So one of my breakers decided this week would be the week that they wanted to buck when I put the saddle on. I knew he would have a bit of energy this day as he had had a few days off and I had also increased his feed as he hasn’t put on any weight last week and he was in quite poor condition when I picked him up. So I already knew that by putting weight on a horse that that means the horse must have excess energy in his body. And you know what my reaction was when he carried on bucking for like 20 laps acting like he was going to win an Australian Bronc Horse title????? I didn’t care. I did not care one bit that he did that. Now some people will say that I should have showed him who the boss was etc. Well I did that without having to beat the hell out of him. I did that continuing to make him work (whilst he was bucking) and to not stop until he had stopped his nonsense. Once he realised that a Bronc Horse was not his calling in life and he settled back down I then got back to doing what I was doing with him like nothing had happened. What did he learn out of this? He learned that no matter how much effort he puts in to get out of work that it will not deter me, nor will it have any influence over what I wanted from him. He also learned that when he is behaving that he will get rewarded but the work will stay and be hard if he is not behaving. You are their leader and must remain calm and diligent in the most trying times to gain their trust and willingness for you to guide them when they feel overwhelmed. This takes a while to master but if you find your horse doing something they should not be doing you must stay calm and then work out the best method to train them in that moment without resorting to panic or anger.
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