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Linda Adkins
Professional Instructor and Trainer
Good Form Equestrian Sports
Norristown, PA |
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Linda competed as a professional trainer and instructor for over 25 years. She specialized in jumpers and eventing while
training in multiple disciplines throughout the equine industry..
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Building Trust
Trust is a significant factor for success with horses. The easiest
way to set back their education is to make a pilot error. Doing
so can take away their faith in both the rider as well as themselves.
Errors can exist in many forms. Here are a few varieties which
can set a horse’s training back, sometimes taking MONTHS
of stabilization work
to return to the moment prior -- if you are lucky!:
1) Making physical mistakes: This psychologically damages their
faith in their rider, because the rider’s bad timing forced
the horse’s body out of his own balance. A complete fall
is especially traumatizing.
2) Abusiveness: This causes them to panic and react with innate
“fight or flight” instinct, rather than channeling
energy to work with the rider as a unit.
3) Overpowering with control gadgets: This makes a horse balk
in some way and stop moving “forward.” “Forward”
is the first quality of many (such as pace, rhythm, straightness)
required to meet with success.
Patience can often repair a damaged horse. The rider first needs
awareness of the horse’s psyche. The next step is to work
WITH the problem, subtly convincing your mount to improve a
little more each time, while carefully stretching into the edge
of their comfort zone.
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©2003-2009
The Animal Welfare Project
P.O. Box 987
Valley Forge, PA 19482
(267) 249-5762 Duplication prohibited without written permission.
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