Going Too Slow

Can you go too slow? Absolutely.

Rushing, or pushing a horse beyond their limit can be detrimental to their emotional and physical well-being. But it is important to understand that going too slow can also damage confidence.

If the horse is not continually expanding their physical limit, as well as emotional comfort zone, at least by a small percentage, they can actually become weaker and more afraid.

You can go too slow and damage a relationship if the horse is becoming disinterested, bored, checking out, or not connecting one concept to the next.

You can go too slow if you aren’t making the work just interesting enough to the horse to engage, try and make efforts toward the next step.

Those steps can be tiny, and progress doesn’t always have to be straight forward and linear. But sometimes, in well meaning attempts to preserve the confidence of the horse, we go too slow and lose their ability to stay involved or connected to our work.