Episode 239: Do you have a connection issue or cue system confusion?

When I hear a rider say, ‘I’ve lost the connection with my horse.” I see red flags go up in my mind. Here’s why. The vast majority of the time, if I were picking a number, I’d say about 80% of the time, that I hear this AND SEE the horse being ridden…I see CUE SYSTEM CONFUSION.  When you use your reins, or apply your leg, or shift your weight, these are like individual ‘words,’ that when combined become sentences.  Your cue system with your horse is a language. When a rider is unclear with their cues, it makes sense that the horse would be unclear about the correct answer. If the horse responses to a cue from the rider in an unexpected way, the rider must determine how the language became muddled or confused to produce this. But you won’t be able to do this if you think you have a connection problem.  Every time you want to say ‘It felt like I lost the connection with my horse’ I want you to replace it with “I lost the words to communicate with my horse.” The best news is, you can learn this language. And your horse is open to listening.