You will have to overcome a lot of small issues while training your horse. With some horses there will be more of them than with others. However there will always be some.
You cannot avoid having small issues. What you can avoid however are big issues.
The issues that might force you to sell your horse
So what do I mean by a big issue?
It can be bucking that is so strong that it makes you fall down. A big issue can be not being able to catch your horse in the pasture. A big issue can be your horse bitting you, or just simply your horse becoming very hard to handle under certain circumstances.
Here is how to avoid any really big problem
However these “big issues” can always be avoided.
The reasons is that a big issue never comes all of a sudden. Your horse always starts with something smaller, that you might not be paing attention to, or you might decide to ignore it “because your horse might not be having a good day, tomorrow it will get better”
Horses do things and then they observe how are you going to react.
This way they learn all the good stuff you want them to be doing, but also all the bad stuff.
Here is how it really works
Let me give you a simple example.
I am starting a young horse. I get in the saddle and I want to ask him to start walking forward. However he doesnt know any aids, he never had anyone sitting on his back before.
I lightly squeeze him with my legs. What usually happens at this point is nothing. Your horse is not going to understand what it means. So after approximately one second, I squeeze him with my legs again. I continue asking him while gently increasing the pressure until he starts going forward, or at least does a few steps forward.
As soon as my horse stars walking, I immediately stop squeezing him with my legs. The release of the pressure tells him what I wanted him to do. The horse will quickly learn that if he doesnt want me to squeeze him with my legs, he has to start walking.
He will then very quickly learn to star walking the first time you ask.
Good teaching practises can easily turn against you
Now, lets talk about another example.
You want your horse to canter.
So you ask using your leg, or your riding whip for canter. However your horse just gives you a little buck and doesnt go to canter. You get surprised by the buck and stop asking for canter. You think that your horse just doesnt want to canter today, so you leave him alone.
However what really happens is that you are teaching your horse to buck. You asked him for canter with your leg, but you released the pressure when he bucked. Your horse just learned that when he bucks you will stop asking him for whatever you want at the moment.
I cant imagine many cases in which you would actually want your horse to buck.
This is how you prevent big problems from “popping up”
What you need to do when your horse bucks for the first time is just to continue asking, and do not stop until your horse stops bucking and does what you wanted. You have to be urging him until he goes to canter and stops bucking, only then you can stop urging him.
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The bucking is going to be very small the first time your horse tries it, and it is going to be easy to manage to stay in the saddle and continue urging him. If you do everything right, you will not end up with any bucking issues. They are going to be solved, before they really became a big problem.
However, if you stop urgining your horse as he starts bucking, you are in for some bigger trouble.
Most likely the next day, his bucking is going to be a little stronger, and the day after that yet a bit more stronger than the day before. Eventually it is going to become almost impossible to fix.
Remember this simple principle and you will always have a trouble free horse
So do you now know how to avoid big issues?
Just correct every small mistake that your horse does properly. That way you will never have any real problems.
