Herd Talk eNewsletter

January 2009

Contents

From the Horses Point of View / Free Clip Art / Tips for Reviewing Your Ride /
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From the Horse's Point of View

Understanding your horse's perspective enables you to enhance performance by sending better signals.

--by Kathy Bennett

Hold That Fox "Foxy" (front bay mare) has been in the
Kathy Bennett Family for nine years

If a horse could look in the mirror and analyze his performance, I doubt he'd question his lead-changing technique or his talent for a good stop, anymore than we'd have to ask ourselves how to walk. The horse is more concerned about where the pressure is at and what to do about it.

The horse reacts to his world from where he sees it, and he sees it through his own eyes, not ours. While we are busy developing our horsemanship skills, the horse is simply being himself. Seeing the horse through his own eyes adds dimension to our communication.

The horse is driven by instinctive and natural responses. He filters everything through his horse brain and it is up to us to tune ourselves into his channel.

From the horse's point of view, certain things are important to him -- comfort, simplicity, consistency, pressure, release from pressure, and where is dinner?

Comfort is as important to the horse as it is to any living creature. He will seek the comfortable way out and if an option is open to him that gets him away from pressure, he will take it. A comfortable horse feels safe to operate within an established set of rules ...

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Free Clip Art

Click here for a full resolution copy of this image for personal/non-comercial use

ok to use on club showbills

click here to order this design on a t shirt

Tips for Reviewing Your Ride

To make the most of your riding time, take advantage of what you've learned from the experience. Here are a few tips to help you measure your ride's success, and work toward continuous improvements.

How to analyze your ride:

Shortly after the ride, make a list of ideas and observations while they are still fresh in your mind.

Be open and objective to what actually happened, verses what you had hoped or wished would happen.

Look at both the positives and negatives, and what led up to them.

Determine where your expectations didn't match up with the outcomes.

Identify areas for development and commit to further training and coaching that will maximize your positives.

By analyzing your ride you'll identify where things went right as well as where they didn't. If you build on this analysis, the details will give perspective to your next ride and guide you toward your future skills.