Chatting about: What Does Pressure Mean?

In this episode we talk about the challenge horses have in learning what pressure means in relationship to humans. At a base level pressure should mean to change something. That change might be physical, mental, or sensory. What change is needed is a puzzle horses must figure out and for that reason I like starting with "pressure means change the use of the senses" first. If horses learn a sensory first approach to pressure they have a better chance of gathering enough information to figure out what other changes might be needed. I also like to start with action around the horse to cause sensory use before I start the more challenging exercises of action moving toward the horse in ways that feel more like pressure. If we can start small with training and slowly build complexity from a solid base, horses are much more keen to learn with us.

Originally aired on: April 7th, 2026