The three Ps

I have found a new and interesting site about horses, Jessica Jahiel (thanks to Mugwump Chronicles. )
Jessica issues a free Q&A newsletter called"HORSE-SENSE " which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training.

You can find an extensive archive on her site. Look it up!

I liked what I read there.

I'd like to present Jessica's "3 Ps":

Patience, Persistence, and Praise.
A quick way to remember three so very important things in the riding and training.

I quote:

Patience: You have to give your horse time to understand what you want from him, time to learn how to do it, and time to do enough repetitions that the action becomes easy and then habitual. You also have to be able to break down each new skill into tiny, easily-learned pieces, and you then need to teach those pieces one at a time.

Persistence: Although you only ask for small things, small movements, small responses, you need to ask for them quite often -- this helps your horse understand, confirms your communication with the horse, and begins to develop the habits that you want.

Praise: Whenever you ask for anything, no matter how tiny and seemingly trivial, you must praise the horse -- there has to be a reward for every effort.

Thanks, Jessica.

I totally agree, and it was a nice way to help remember them.

Now I'm out to 3P my horse in the snow. It's been snowing all day, and I plan to have a bareback, meditative session in the snow, just me and Fame. That will be nice.