Ride Every Stride | Horsemanship And Personal Growth With Van Hargis

In this week’s episode of Ride Every Stride, I want to discuss the importance of “Rewarding the Thought”. What I mean by Rewarding the Thought, is all about rewarding the positive tries in your horse’s behavior to ultimately achieve the goal that you are searching for. Many years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a clinic with Tom Dorrance, one of my generation’s best horseman. An important lesson I learned during this clinic was the importance of timing. If we can relay or communicate to the horse at the appropriate time, we can get the response we’re looking for. We should study the body language that the horse is showing us - through their eyes, their ears, their tails and even their feet. The horse will give us clues as to what he is feeling. Is he scared? Are his ears pointed away from us? Does he want to escape? Does he want to go forward?  Horses want their environment to be calm, predictable and peaceful; they don’t want to be stressed. Does our presence with the horse promote peacefulness and har