I’m going to use the flat wall of the arena as the pressure on one side and my own presence just off his primary line on the other side as a corridor of pressures to move him forward in the direction I want him to go. ![]() Creating corridors of pressure that create a feel in the horse of the shape we want him to take is basis of the training program we call “heeding” here at Meredith Manor. My next goal is to introduce the feeling of a corridor of pressures that he’s moving in. When I moved a little to the left of his primary line, he moved his head to the left so he could keep watching me. When I moved to the right of his primary line, I wanted to see his head swing to the right just enough so he could keep on eye on me. So we walked along quietly behind him, working to keep his attention on us and maintaining a quiet emotional connection. Then we started to control his individual strides by following him on his primary line as we moved from side to side to make sure we had his attention. ![]() We experimented to find the least bit of pressure it took to make the horse quietly aware of our presence and attentive to where we are. So we never did anything the horse might perceive as predatory or punishing. We wanted him to be comfortable with having us there. Our first goal was to get the horse used to our presence without building any emotional charge. We’ve talked about working a baby green horse in a pen for the first time. You control a horse by first controlling his attitude and then you can control his mind. The one thing that’s true for every horse is that you don’t control a horse by controlling his head with a halter and lead rope. Then you have to experiment a little to see what works for you with that horse that day. You need to understand the goals and the sorts of things you can do to reach those goals. And from day to day they’re different, too. That’s because people and horses have different personalities and what works for one is the wrong approach for another. There’s no precise “training recipe” you can follow that works the same for every horse and every handler every time. ![]() President, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre
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