Ah, it can be so hard when you want to do things with your horse and your horse just…. doesn’t. It feels awful when our horses are disinterested, umotivated and feel like they’d rather be anywhere but with you doing things together.

I actually think this is pretty common in much of the horse world – it’s often joked that horses know where the arena gate is, for example, because it’s expected that they’re going to want to leave the arena. And, of course, using escalating pressure to get horses to do things is the norm.

But, even though this approach can be effective at getting horses to DO things (though many horses fight it or shut down completely), it doesn’t always get them doing things with joy. So, you often still feel there’s that resistance or distance between you.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be like this. My own journey into positive reinforcement started with Toby, my pony who would do most things as long as I carried a whip. I didn’t have to use it, but he knew what it was about. But, I still felt something was missing. I wanted him to WANT to do things. When he was engaged and willing, it felt AMAZING and I wanted that all the time.

And, figuring this out started me looking for different ways to connect with and motivate horses (plot spoiler: it worked incredibly well and changed, me and my life and career along the way).

I’ve since worked with hundreds of horses and their humans, helping them to find connection, joy and motivation together.

Below are some tips to get you started!