Mastering Natural Horsemanship

As you are paying attention to your horse, ask yourself what kind of feedback he’s giving you? How is he breathing? What are his eyes and his ears signaling? Are his reactions to haltering, leading, grooming or whatever you’re doing with him the same as the last time you worked with him?

If you are paying attention to your horse, you will know when his attention wanders from you. You don’t jerk on the lead rope or spank or poke him. You don’t “correct” him or punish him. You just quietly do the smallest thing you need to do to get his attention back on you. It might be as little a brushing your hand against your nylon jacket to make a little noise or as much as using some sort of pressure that makes him move his feet a little. It’s going to vary from horse to horse and it will change as the horse spends more time with you.

Step 2. Pay Attention to Rhythm and Relaxation

You start moving rhythmically from the moment the horse can hear your voice or footsteps or sees you coming toward his stall. Everything about your approach should be rhythmic and relaxed. Pay attention to your breathing because that’s where it starts. Then pay attention to every movement you make and the tension in your muscles, even your face.

As you greet the horse in his stall, put on his halter, stand him in the aisle, start grooming, tack him up, or whatever you’re doing that day, you work with a constant sense of rhythm. From the way you buckle the halter to the way you coil the end of the lead to the way you pick up and put down your brushes or lay the saddle pad on the horse’s back you don’t speed up, you don’t slow down, and you don’t let things get jerky or jittery. Rhythm. Rhythm. Rhythm.

Move your horse to the arena with rhythm, mount with rhythm, and ride with rhythm. Rhythm is the mother of relaxation and teaching your horse that pattern can help prevent a wreck down the road someday when something unusual and unplanned happens. And it will.

(Continued on next page)