Have you ever had that boss looking over your shoulder every minute? Or that co-worker nit pick every move you make? Sometimes our horses can feel that way too.

Micromanaging is one of the most common mistakes we ALL tend to make from time to time with our horses. We babysit them in the forward motion with nagging feet, seat, and noise just to find out that our horse become duller, crabbier, and more lazy.

We micromanage them in and out of every maneuver just to find out that we actually took away from the maneuver instead of letting the horse own the maneuver by making it their idea. They are truly magnificent animals and sometimes we “train” too much and take away from their natural ability.

Over the years I have trained many horses, especially colts, and have found that the more responsibility I put on the horse, the more solid they become. I am not saying letting your horse do whatever he wants, but what I am saying is let him explore some questions, let him screw up first before you fix it. Now I am not talking about a horse that’s bucking, rearing, or dangerous… that will be a topic for a different day. I’m just talking about every day training problems. 

When a horse can rely on your consistency in your expectations of them, they have the comfort of knowing what behaviors are acceptable and what reactions they can expect from you. Kindness keeps us asking questions when our horse communicates with us, guards us from micromanaging, and keeps our focus on the partnership we want to build with out horse. Remember our horses are still allowed to have bad days, but like us, they cannot take their bad days out on us in a harmful way. 

I relate horsemanship so much with raising kids on a the ranch. This reminds me of when the kids and I sort pairs every year to haul them to different pasture. I would sort a pair off then let the kids take them down the alleyway. However, I would micromanage every single move they made on how to read the cow — look behind, look forward, pay attention, don’t step in-front, and then when one of the kids dozed off, I would get after them for it. Then the next day it would happen about five more times, because they knew if the pair ran back, I would stop them.

For the last two years, I would run the alleyway while they sorted pairs off and brought them to me, which means if they don’t pay attention and lose the cow calf pair, they will have to go back and get it. They learned quickly to pay attention, because if they didn’t we would spend the entire day in the corral. They learned real fast. Working cattle is much more enjoyable now.

Don’t be afraid to let your horses (and kids) make mistakes. As long as it’s not going to hurt them, it’s the best way to GROW!!!