I am sure that you don’t want your horse to be buddy sour every time you separate him from his buddies.
However, maybe you are accidentally doing one of two mistakes that will make it increasingly difficult to separate your horse from his buddies and to control him while riding.
Of course, some horses are naturally going to be more buddy sour than others, however, there is always a way improve.
So what to do to not end up with a buddy sour horse?
1. Mistake – You are not making sure you have your horses attention at all times
Even when you just start working with a young horse in a round pen, it is important to make sure he is paying attention to you at all times. You want him to focus on you, and you do not want him to be paying attention to other horses or people around you.
Every time your horse starts looking at horses outside of the round pen, get his attention back on and on what you want from him.
let me give you an example:
I am lunging my horse and he starts looking at other horses, so I get his attention back by pulling the lunge line and turn his head inside of the circle.
Especially in the begging, it can feel endless. However, if you last long enough your horse will over time start paying more attention to you and less attention to things happening around.
In case you want to learn more about getting your horses attention take a look at my other article here.
2. Mistake – Riding behind other horses
Another big mistake is riding behind other horses after starting your horse. This way you are not going to teach him to go where you want him to go, you are only going to teach him to rely on other horses and to trot when they trot, turn when they turn, stop when they stop…
I am sure you want your horse to just listen to you and go where you want to go with no regard to what others are doing.
That requires you to work with your horse independently and to teach him to react on your pressure.
It doesn’t mean you always have to be alone in the ring, which is not ideal anyways by the way. However, it means that you should not be riding behind another horse and do what he does.
It also means you should not leave the ring at the same time as other horses do. Always try to leave the ring independently and not just when others are leaving as well.
What to do when hacking out?
When you go hacking out with a friend, try to separate from time to time. For example, if you go across a field, try to do it separately.
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It might not be easy in the beginning and it might feel like it is just spoiling the whole experience. However, if you “spoil” your experience a few times by practicing this you will make a lot of things much easier for you later on.
If you want to prevent your horse from being buddy sour and relying on what his buddies do instead of on what you want him to do, it is definitely worth practicing.
If you enjoyed this article I recommend you claim my Free Video Series where I show one mistake that basically forces your horse to misbehave.
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