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| My trainee a little further on in his training--a good boy. |
Continuing the story of “Teaching the Reactive Horse to Think..”, posted June 5, 2024. I described
helping a young, adrenaline-fueled gelding to find his feet and settle down enough to solve problems. He had spent his early years in an institutional environment with no way to learn about being a horse in a world he found confusing and scary. His new owners had sent him to me for some basic reorientation and connection training. -MG
My reactive young trainee had been lunged a lot but not taught to think. In his previous situation, his turn out privileges had been taken away because of his incessant running, which left lunging as his only other option for exercise. For him, the round pen, too, was just another place to run away while checked out. This disconnected behavior was not solving his problems, gave him little or no relief, and left his humans feeling beyond frustrated. As I saw it, it was time to give this oblivious, hyper energy some purpose.
