Go where there are horses and on any typical day you’re going to find someone having trouble catching their horse. And what do they do about it? Typically horse owners attempt to bribe their horses by giving them a treat, a bucket of grain, or waving a carrot at their horse hoping he will mosey on over. While this may get you what you think you want-the horse standing there while you put the halter on-the fact is its setting up your relationship with your horse for trouble.

In natural horsemanship, what we are after is speaking to a horse in his own language so that we can establish three things:

• Trust
• Leadership
• Respect

If we are going to speak to a horse in his own language, we might start by thinking about how horses communicate with each other. If you have the opportunity, go out to an open pasture that has a few horses living together. Just watch what they do. You will come away noting that horses communicate with each other using body language and that confidence and assurance are two keys a successful horse must have in his toolbox. The most confident horses are the horses that become alpha, they run the herd-deciding who eats first, when to eat, where to go, and all that.

Ask yourself this question. Does the stallion or alpha mare in a wild herd of horses use treats to get the other horses to do what s/he wants? Of course not! The alpha horses uses confident strength and body language to communicate with the other horses. In natural horsemanship, we learn how to use our own body language to communicate with our horses in a way that they understand intuitively. This will help gain the trust and respect of your horse. When he trusts you, you can reach a level where you can truly bond with your horse and have that fulfilling relationship with our horses we’re all looking for.

A recent video released by horse trainer Eric Bravo called Catching and Leading Your Horse illustrates the use of gentle natural horsemanship to communicate with a horse in eye-opening fashion. Shot in real time and unedited, Eric goes out into a wide-open field to catch a black mare with an attitude named Wendy. First, Eric shows us ways to approach horses that let the horse know that we mean no harm. Surprisingly, this is a vital step with horses many people aren’t aware of. Eric focuses on the fact that a horse is a prey animal and humans, by nature, are predators. You might not be thinking about this when you walk into a pasture of horses-but they know it. But Eric shows you how to walk up to a horse in a way that removes this fear from his heart.

That being said, horses are all about respect. Have you noticed how a group of horses spends a lot of time kicking and biting each other? Well horse society can be tough! So once a horse figures out we aren’t approaching him like a predator, he is going to look and see if we are worthy of respect. We need to establish this respect before a horse can truly trust us. In the video, Eric talks about things to look for that indicate respect and disrespect. He also introduces a stunning concept called steal a thought that you can use anytime to rid your horse of unwanted behavior and shows how to apply it when trying to catch a difficult horse.

Once you catch a horse, you may think your work is done. But its just beginning! In the last 10 minutes of the video, which I found to be the most useful and interesting part, Eric shows how to lead a horse properly and signs to look for that indicate a horse is being disrespectful. He lays out several leading exercises in complete detail that you can incorporate right into any groundwork routines you do with your horse. The exercises are designed to teach your horse to not only respect you, but to pay attention to you.

Think about how important this is. If a horse respects you and pays attention to you, that’s going to be a horse that is much safer to ride. Do you want to jump on the back of a horse that doesn’t pay attention to you? Probably not! Do you really know the signs to look for to determine if a horse is paying attention? Do you want to learn simple exercises to improve the quality of attention your horse is giving you? If you answered no and yes to the last two questions, you’ll probably want to take a look at this groundbreaking video.

Author: David McMahon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Import duty tariff

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