As some of you may know by now, I spent some time in New Zealand. While I was there I was fortunate enough to have Laurey McVicar take me under his wing. We worked side by side and I learned a great deal from him through our friendship. One such lesson came when we went to Lester Higgins’ ranch to help round up some cattle. We were pretty much just along for the ride with our dogs doing a good bit of the work. But as we got up to the pens I noticed many of the boards weren’t in good shape. Lo and behold, some of the cattle started pressing up on them and escaping one by one. Each time I yelled that some had gotten out Laurey told me, “Don’t worry mate, she’ll be alright.” Well, after about the sixth time of me shouting out Laurey finally said, “She’ll be alright, mate. She can’t get off the island.” While this cracked me up at the time, it also taught me that sometimes the right way to do things goes out the window. When that happens you need to focus on the job at hand, keep a positive attitude, and work with what you’ve got.

Key Takeaways

So how do you know when you need to address an issue and when you need to just let it go?

Let’s say you want to have your horse lope circles, but the horse is giving you problems with just walking. This is more of an issue with basic control of your horse, and you’ll want to focus on walking before moving forward.

Now, if you work up to a lope and the horse is speeding up and slowing what do you do? There’s no real safety issue here. The horse is working itself too hard and is slowing down and speeding up because it hasn’t learned to find a steady, even pace. It’s okay here to keep asking for what you want of your horse. If you know what you want is achievable by your horse, then by all means, keep asking.

There is no hard and true “if that - then this” in horsemanship. Absolute answers aren’t going to crop up. You need to assess every situation based on safety, confidence, and being aware. If you lack the confidence in your ability to assess a situation, then it’s time to find someone with more experience to help you.

Often times I see people doing all the right things with their horses, but they still aren’t getting anywhere. This is usually because the training lacks a grounded structure. The horse can be taught all the right things, but if taught out of order, the horse can’t piece them together. Finding a routine that stops your horse from being confused will help them progress more efficiently.

Sometimes we just want to do everything right. But what happens when right just doesn’t work, like on the Higgins’ ranch? You have to learn to accept what the circumstances will allow for and be adaptable. Focus on the job at hand and leave smaller problems alone as long as there is no safety issue. Again, those cattle weren’t getting off the island. It can be quite humbling when you’re not constantly distracted by always trying to be right.