Training Tip: The Concept Lesson

When you first teach a horse something, it’s a concept lesson. In the concept lesson, your goal is to get the general idea of the lesson across to the horse. When you first ask a horse to do something, he won’t automatically know what to do. In fact, he’s probably going to do everything but what you want him to do. For example, when you ask the horse to back up on the ground, he’ll probably stick his head up in the air and ignore you. He might turn left, he might turn right, but the very last thing he’ll try is taking a step back. When he takes a step back, if you release the pressure, he’ll look for that answer again. However, if he takes a step back and you don’t release the pressure, he’ll go through that whole cycle of options (rearing, ignoring you, turning left, turning right, etc.) again. Then he’ll come back to taking a step backwards. If you miss releasing the pressure the second time, it’ll get even worse. Every time a horse does what you want, or even acts like he’s going to do it, you’ve got to release the pressure so that he knows what the answer is. I’m so obsessed about it that when first teaching a horse something if he even gives the impression that he’s thinking about doing what I want, I’ll still release the pressure. Remember that a thought will soon turn into an action.