Take Responsibility Take Action

You are completely right Jerry. The fear of failure or fear of losing rapport with my horse often hinders my learning process. It is time to push through my comfort level and take action. Learning is my responsibility so that I can be a better leader for my horse. I will make a conscious effort to be progressive but fair. Thank you for reminding me of my responsibilities.

Boy, you’re timing couldn’t be any better with this video! Just today my husband and I were working on the horse area of the barn and Maverick was right in there with us messing with everything. I’ve been trying not to say “no” too much but today he was just totally disrespectful. I even told my husband today that I have to get out to the barn and working on respect. I would like to have him respect me even when I don’t have my carrot stick. Today he didn’t get out of our space till I went and got the stick. I am always amazed at how much he respects my mare. She just has to give “that look”. I need to take the responsibility and action to get his respect once and for all. I think my biggest fear is losing rapport or making him fearful of me and the stick. My winter challenge!

Thanx for that Jerry
I think you just pretty much summarised what my New Years resolutions are! I’ve got to a point in my life where its time to sit up and Take Action! Time to stop watching the world pass me by, and also to realise that I am responsible for myself. What I see in the mirror today is what I have made, I am responsible! The only person who can do anything about it is me!
Boy oh boy can I relate to that level 3 story! Thats RIGHT where I am now and thats exactly what my horse does with me, she usually wants to go the opposite way to me! I’d really like to get my level 3 filmed this year but I just know there is something missing from the relationship.

Great stuff you’re doing here Jerry. Thanks.

How interesting…and what timing:) Thank you Jerry for confirming that my taking responsibility and then taking action with my RBE was appropriate. Just this week, while working towards L4 On Line, I decided to ‘help’ my very unconfident horse find comfort in ‘seeking’ the scary obstacles (white pvc poles and plastic barrels) to cross over while playing the circling game. Every time she put effort into avoiding them, I put effort into saying ” if I were you, I would cross over the _” It is amazing after 2 days how she is truly seeking these objects as if that is where to find comfort;) hmmm…I now believe that she was actually behaving with dominance rather than true fear. But even if it was fear, she now believes more in my leadership than she has in several years! As you said, it was just time to make a change with this particular behavior, and I am very pleased with the results. Savvy on with responsibility and action:)

Great to hear that you were able to take your leadership to the next level. I look forward to seeing soon in Florida.

Thank you for posting this Jerry. It’s a message I need to hear over and over again as I feel I’ve abdicated or given away my responsibility for far too long. That abdication reared it’s ugly head in a Kelly Sigler clinic I was participating in when Renegade began to really “act up” and do anything but what I was asking. Not wanting to disrupt the entire clinic, I went to the round pen to sort out what ever was going on. Fortunately I had a Parelli instructor available to help me work through my respect and control issues with Renegade. The round pen session was physically and emotionally intense for me but it made a huge difference for Renegade. Later that day and into the next day, he was a much happier horse and willing to work with me as my partner. By the following afternoon I did have to repeat the round pen session but it only took 15″ instead of the over an hour the day before.

Those two sessions helped me realize just how much of my responsibility I’d been giving away. I hadn’t been being effective nor a good leader so no wonder Renegade didn’t see me as worthy. I really had to step up that day and go pretty far out of my comfort zone, but I grew a lot, the results have been amazing, and my confidence has soared!!

I had to take responsability over my energy level. I have a very sensitive RBE and I was putting too much pressure her way, I didn’t have a neutral. I had to take action to make the change in my self to be the leader my horse deserved. Our relationship is improving all the time but I still have to work on myself to make any progress.

Thanks Jerry!

One of those moments for me was realizing I was getting very sloppy in my bridling. I was actually causing/allowing the horse to have opposition reflex rather than cleaning it up and building the horse up to be my partner.