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Teaching our horses to be soft and light and responsive to us can be the most important thing we teach them. Always begin and end every exercise with softness....
Anything we do with our horses should be done with softness. Anything our horses do for us should be done also with softness. You may or may not be familiar with a term for this popularized by Ray Hunt, a soft feel. A horse cannot be considered responsive if he does not respond with a soft feel. A person cannot be considered a horseman if he is unable to direct with softness and develop softness in his horses. No matter what we are doing, handling the horse on the end of a rope, working a cow from the saddle, performing a dressage test, or fighting a Mexican bull, the horse needs to respond to the rider with lightness and softness. And the rider needs to know how to present his requests of the horse with that same softness. The horse can be no softer than the rider.I’ll give a short description of an exercise you can do to begin to develop softness within your horse and your self, but I want you to remember this whilst you do it: HOW YOU DO ANYTHING IS HOW YOU DO EVERYTHING!Every exercise contributes to or detracts from the soft feel and responsiveness of your horse. Start here:
This beginning of softness applies to all we do with our horses. Every request begins and ends just like that – no exceptions! Remember – how you do anything is how you do everything. Do everything with softness and your horse will be light and responsive.
The copyright of the article Horse Training for Softness in Horses is owned by Duane Isaacson. Permission to republish Horse Training for Softness in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Comments
Nov 28, 2006 9:02 PM
Joy Butler :
1 Comment:
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