Young horses often have what refer to as the ‘baby brain’
This is a very normal development stage of the horse. Every animal (including humans) go through this stage. So I will make references back to a child to help clarify things up.
Their attention span isn’t the best, they can focus well but just not for long periods of time. This takes patience and good training to develop a horse that wants to keep working for you. A young child is the same. If you do small bits of teaching and make it fun and enjoyable they will want to do more with you as time goes on.
They don’t have a large amount of mental resilience. So basically if you put too much pressure on them they just won’t cope. A small child would end up throwing a tantrum.
They aren’t capable of knowing the more advanced things - so don’t ask them and get cranky when they can’t do it. You wouldn’t walk up to a child and expect them to write a 2000 word essay if they are only learning the alphabet and then scream and yell at them when they don’t understand what you want.
Treat your young horses like a young child. Be encouraging and have patience with their learning journey and don’t forget to love and appreciate every moment with them.