Natural Horsemanship Patientis: The 4th Of 6 Keys To Developing A Partnership With Your Horse

The 4th Of 6 Keys To Building A Life Long Partnership With YourHorse.

In Natural Horsemanship, being patient/tolerant means takingthe time do it right so you won't have to go back and do itagain and again.

Why do I call the fourth key patients when we are reallytalking about time, because, if we loose patients we willnot spend the time it takes to get our horse through thestages necessary for building a life long partnership.Being patient is very important because it's going totake time to build that partnership.

Let's talk a little about your horse and the time it's goingto take to get him from where he is at now to being a greenbroke horse. Let's assume your horse has never been riddenor ridden very little in terms of proper training or naturalhorsemanship.

For a horse to feel comfortable having a person on his backwill take approximately 300 hours of riding. If you rodeyour horse 1 hour a day five days a week then it would takea little over a year to get 300 hours of riding time or alittle over a year for your horse to feel comfortablehaving you on his back.

Let's say your not consistent with your riding time, maybeyou rode your horse 20 hours and then for what ever reasonyou turned him out, then 6 months later you rode him 40hours and turned him out again for another six months, thenstarted riding him again and put another 75 hours on him andthis continues until you have 300 hours, how old would hebe? If you started him as a 2 year old, he may be 4 or 5years old or older before you had the 300 hours. The pointhere is that the quicker you put the 300 hours on him thequicker he will feel comfortable with you on his back. Beingpatient is important and being persistent and consistentwill shorten the time it takes to accomplish your goals.

To take your horse from being a green broke horse to thenext level, and by that, I mean getting your horse from thegreen broke phase to being a solid, safe and dependablepartner requires that you gain the necessary skills by goingthrough the different phases of natural horsemanship.

The time it takes to get your horse from the green brokestage to being a solid, safe and dependable partner isaround 1,100 hours. I want you to keep in mind that youwill never really finish your horse because you willcontinue to refine your horse for a lifetime.

We have talked about how long it takes a horse to go throughthe different phases now we need to spend a little time onthe individual horseman.

So, how long does it take a person to be considered a goodrider? We will approach this question form the thought thatthe rider is a green novice. It generally takes a greennovice about 1000 hours before being comfortable in asaddle. You need to remember it's going to take timefor the rider to get used to the horse and how he moves,thinks, acts and feels. The only way to get the feel of ahorse is through riding experience. The more riding anovice does the better rider they will become.

Have you ever wondered how much time you should spendworking with your horse (Instead of working with your horsewhy not think in terms of playing with your horse)?Consider this, when it stops being fun for you or yourhorse you're not playing anymore, it's become work andprobably time to stop. When you're playing with your horse,you should think of it as working on yourself and playingwith your horse.

One other top I would like to discuss with you is timing. Wespent a few minutes discussing playing with your horse andwhen it's time to quit, equally important is your timingwhen playing with your horse. Timing will probably be mostimportant to your horse. In your relationship with yourhorse, it's very important to know when you should quitdoing what you are doing. It's not what you do with yourhorse that counts; it's when you quit doing something thatcounts.

An example, lets say you have asked your hose to dosomething through a cue you have given him and he gives youthe slightest try, you should instantly quit giving him thecue. You need to recognize that the horse tried no matterhow slight. It's your responsibility to have perfect timingand stop what your doing when your horse tries.

When you are learning this skill, remember it's going totake time to get perfect timing and you shouldn't getdiscouraged, you will learn. At first, it will bedifficult, but as you learn to read your horse's bodylanguage you will begin to perfect this skill. NaturalHorsemanship is about learning this skill, to be able torecognize if your horse is trying to do what it is you areasking him to do. Be careful not to reward the wrongresponse or reward the horse for doing it with an attitude.If your horse is attempting to do it correctly with theright attitude and you are slow in rewarding him he will beconfused because he thought he tried. If your horse getsno reward (relief) after trying, soon he will quit trying.

How long you do something with your horse is not asimportant as to know when to quit doing it. Know when totake away the pressure (to quit) is as important to thetechnique as the technique itself.

Have fun with your horse(s)!

Mike

This article is brought to you by Perfect Horse Gifts

If you like this article and would like to learn moreor would like to send it to a friend, please feel freeto do so. You can subscribe at Perfect HorseGifts or TheRoundup

In the next article, we will discuss Creativeness?Creating challenges for you and your horse. Learning whatthe two of you can accomplish together. Why settle formediocrity?

Copyright © 2005 Mike Gorzalka All Rights Reserved Worldwide

*You have permission to publish this article*
electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your website, free of charge, as long as the content of thisarticle is not changed in any way and the author bylines are included.

If you choose to publish this article, I wouldappreciate a Quick e-mail letting me know where itwill be published.Mike@perfect-horse-gifts.com

*DISCLAIMER*: The information contained in this articleis of my personal opinions and beliefs and should notbe taken as anything more.