There will be good days, and some not so good days when it comes to training your horse.

My one boarder, who got a new young horse is finding this out, but she’s okay with it.  A lot of people are not.

The mare is basically a good mare.  Good brain, nice disposition and hangs on the brave side of the scale.  Yet still she has her days when the boogie men are about.  She doesn’t bolt, just kind of stops and watches.  That’s the kind I like.

We wake up in different moods.  Some mornings we get up on the wrong side of the bed, and sometimes not.  Bob will tell me to go back to bed and try again.

I’m not sure why this happens, maybe not a good nights sleep.  Sometime people say it’s something we ate, or stuff on our minds.  Horses eat the same thing every day, and don’t worry about what’s on their schedule, so that’s not it.

Her retired horse, that I have here, will sometimes be happy and easy to get along with, and then there are times when you walk into his pasture and the ears are back and you get the evil eyes.  I simply tell him he’s not getting his food until his attitude improves.  I’ll stand there until his ears go forward and he sulks his way to his bucket.  My mares are always grumbling at feeding time.  Ears back, talking to themselves about the lack of promptness for the delivery of their food.  Now let me just say that timing has nothing to do with it.  I tried feeding earlier and earlier and it still wasn’t pleasing to them.  It would eventually get to the point of breakfast followed quickly by dinner.  I’m sure that would be okay with them, but not their stomach overload.  I tried the waiting it out until they put their ears forward, and I got tired of waiting.  I just choose to ignore them.

So what makes it a good training day or a bad one?  Who knows.  What I do know is that they will come and go.  The thing we have to remember is that it will go.  As Scarlet O’Hara always said “Tomorrow is another day.”  Don’t dwell on the bad, it will just bring you down.  Maybe you need to check your own energy and attitude to see if your horse is picking it up from you.  We are always ready to blame the horse, but a lot of the times it comes from us and we’re not even aware of it.  Sometimes it’s the change of wind direction and the horse is hearing sounds or smells that we are not aware of.  Perhaps it’s something in the distance that they see that hasn’t caught our attention.  Perhaps we are just impatient and not giving them a chance.

What I found years ago was that if I had a bad practice the day before a horse show, I usually had a great go at the show.  But if I had a good day of practice the day before, the show would be a bust.  I have no idea why, just was.  Maybe it was my bi-polar Thoroughbred.

When we are trying to teach them something new, it doesn’t always click that day, but come back tomorrow and the light bulb goes off and they get it.  Once again; check the tenseness in your body.

We influence our horses more than we are aware, check yourself before you complain about your horse.

After all – Tomorrow is another day.