See those soft eyes and that open, curious yet alert expression? That’s Doc, 5yo palomino pinto Mustang gelding from Stewart Creek WY while we were doing a whole lot of nothing. Or were we?
I was sitting on the mounting block with his lead rope in my lap, taking a break in between working horses, enjoying the afternoon sun and observing the other Mustangs that were standing tied before or after their sessions.
Doc stood quietly, watching me and relaxing with nothing “difficult” being asked of him. We were sharing space much like members of a band of horses often do.
This is your permission – or encouragement – to do feel good sessions with your horse. You need them and so do they.
We all got into horses because we want to enjoy them. Maybe one needed a home or we wanted the challenge but we all also wanted joy and relaxation.
We all also sometimes don’t want to go out there. Because we’re already tired and we know it’s going to be hard/scary/frustrating/exhausting to work on that next “important” thing on the list.
We don’t want to spend an hour opening a can of worms, not knowing if we can close it before it gets dark, we need to go, it’s time to make dinner or we simply run out of steam.
We also don’t want to make something worse instead of better if it doesn’t go right.
I’m all for feel good sessions when we feel like it. Short, easy, relaxing team building sessions. A walk. Sharing space. Giving scratches in all the good spots. An easy bareback ride if the horse is under saddle and enjoys that.
5 minutes, 10, maybe 15. Or breaks in your sessions where you focus on both of you feeling good about being together.
They need that just as much if not more so than all the “training”. If they like you and associate you with pleasure, relaxation and feeling safe, all the other stuff will come more easily too.
You don’t want to dread working with them. That goes both ways.
I’m looking forward to sharing more training insights of what we do day to day gentling Mustangs at Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy . I wanted to start here because I think it gets overlooked and that stands in the way of so much good that could unfold.
We’re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization helping Mustangs and their humans in any way we can. We’re located in Guffey, Colorado. We work with adopters across the lower 48 and beyond. To find out more about what we do and how you can learn from us or support our work, go to
w i l d h o r s e o u t r e a c h . o r g
You can reach us via PM, 
at info@wildhorseoutreach.org or 
719-377-8587
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