I'm lucky enough to be starting two horses under saddle right now and each morning I go out, to the field next to the house, and work with them.
One is a Friesian gelding, the other a Quarter Horse X Thoroughbred (yes, perhaps a topic for another discussion...).
They couldn't be more different - despite being the same age, both gelded at 3 years of age, growing up together in the same herd and both breeds having a similar reputation for being easy-going.
The Quarter Horse (and we'll call him that because as a buckskin at 14hh, I'm not sure what happened to his mother's input) is delightful. He's a 'general ideas' bloke - he'll give anything a go as soon as he has the 'general idea'. You can almost feel him thinking, "Yep, yep, I'm with you, let's try it. If you think it's a good idea, then I'm in".
The Friesian is also delightful. He's the details man - no detail is too small, there is no element of a lesson that couldn't be further broken down. You can almost feel him thinking, "Umm, maybe just explain that bit again, I sort of understand it but the fourth time you did that it seemed a tad different, no?"
I began with visions of doing the same lesson with each horse, each day but, of course, after Day 1 the Quarter horse had left the Friesian at the starting gates (or in this case the mounting block). On Day 5 the Quarter horse is getting short rides and the Friesian is learning to stand and relax by the mounting block.
How does your horse approach learning new things, is he/she like the Friesian or the Quarter Horse, or something else entirely? Leave me a comment and let me know.
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