Training Your Horse - Goal setting and Attitude
Setting Training & Shaping Goals
It seems to be true in life, that you create what you focus on, I believe this is also true in training horses. When we are setting training goals, it is important that we focus on
“what we want the horse to do”, instead of focusing on all the things the horse does that we don’t like.
The first thing you need to do is visualize how the finished behaviour will look, what movements precisely will the horse have to make and in what sequence.
e.g. Goal is for the horse to reach for the bridle, open it’s mouth around the bit, take the bit into their mouth, then lower their head and keep it down there, so that we can put the bridle over their ears and do up the buckles.
Notice that this goal clearly describes exactly what I want the horse “to do”.
This type of goal makes it easy for me to identify all the steps I will need to train for that goal.
This then gives me some concrete plans about how I could shape the behaviour from start to finish.
Now consider this goal: “I want to be able to get the bridle on my horse”.
Notice that this is much less specific about what movements the horse will do, and how it will look. It will be much harder for us to think of the steps that will lead to this kind of goal.
Listen to people talking about their horses, you might notice that many spend a considerable amount of time talking about what they don’t want the horse to do, and all the things the horse does wrong.
People tend to be very critical of themselves and their horse noticing every minor imperfection.
This type of focus and attitude is not conducive to finding training solutions, or creative shaping strategies.
Our brain is like a computer that uses questions as a laser beam to focus our creative energy. The type of questions we ask will limit our brains capacity to find creative solutions to problems.
Consider the following two questions:
1. “Why is my horse such a jerk, why does he walk away when I’m trying to get on???”
2. “How can I teach my horse to stand still while I gather up the reins, put my foot in the
stirrup and get on?”
Notice how each statement makes you feel, and how it might influence your ability to train your horse effectively.
Make it your intention to ask better questions, set clearer goals and work towards goals with an attitude of appreciation for every effort your horse makes.
