing it. 

You think about doing something. You get ready to do it. You do it.

If what you did took a lot of effort, it may have taken some time to go from thinking about it to doing it. If what you did was more of a 'knee-jerk reaction,' there may not have been much time at all between thinking and doing. So little time, in fact, that it seems as if the two are one in the same.

The next time you ask your horse to do something, take notice of how things unfold. Before he does what you ask, he has to get ready to do it. And even before he gets ready for it, he has to think about it and consider doing it. See how soon you can release your pressure. 

If you can release when he gets ready to do what you ask, he'll respond with greater confidence and conviction, because he'll feel more sure that what he's doing is right. 

If you can notice and release when he thinks about getting readyto do what you want, not only will your friends and neighbors start calling you a 'horse whisperer,' but your horse will really start to become more light and confident with everything you ask of him.