Читать книгу Finding the Missed Path. The Art of Restarting Horses онлайн

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Here’s what I mean by this: If we ask an uneducated horse to stop by applying pressure with the reins and release when he offers to stop, but we aren’t paying attention to the overall quality of how he is stopping, we most certainly will teach him additional, unwanted behavior along with the stop.

In most cases, when initially learning how to stop, a horse may both stop his overall movement while at the same time locking his jaw and pushing or bracing into the bit. If we release when he stops and braces, he will very quickly learn to stop braced. Not only that, but he’ll also begin to associate any pressure from the reins with bracing and soon he not only stops braced but will seem to refuse to respond willingly when asked to give in any way to pressure from the reins. If this misunderstanding isn’t rectified relatively quickly in the horse’s training, he will simply assume that bracing is what we want and even though it is difficult and uncomfortable for him to perform while bracing, he will repeat the behavior every time he feels pressure from the reins.