Let me repeat myself

If you want to get anywhere with a horse, be prepared to repeat yourself.  Leg on, go forward. Leg on, go forward. Leg on, go forward.  You will do the same things for years; stretching circles every single day until the horse seeks the contact, and transitions like they are going out of style. Is that annoying, all that repetition? Does it piss you off when your horse resists, or doesn't get something new right away? Do you swear at him? Don't lie. Even if it's only in your head, you probably swear at him. Do you follow the swearing up with an emotionally charged whip aid, or a sharp boot with the spur?

When I'm teaching, that's my cue to take a sip of coffee (I would blurt out awful things, because I sometimes swear in my head too, if I didn't take that moment with my coffee).  Then I point out to the student that their aid was not an appropriate correction for what happened; that the horse needs more specific feedback about what to do.

Imagine if I did to my students what they sometimes do to their horses. Imagine if I got angry every time their heels came up, every time they were out of position, had poor timing, or got frustrated in a nanosecond. Imagine if I started swearing at them for crying.  Imagine if I screamed at them for being scared. I repeat myself hundreds of times before anything ever changes in a rider, because that's my job.  If I can be patient with a student, whose brain weighs 5 pounds, please be patient with your horse, whose brain could fit in the palm of your hand.