Refinement

As I was riding today on a horse that had gotten injured last fall,that I started riding again a couple of weeks ago.

When he got hurt, I was riding him in the two rein and he was doing very well,when I started riding him again I started back in the hackamore to give him some time to get back in the swing of things.

The funny thing is that,I have refined my use of the hackamore so much in the past several months that I was able to get allot more out of this horse with much less effort then I was getting when he got hurt.

I have ridden with a hackamore for over thirty years,and I now realized that I always over used it,always pulled too much and held too long with too big of movements.

The horse did not change he is the same horse I was riding before,I changed and it made a huge change in this horses movement and attitude.

This horse that was nice,yet a little bound up and over reactive is now free and responsive.

And all I had to do is change the way I was presenting things to him slightly,and watch for him getting nervous and bound up,and back off a bit instead of pushing him through it,and shaz-am it's like a whole different horse.

Anyway I put him back in the two rein today for a little ride and was just blown away at how responsive he was,he was always reactive but now he was smoothly responsive.

Amazing what a little refinement can do for you, all you have to do is be willing to change yourself not just try and change the horse to fit what you are doing.