Working In the Round Pen

My Horse Training Philosophy:
I believe in establishing healthy boundaries, mutual understanding and safety. Then building each horse’s trust, confidence and acceptance in our world. I also want to help each horse find deep levels of relaxation and connection through our interactions. I believe in building a deep and fulfilling relationship and connection with every horse I work with. Leadership is important but when I think of leadership I think of what we as humans are bringing to the relationship with our horse. As a good leader I set clear boundaries and rules in a compassionate and caring way. I have very clear and consistent communication that doesn’t change from moment to moment or day to day. I am also aware of my emotions and how they affect my horse. You have to know how to regulate your emotions before you can expect your horse to manage and regulate their emotions. I believe in both negative reinforcement; pressure and release and also positive reinforcement of; touch, scratches and sometimes food treats. Both negative and positive reinforcement have their place in training when used correctly.
It is important that you understand that every horse is an individual and all horses have different levels of sensitivity. When working with horses you have to understand this and what each horse needs from us in the training process. I want every horse to become a confident learner. I teach them to always look for the open door through offering constant releases of pressure with clear and consistent communication cues. When teaching horses, never taking them past their window of tolerance so they always stay confident in the learning process. Sometimes I will need to take a horse to the edge of this to progress them in their training but an experienced, intuitive trainer doesn’t ever take them over this edge and stress the horse. When you can communicate at a refined and intuitive level you are able to tune into how each horse feels at each given time. You are able to recognize the most subtle changes in the horse’s body language and your releases become micro-releases. This creates a huge amount of desire to please in the horse and a deep connection can be fostered.
I hope I can help inspire and educate you to achieve your dreams with your horse!
You can watch full length training sessions here: wicksequine.co...
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