One of the most common mistakes that I believe people make with horses is underestimating them. Whether it's their intelligence, strength, or spirit, it seems to happen a lot. Most often, though, I think it's the intelligence factor that is underestimated the most.
I don't mean to imply that all horses are intelligent. But they are like any other animal (or person) in that there are many with average, some with little, and some with surprisingly high intelligence. To underestimate this aspect of your horse is not going to help with any part of training him, and will also help decrease your respect of him (and lead to him probably disrespecting you and your space). It's a domino effect, just like any type of relationship, where if you lose one thing that is necessary for a good relationship, it tends to lead to more losses in more areas than you bargained for.
Spending the previously mentioned time with your horse is necessary to learn exactly what kind of intelligence your horse has, and what kind of personality he has. This knowledge enables you to work with him well and to know how he'll respond to most things that you ask him to do. Maybe most importantly, it enables you to think of the best approach to teach him different things. If you know him as well as I hope you do or will, it gives you a great leg up on training your horse.
In Part I of this article, I mentioned having respect for your horse's space. But another facet of that is having respect for the way he thinks. In other words, it's good to respect the fact that he doesn't think like you do because, of course, he's a horse, not a person. Horses think differently than we do, and in many cases this can actually surprise you by being a great asset. Again, as in any type of relationship, someone else brings something else to the table that you don't have. Don't expect him to process the information that you teach him in the same way you do. Especially if your horse is new to you, assumption can lead to miscommunication between the two of you and possibly to disrespect. At that point, it's a very difficult process to gain the ability to communicate effectively and respect for each other; it is possible, but it's hard. It's better to head off anything like that before it becomes an issue.
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