Horses Have Bad Days, Too

Posted by Laura Thompson Oct 27, 2008

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing goes right and you snap at everyone who has the misfortune of running into you on the street? We all have bad days now and again, so why should you expect anything different from your horse?

One morning last year, I went out to the barn in the morning and saddled my horse up for a ride. We joined another rider in the arena, a young woman who was schooling her Dutch Warmblood for their next dressage show.

Fifteen minutes into my own dressage warm-up, I knew I was fighting a losing battle. My horse would not give his head and refused to relax his back long enough to complete a transition. He felt wrong somehow, like he was all balled up and full of energy, but with nowhere to go.

I brought him back down to a walk and we lapped the arena two or three times on a long rein, then I dismounted. The other rider stopped next to the gait to ask me what was wrong, as I'm known for long, leisurely morning rides.

"He's having a bad day," I explained cheerfully. "Probably better to cool him out now than to start a fight I can't win."

She looked absolutely dumbfounded. "He was misbehaving? Then why aren't you working through it? Laura, you need to make him behave."

This is the type of horse training philosophy that results in shattered relationships between horse and rider. If you force your horse to perform on a day when he isn't feeling well, or when he simply woke up on the wrong side of the stall, he will cease to trust you. Give him the day off, on the other hand, and you'll be able to start your next ride on a positive note.

If you think your horse is having a bad day, ask him to do something simple (like transition from walk to trot), then quit for the day. You've ended your ride on a good note, but you haven't given him time to fight with you. This creates positive relationships and saves you a lot of wasted energy that would be better spent on something productive.