07/13/2026
MONDAY MUSINGS
Work Ethic....
This is a tough and HOT topic for so many.
Having a horse with a good work ethic is so important to future satisfaction and success. Having a trainer with one is equally important.
Some horses are born with “no quit”; some people, too.
With horses, it is both easy and possible to burn them out – even when they are doing what they love. Care must be taken to foster the love and desire to learn and keep all that going.
The flip side of that coin is my MONDAY MUSING. It takes almost NO TIME to teach a horse to have a work ethic problem, and it starts almost immediately in their relationship with someone who won’t be the kind of leader a horse needs – a captain.
It starts with the first interaction – so every person in a horse's life has some sort of an impact – net positive, net negative, or net neutral – from basically birth/halter breaking (whatever) on.
Even well-broke performance horses will develop a work ethic issue in a net negative situation – which is the main reason why PQH decided a couple of years ago to shrink to a size that eliminated the need for an “assistant trainer”. Horses' needs must take precedence over human needs if you are paid to do a job, and Jason decided to do it all himself to eliminate potential net negative impacts humans could cause on his program.
Work ethic issues manifest in many ways – fake spooking, trying to rush back to the stalls, getting resentful or sullen, quitting, minds wandering, to straight-up tantrums– the list is long!!
As far as I’m concerned (as an observer of countless lessons, clinics, horse starts, and other training processes over the last decade), work ethic issues seem to be the main culprit and the number 1 cause of horses not living up to the “dreams and expectations” of the captain’s sinking ship. Know that I am not exempting myself from this musing. I have personal captain issues just like the rest.
I will say I have repeatedly seen from the inside that trying to train a horse to overcome a work ethic issue is exceedingly difficult, and trainers should charge extra for it because it is a lot of extra work. A LOT.
If you read this far, thank you. If you are wondering if you are the SHIP or the CAPTAIN, here is 101.
If you have ever started a sentence (out loud or to yourself) with any of the following… or things like it – you are THE SHIP and your HORSE is the CAPTAIN, and you are fostering a WORK ETHIC problem.
~ “My horse didn’t want to… XYZ…. So we didn’t….
~ “My horse doesn’t like… so we didn’t….
~ “My horse got tired so we didn’t do...... what we should have....
~ “I know I should have worked harder at... or worked at getting my horse to do……But I didn't because (insert silly or lazy human excuse)……
Now, think of the qualities a good CAPTAIN has – leadership, accountability, work ethic, knowledge, expertise and experience in their field, among many others. But they weren't born with all of it.
It takes a long time to earn that honor - this isn't a quick process.
For us to expect our horses to be a good ship, they need a good captain.
So, choose your captains accordingly and keep working and learning to be one!
Don't let your horse be the captain and you the ship.
CJ
Photo of MISS QUICKN GRACEFUL - 2022 Mare (Bob Hes Quick o/o Miss Lena Checks (ICC)) - Our "no quit, chronic overachiever".
