TRAINING THE SENSITIVE HORSE

Shift your mindset and grow your sensitive horse's pressure-handling skills to improve his confidence and your riding enjoyment.

- JOSH NICHOL, WITH ALEXIS BENNETT

You're going down the trail, and your horse jumps sideways at an unexpected animal. You're in the arena, and your horse won't go near a certain corner or banner. Your horse runs off in the pasture every time you try to catch him. These are some, but not all the behaviors that might cause you to label your horse as sensitive.

Riders with sensitive horses usually fall into one of two categories: Those who've learned to live with it and those on an endless quest to solve it. If you're among the latter, you've probably tried everything. You've sacked them out; you've spent extra warm-up time before a show to get them used to their environment; you've moved cautiously when catching them, saddling them, and on rides; and you've limited the amount of pressure you put on them. Nothing seems to help, though, and it can be frustrating, especially on the days when you can only guess what will set them off.

Regardless of how patient and accepting you are of your horse, managing his sensitivity can be enough to put you over the edge. You may have even resorted to tactics you're not proud of or thought about selling him because you don't know what else to do. What if it didn't have to be that way? What if you could take your horse from surviving to thriving so that you can enjoy the activities you love together and build a deeper relationship? What if there was an entirely different way to think about their sensitivity in general?

Here you'll learn my framework for thinking about sensitive horses, exercises you can use to help them learn to manage pressure, and the process to build their confidence and reduce their reactivity for good.

SHIFTING PARADIGMS