Solving problems in a positive way is pretty high up on the leadership scale as well as REALLY GOOD for your relationship with your horse.
I have been guilty of reflexively slapping a horse who has bitten me – but it is not useful in fixing the problem and in fact that reaction can actually escalate the biting. And since horses are so often faster and more accurate than we are, escalating it is not a good idea… And yes that was some more of my dry Aussie understatement!
These days, if I catch myself having an automatic, instant reaction to anything that does not fit with who I want to be (like slapping a horse that bit me) – I go into a Quiet Mind to find out:
1. Where that reaction came from, and
2. How could I do it differently next time?
I have noticed that my reactions that are not in harmony with who I want to be, are getting less and less the more I work on it!
Later edit in 2019: I first wrote this lesson 8 years ago and mannn… have things progressed in this area since then. These days I would be more likely to get really Present and sit out of range on the other side of the fence until I had a Feel for this horse’s story – and what action I took would depend on what came up.
The biting in this video is NOT the only sort of biting and NOR is it the only solution – but it is a nice easy one and we’ll go into more techniques / formats / things to think about under this lesson on the forum. If you have a biting problem that isn’t resolving with your Feel, then put your hand up on a Live Seminar and let’s have a feel of what’s going together or pick up a private lesson with me or one of the utterly brilliant staff members.