Teaching horses to wait.

 There’s value in waiting – in teaching our horses to wait, and teaching ourselves to wait in our own rushed lives.
It’s when I multi-task – trying to be efficient by cramming in 2 things into 1 time slot – that I make the most mistakes!
 
Haste makes waste – retro wisdom for today’s hurried world.
This painting The Master’s Touch, by artist Shawn Cameron illustrates the value of waiting in ranch horse life.

Haste makes waste in communicating with our horses. Tension invites mistakes.
In speed events, every little resistance costs precious time! With speed comes excitement – a surge of adrenaline – in both horse and human.
Messages from rider to horse get muddled when either is distracted or wound-up.

When I work with speed event riders in clinics – jumper, Extreme Cowboy, or the speed phase in Working Equitation, we’ll slow things down before speeding things up. 

Once the rider clarifies her signals – hand, leg and seat aids – she’ll be speaking in a code the horse understands, even when moving at speed.

Speed under control is quicker than speed out of control.