Ride Every Stride | Horsemanship And Personal Growth With Van Hargis

Years back I found myself at a horse expo in Idaho and made a point to really investigate what the trainers and clinicians there had to say. While I can’t remember this trainer’s name, he was showing how he got horses to get used to being clipped for the first time. Hey kept using the same quote over and over again, and it’s stuck with me through all these years: “Where you release is what you teach.” When you want a horse to do something you apply pressure. That pressure might be a nudge or a push or simply be getting close to them, but a common misunderstanding people have is that this pressure is what teaches the horse. But that’s wrong. When that pressure is removed is when the horse learns and is rewarded. Now there are different kinds of pressure. One that is less easily described is implied pressure. Have you ever been in a restaurant and felt someone staring at you, only to turn around and make eye contact with another patron? This feeling is shared with horses as well. I’ve simply walked into round p