How to Correct the Thought
When you start thinking about why your horse is doing something, you'll find that while you aren't correcting any differently, you're often doing it sooner. As you focus on why the horse is turning right, for example, you'll almost unconsciously start to work on getting him to turn right because you asked him to, to focus on what you want of him.
"If he's not going right well enough and he's holding out his left shoulder, then something is pulling him in that direction," Josh said. "He wants to go a different way. You tell him, 'Don't think that way; think this way.' If he's thinking about that right turn in the wrong way, you correct him. You'll find that all of a sudden that right turn will get better."
You can use the same technique if your horse doesn't want to stand still. Instead of scolding him for the action of not standing still, use your rein or your legs to make him move. Work on a few other things until he wants to stand still. Plant the thought that standing still is a good idea.
Or if your horse doesn't want to stop correctly, then speed him up for a few strides. As Josh explained, "Pretty soon he figures out that if he stops right, the stop becomes the reward, so he starts looking for the stop."
You can even turn a proper lead change into a reward. If your horse doesn't change from a right to a left lead when you ask him, then pick up the right rein and drive his hips to the left. He will have to slow down and move hard to the left, which is more effort than a fluid lead change.
"Pretty soon when I come around the circle and offer him a chance to change, the lead change becomes the reward," Josh said, "because he doesn't have to slow down or stop and he doesn't have to move his hips over when he does it correctly."
You can also anticipate a spooking incident. Often after a horse spooks at something, the rider says, "I knew he was going to spook." The mistake the rider made was waiting until the horse spooked to tell the horse what to do.
"The spook is the last straw," said Josh. "It was the thought of the spook the rider should have corrected. You have to focus on whatever object is taking the horse's thought and say, 'This exercise is more important.' "
The thought always happens before the action. "If I can get the horse thinking about what I want, then I don't get the action I don't want," Josh said. "I'm always ahead of the horse, not behind him. Any time we can do that, we become safer riders. Because it's the action that always gets people hurt, not the thought."
