which_chick | (Reply)

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I do Arabs. As horses go, it's pretty fair to say that they're on the... more reactive side of the scale. For such horses, you either get better at your read and your handling or you decide that they are all crazy and unrideable spook machines and go buy something a little less... reactive. That said, Finn is, at heart, a pretty good guy. Like most Arabs, he wears his feelings on his sleeve but ALSO learns at light speed. Positive learning experiences, for these sorts of horses, bring along buckets of confidence and calmness. Finn is still learning about me and about how I want things to work. He is not 100% confident of the rules yet, but each time we do stuff and he is exposed to the rules, he gets more confident and calm that it's gonna be OK, that this game is not rigged, and that I will do my very best to play fair with him.

Arabs do not thrive in uncertainty. They tend to explode under too much pressure. However, if you can get them to understand "the rules"... that

--they are being asked questions
--each question has a clear and definite answer
--each question is one the horse can (both mentally and physically) solve
--you allow them time to work the question as long as they are trying
--you correct but do not "punish" incorrect answers
--you clearly indicate the correct answer when they get it

(This stuff works with all horses, not just Arabs.)

Once the horse understands the rules, you have a horse whose "try" is quite durable and their approach to learning new stuff is pretty optimistic and "Yeah, let's do this thing!" It's a matter of putting in the time, consistently. He'll get there, I have no doubt.