Training Tip: Trust vs Respect With Horses

Question: My Thoroughbred mare had an abusive past and was quite fearful when I bought her. I followed your advice to treat her as any other horse and not worry about her past. I have done a lot of groundwork with her, and we’ve made a lot of progress. Several people in my riding group are commenting about how much my mare now trusts me and that’s why she’s behaving so well. My question to you is: What comes first—trust or respect? – beckisue

Clinton’s Answer: For a horse to trust you, he must respect you. A lot of people will come up to me at tours and ask: My horse doesn’t trust me. How do I get him to realize that I’m not going to hurt him? You can’t get trust until you have respect.

Think of it like this: If you don’t respect me as a horseman and my ability as a teacher, you won’t trust that what I suggest you do with your horse will work. If you respect me, you’re going to trust that what I’m telling you is the truth.

By teaching your horse the groundwork exercises and moving her feet forwards, backwards, left and right and always rewarding the slightest try, you’re earning her respect. When you get her feet moving and have her respect, you get her to use the thinking side of her brain.

That’s why the Method gets such great results—it’s step-by-step, it’s systematic. It’s not a hit-and-miss training approach; it’s not mystical and magical. If you follow the Method in the exact order that it’s laid out in—and I do mean the exact order—you will get results with your horse. If you change the order of the exercises, you’ll get some results but nowhere near the results you could get.

It’s no accident your horse is getting better. She’s making progress because you’re doing a great job of being a leader for her and teaching her. All of the responsibility comes back to us. Our horses are the result of the effort we put in to them.

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