Actions and Consequences: Training a Baby

If you had asked me one and a half years ago whether I felt like I could train my own horse I would have laughed. The answer would have been a loud and clear "No!". Now that I'm doing exactly that I realize that it's not as impossible as I used to think. 

I've been training Esso for just over a year now with the help of my trainer, Kristina Harrison. Esso was three years old when I got him, and at the time I knew close to nothing about training a baby. Krisi, who has done it several times before, is still showing me the ropes.

I do feel that training my own horse has made me a much better rider. If I have learned one thing so far it is that every action has to have a consequence. The way Krisi taught me to ride Esso is a way I have never ridden before. In the past, my trainers have always taught me to avoid mistakes, cover up any rough spots as well as possible. Make it look easy. Krisi has a very different approach. Instead of having me hide my mistakes, encourages me to make mistakes as long as I correct them afterwards. Say I ask Esso to canter, for example. If he doesn't move right off my leg I make an appropriate correction - a tap with the whip or a bump with the leg. If he does canter I give him a pat, let him know that he has done something right. That way Esso learns that every one of his actions, every choice he makes to either obey or ignore a command, has a consequence. 

I have had such a great time with Esso so far that I actually want to make a career out of training babies. Krisi always says that after you have trained a handful you look back on your first couple and think "if only I had known that then!" Hopefully I'll be thinking that about Esso one day.