Everything Horses and Livestock® Magazine February 2018 Vol 3 Issue 1

Everything Horses and Livestock Magazine ®

THE POWER OF RELEASE by Matthew Jobe

What is the most important thing to our horse? Is it Food? Maybe, water? If a mountain lion was chasing our horse through the woods, neither one of these important items would even be a thought. The only thing on his mind at that moment is how to get rid of all this pressure, how to get a release from the mountain lion. Think about a mother telling her child to “go clean your room”. Mom will get as “big” as it takes to get the job done. She may raise her voice; threaten to take toys away, perhaps a spanking. She will add pressure until the child is cleaning the bedroom. On the flip side, does Mom keep yelling “go clean your room” while the child is in there cleaning it? Of course not, it’s already being done. Yet how many times are we still nagging our horse when it is trying to do the right thing? A horse does not learn from us kicking, whipping, smooching etc. Those are all aids we use

to apply pressure. Horses learn when we stop that pressure. Our horse will try several different attempts to evade it. Often, they will be the wrong answer. The horse only knows he wants the pressure to stop. When we take that pressure away is when we are giving them the answer, we are basically saying “Good job! Atta boy!” The crucial point here is the timing of our release of

the pressure. When our horse ignores us, goes the wrong way, maybe just stops, says no? If we quit at those moments we are still saying “Good job, Atta boy!” even though it obviously wasn’t. We can teach our horse to do anything by releasing at the correct time. I like to show folks how I teach horses the “come over cue” it is very visual and

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