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A common thing I hear is when people have just brought a horse or got their horse back from the trainers, “it’s not responding the way it did for the trainer, there is something wrong, I thought that it was skilled in this.”
Let me tell you something that may just come as a shock – its not them with the problem it is US! Yep horses are not push button things if you want something like that go buy a motor bike.
Let’s strip this back and make it simple and relatable, we as humans are not all the same in height, weight and balance then you add in a horse that is 500-600kg and has its own mind and you have a mix of wrong signals. When your horse gets trained or has had a previous owner, the horse will be use to their unique ways. Yes we all put the leg on etc but think about this a 6ft person will place their leg different to a 5ft person. Your legs won’t be the same length your angel of your foot will be different so you need to give the horse time to adjust and reconnect with what you are asking. They don't know what they don't know.
They need to have it consistent and regular work/instructions to adjust. I have seen so many different style of riding from leg control only, to voice command etc so it takes time for the horse to get it. If you have never been exposed to something how can you just get it?
So many people pay for a horse highly trained only to get them home and get upset that the horse is not reacting to commands – then people get labled with selling a crap horse. I liken it to we all have cars but some of us have wiz bang buttons and others it is simple. So you can push a button and your window goes down but hey my old car you actually have to work and wind the windows down (A lot of you won't remember that!)
So what do we gather from all this - it takes time and effort to know what everything does and when to use what but once you have got the hang of it then it’s all second nature.