04/20/2026
Training isn’t always linear.
Sometimes it is leaps and bounds, other times it is one step forward and three steps back. Somedays it looks like being able to pet their whole face and then the next having to just sit outside of their pen while they eat so that they understand you won’t hurt them. Gentling will always have some regressions. Whether it is just not wanting to be caught in the pasture anymore, biting your farrier, or panicking when you make eye contact. We changed everything about their lifestyle. They went from traveling miles and miles a day to having to stay in a small pen. From living off dry grass and tree bark to eating high sugar hay. From being able to cool off in lake of muddy water to having to drink from a 50 gallon plastic tub. We expect them to be immediate friends with the two legged mountain lion that removed them from their home. We should think of gentling as peeling back layers rather than just meeting check points. Sometimes you are excited about what you see and other times you have to sit back and just think about where to go from there. Make smaller goals that you know the both of you can complete, or even just have a goal for yourself. Your horse doesn’t understand that it needs to meet a quota. Focus on training the horse you have today, not the horse you had yesterday. Gentling is not a straight line or just a to-do list. It is a friendship, you set boundaries, learn to trust, and fix problems as they arise.
