2010

2009

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2009

The Power of Soaking

One of the best things that I have learned through natural horsemanship is the concept of ‘soaking’ – that is, giving the horse time absorb the information or lesson. My background is in hunter/jumpers, and we just rode. If our horses did something wrong, we did it again. If our horses did something slightly better, we did it again. If our horses did something well, we still did it again!

My horses have come so far just because I give them a chance to soak up the lesson. You can see them start to think about things and understand more and more. As a goal-oriented predator, it can be hard to stop for a few minutes instead of ‘working towards the goal’. But one of the things that I have come to understand and witness time and time again, is that just stopping and soaking at the right moment can get you way further towards the goal than endless repetition.

Don’t get me wrong – repetition is not a bad thing. Horses learn best by repetition. With experience, you start to be able to feel when repetition is needed and similarly, when soaking is needed.

The day (or a few days) after having had a great session with a horse, I love to feel the changes in them. A lot of the time, you don’t just start where you left off. Sometimes you get on that horse and you can’t even believe the change. Sometimes, I swear, my horses spent the whole time out in the pasture thinking about what we had worked on and decide to come out and blow my socks off.

POSTED BY CELENA AT 9:34 PM     POST A COMMENT
CATEGORIES: APPLYING NH, EMOTIONAL FITNESS, INNER PREDATOR, SOAKING

Return to Previous Page

POST A COMMENT:

Comment:
Verification:	One horse plus one horse equals horses.
Post as:	My SNH identity: E-mail: This address will not show up on your comment; it's just for logging you in. SNH password: Name: Anonymous

Blog Home