Cowgirl to the Core
Capturing the horse's mind takes a certain amount of skill, understanding and work. If every time you work with your horse their mind seems to be on something else, like the barn, their friends or finding a bite of fresh grass to eat, their mind isn't fully on you.
Your horse should be looking to you for the next cue when you are working with them, but getting to that point may be easier said than done. When their focus is on you, it doesn't take much to get them to do what you ask. However, when they are worried about what is going on around them rather than paying attention to you, it will take more effort to perform any task.
The key to capturing the horse's mind is a pathway directly through their feet. The more you can get the horse to move his feet, the more he will respect and pay attention to you. If you watch your horses out in the field, it usually only takes a look for one horse to get the other to move his feet. This same communication can be accomplished between horse and human.
I trained a horse this fall that was a busy body. She was a very forward-moving horse and that made her owner anxious. She felt like the mare was going to move right out from under her at times and wanted me to try to slow her down and work on standing still.
At first I tried just making her stop and stand on the trail at various times. She would stop, but as soon as I let loose on the reins she was off again. I would ask her to back four steps for every two she took forward, then tried to stand still again. It took lots of backing to get her to stand for a short time, but we slowly made some progress.
I started to figure out that asking her to move her feet settled her down more than standing still did. She would sometimes get more anxious and antsy the more I tried to make her stand. So I would take a break from that and make her move.
We would do small, tight circles, side pass and back. I would do anything I could to make her move her feet for several minutes. The moving actually made her relax and when I felt her attention shift to me, I asked her to stand again. Moving her feet actually helped me teach her to stand still.
This method also helped me teach her many new things. When she didn't understand what I was asking, she would get more antsy. I would make her feet move for several minutes, then ask her to stand quietly for a few more seconds before trying a different approach. Moving her feet seemed to help reset her mind and bring her focus back to me.
This concept can also work for lazy horses. These types of horses are always looking for the easy way out. We can get them to do what we ask when we make the wrong answer more difficult. If the horse wants to go back to the barn where he can rest, make him move his feet more when he is close to the barn.
After working him a few minutes, take him further away from the barn and let him stand and rest. He will start to figure out that when he listens the first time, he doesn't have to do as much work.
Horses are always testing the boundaries to make sure they are following a strong leader. They test each other by attempting to move the feet of others. For that reason, when I'm starting a horse as often as possible I try to make the horse move around me, rather than just walking around them all the time.
When you are making a horse move his feet, he has to keep his attention on you. If you watch the horses out in their herd, you will find that the dominant horses can easily make the horses on the lower end of the pecking order move their feet, and they do it often to maintain that dominance.