The Importance of Quiet Time

Nonchalance is the most important French word for one to understand when gentling wild horses and starting colts. A studied projection of not caring if the horse gets nervous, jumpy, or even hostile can be the most important step in keeping some horses from becoming even more nervous, jumpy , or hostile.

When one despooks a horse one must not use body language that tells the horse that the monster really is dangerous. The exact opposite is true. Last week I watched my intern, Samantha stand idly by and make constant contact with a terrified horse. She betrayed no more emotion that she would have had she been sitting with a sleeping cat in her lap.

The horse learned as much in that hour as she would have in three months of training with a person who was:


1. Afraid of her
2. Afraid of failing in her training
3. Afraid of doing something wrong
4. Afraid of being embarrassed in front of other people

or:

1. Upset that the horse was learning too slowly
2. Upset that the horse was not responding to gentle treatment
3. Upset with anything else in her life to the degree that the horse felt that tension.


Make every interaction that you have with a horse in training tell that horse three things. I am not afraid of you. I am not going to hurt you . And I will stay here all day long until we get some sort of improvement on what we are working on.

And make sure that you are very nonchalant when you let your body tell the horse these three things.

(Younger Samantha is shown above working her 1/2 Corolla, Legacy.).