After reading an entry in Pegasus' blog, I was contemplating the amount of force we use to get our horse to do what we want and how that impacts their motivation (or what I call the "buy-in") to do it. I had my own example of that yesterday.
I am working on getting my 1/2 Arab, Brego, to load in my straight load. He will load in a stock but it always takes time and I want him to be more comfortable with this procedure. We also will be moving in less then two weeks so the entire month I've devoted to baby steps.
Yesterday, a friend hooked my trailer so we could work on him entering. I had him with a halter and Zephyr lead (Linda Tellington-Jones soft rope lead) and it took about 20 minutes with the clicker to get him to step halfway into the trailer. I knew this first time would be hard - and you can't rush this horse. He needs time to think it out and make sure there aren't monsters under the bed (or the trailer as the case may be).
We let him loose and did other stuff for awhile and then came back to try again. This time, I did it at Liberty but still with the target and clicker. This time he entered and came the entire way in. Yes, a lot of this success was due to all the foundation I've been laying and that he didn't find a monster under the bed 30 minutes ago -- but there is also something about his attitude when he "can do it himself." There's a new self-confidence reflected in his body stance when HE makes the choice.
It's an interesting difference that I will continue to play with, especially with a horse who needs to know that humans believe in him and trust him to be capable.
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