Horse-man-ship Mentality – How to get softness in your horse

Horse-man-ship Mentality – How to get softness in your horse.

Cappel Cowboy Wisdom

Softness is always a part of my “Clear Mental Picture” because this is a byproduct of a horse being in the sweet spot. The sweet spot is when the horse’s body, posture, and attitude line up with what I want them to do. They then put the release in themselves which is their reward for yielding to “any” suggestion I make to them. It is at that very moment that the horse clearly sees my mental image of the task at hand.

Any form of resistance is of course “never” in my clear mental picture. When resistance shows up from the horse that is my signal to match it till the horse chooses to yield to it.

What I commonly see with horses and riders is this – they resist each other by keeping in continuous contact. This is a safety net for both in their own minds because they are not yet comfortable in the absence of resistance. Therefore, they stay on a path of defensive brace which is the opposite of softness.

So how is softness achieved? One side at a time, one body part at a time and a steady contact by the rider to the horse’s resistance until the horse makes the choice to recognize the boundary and yield to it.

This process can be improved with vibration of energy from a person which engages the horse to come off the resistance.

To see this in action watch Monday, August 26th YouTube video titled - How to get softness in your horse!

I will demonstrate and go into detail more of what I am referring to here in this blog.

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Mindful Riding,

Dennis Cappel - Master Horseman

Cappel Training and Shoeing

D/C