Lord, make my words sweet as some day I may have to eat them.
Some days I need a bit of catchup to go with my words.
I tend to forget how many repetitions it really takes most horses to merely get the idea that I am trying to communicate something to them, let alone understand there is a lesson at hand.
The reason for my momentary lapse is that I have horses at all levels of training in my barn and as you go from one horse to another it is easy to forget where the new horse is in his training.
You see, as you start teaching your horse a communication system it will start out slow and monotonous, but you will find as the horse learns the foundation first, the more he will try to find what it is you are looking for making advancing lessons easier for him to learn.
What I tell all my clients is that it takes the human 2,000 repetitions to break an old habit, 2,000 repetitions to learn a new habit and 10,000 repetitions to make a response an unconscious movement.
And they go into it fully understanding what is being done and knowing what is expected.
Now think of the horse.
When a horse comes in to me, most have no idea that we are even in the classroom.
They have no idea there is a lesson at hand and have no idea they are expected to learn something.
Although it sounds a bit overwhelming, thinking about those numbers and where the horse is in it all, they will help you keep things in perspective.
If you will actually count the requests you make on any lesson you will see how true it is.
You will also see a pattern in the way each horse learns.
Every horse has a learning curve that is better described as a bar graph.
You will find that on every new lesson your horse will do bad, good, worse and better at almost the same repetitions.
When you start the lesson, of course the horse has no idea what you are looking for and thus he is bad.
Let's say after 50 requests, he seems to understand what you are asking, then at 51 he acts as though he has no clue again.
At 100 he will seem to have the idea again and be better than he was at 50 then.
At 101 he is bad, but not as bad as at the start, then at 179 he gets better yet.
Then at 180 you are ready to throw in the hat as he is pulling all the stops and you have Never seen him act that bad before.
Stick with it because right on the other side of the 'horrible' phase is the learning.
Once the horse has 'learned' the lesson he will start giving more right responses and lucky you, he will never get that bad again.
You will see the 'bads' are not as bad and not as long as well as the 'goods' are better and stay longer.
Remember, those were just numbers I made up, each horse is different.
Once you see your horse's learning pattern you will not become frustrated at the 'worst' phase of his learning and will in fact look forward to it as you know what is coming next.
Now, as I said, the more time you spend working with your horse teaching him new things, you will find the lessons go faster and his 'goods' are better and his 'bads' are not as bad.
This is due to the fact that you are actually teaching your horse how to learn.
He starts to understand you are trying to communicate with him and he will begin to search out the right answers.
This is the point that training starts to become fun.
How long will that take? That depends on your ability to get your lesson taught and the horse's ability to learn.
I have found that with most problem horses, three months on a five days a week schedule is the average, but don't get hung up on a calendar.
Think repetition.
It is far better to spend 20 minutes 3 days a week getting correct repetitions than to spend an hour 5 days a week getting none.
Most of all, keep in mind you are teaching your horse things he may not even feel he can do.
Be consistent and make sure, overall, that he is on an upward trend and you will reach your goal when he is able.