Tips to prevent Frustration in Riding or Training Your Horse

Every rider, every horse owner and every trainer has experienced frustration at one point. I notice that some people are frustrated more than others. What to do about frustration? Take it out on your horse? Or try to prevent it (is that even possible)?

The people who I see struggling with frustration are the people who don\’t have a clear plan when they are riding or training their horse. They don\’t split their goal into tiny building blocks and work their way systematically through the process. They tend to move their goals (criteria) during training, so they have the feeling they never succeed. That would be the same as having \’getting to the horizon\’ as your goal: you will never succeed!

The 1 million dollar question

If you feel frustration stop whatever you\’re doing and ask yourself \’why am I feeling this right now\’? These are possible answers:

  • Are you asking too much of yourself?
  • Are you asking too much of your horse?
  • Are you comparing yourself with others (who might be at a whole different point in their journey with their horse)?
  • Are you making your steps too big (\’lumping\’), are you discouraging or confusing your horse?
  • Did you make (and write) a realistic plan before you started training/riding your horse?
  • Are you positively reinforcing yourself and your horse enough to keep going?
  • Do you give yourself and your horse enough time to process the training?
  • Who is telling you that you have to accomplish \’this\’ (whatever that is) right now?
  • Did you prepare your horse enough to this situation?

Prevent frustration

First of all: stop beating yourself up! It doesn\’t help you and it only make things worse. Second: don\’t beat up your horse. He can\’t help it, he is just a horse. You don\’t want to regret taking your frustration out on him.

If you feel frustration coming up, simply stop what you\’re trying to accomplish and take a few moments to pause. Take a few deep breaths and ask yourself the questions above.

In order to prevent frustration make training goals and plan every step in the process. Make a good shaping plan and if you get stuck, pause and take another look at your shaping plan to see if you are lumping (skipping steps in the process to the goal behaviour). If you don\’t know how to do this: ask help!\"_frustration_in_training_horse_hippologic\"

Frustration is not necessary!

Take baby steps in your training. Celebrate every accomplishment, no matter how small! Don\’t forget to write your goals and your achievements down: we have a tendency to forget or play down our own achievements! 😉 Start a training journal today!

You\’re not the only one

We have all experienced frustration from time to time. If I see frustrated riders it reminds me of me a long time ago. When I was using \’traditional training\’ (which meant: there is no plan to follow) I used to be frustrated all the time!

I must say I almost never frustrated with my horse anymore and if I feel frustration coming up I know to deal with it before damaging my relationship with Kyra.

Change your focus

Changing my focus was a big help in preventing frustration. Instead of saying \’no\’ to my horse (and myself) all the time, I learned to focused on the \’yes\’.

Instead of saying \’why are you always walking away when I want to mount, stupid horse!\’ I learned to focus on the few seconds she could (and would) stand still and encourage this behaviour. Because I now reinforced my horse with treats to stand still, of course Kyra became very motivated to display that behaviour more and more! Shifting my focus from the \’walking away\’ to the \’four hooves on the ground\’ was such an eye opener!

Calling your horse names, will not give you a good feeling, even if it gives you temporary satisfaction.

Yes, it is easy to blame your horse and call him \’stupid\’ but be honest: Does it really give you a good feeling that you have a \’stupid\’ horse?

Wouldn\’t you feel better about yourself if you had a \’handsome and smart\’ horse? I think that a smart horse can only be smart if the owner gives the freedom and opportunity to show how smart he really is! Don\’t call yourself or your horse names. It is not encouraging or supporting for you or your horse in any way. Start feeling compassion for yourself. Be gentle: you are on a journey, learning is a process.

Last but not least

Never compare yourself or your horse with anybody else. We might be comparing our \’worst\’ with their \’best\’. They might be in a whole different stage of their journey. If they can do something you can\’t, it doesn\’t mean you can\’t do anything right. It is just not a fair comparison. Ever.

If you want to see it from a positive view: you now know that it (whatever \’it\’ is), is possible. And… maybe they can even help you reach the same goal or point you in the right direction!

Focus on what is most important in the world: your own journey, your relationship with your horse.

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Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.
I help horse owners create the relationship with their horse they really, really want. I do this by connecting them with their inner wisdom and teach them the principles of learning and motivation, so they become confident and skilled to train their horse in a safe and effective way that is a lot of FUN for both human and horse. Win-win.

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5 thoughts on “Tips to prevent Frustration in Riding or Training Your Horse”

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