Skillet training vlog (starting horses at liberty with clicker training)

Quick vlog update on skillets training.
I used to view horse training as something that required horses to be stressed out, anxious, fearful, and reactive. I saw it all around me. On Instagram, on Facebook, on UA-cam, on various training pages, I saw it in person at the barns I worked at, I saw it at clinics and events I attended.
But horse training isn’t supposed to be exceedingly stressful for the horse. And while many people are attracted to watching stressed out horses react, bronc, and cause havoc, I don’t want to build my following off of that. I used to think success was in becoming like everyone else I saw who was doing well for themselves. I thought that maybe if I could ride better, if I could make better horse friends, if I could get in with the ‘right’ crowd I’d find myself with what I thought I wanted in life.
The truth is that I was pretending. Stressing myself out for every perceived failure or mistake and that somehow if I could just figure out what everyone else was doing I could find what I thought success with horses looked like. And it took me a long time to realize that would never make me happy in life.
For years I spent my days agonizing over how to blend in with other equestrians and my social media reflected that inauthentic version of myself. My horses reflected that version back at me in our relationships. It was uncomfortable to realize the face I was wearing wasn’t actually mine and the people I attracted to me were not actually interested in anything I was doing or saying because I was trying to hide in plain sight.
Being seen is the scariest part of becoming your authentic self. People leave because they don’t like those parts of you. And they leave because they feel uncomfortable with the space you begin to give yourself to grow. Unmasking is the process of unraveling the layers and layers of thread attached to the parts that were never really part of you and more like a piece of glass. It may look pretty close to the what everyone else has but it’s cracked and sharp and not at all the same.
Learning about neurodiversity and beginning the long process of rebuilding myself from within has absolutely changed the way I view horses. It allowed me to strip away the views I held about myself and horse training for my entire life and begin to actually enjoy learning with horses.
Creating relationships from a place of authenticity is a part of positive reinforcement. While I think it’s possible to learn how to do XYZ and get ABC out of horses; I strongly believe that the depth of connection we are able to achieve is a direct result of how connected we are to ourselves and understanding without judgment, fear or anger. Torrin helped me learn to become myself and now I’m continuing that journey with new horses. I’ve been bullied and belittled for using R+ training plenty of times and I think it’s time to really show what gentile, science based training can actually achieve.
If you want to follow Skillet’s journey from untouched to tame with R+ please check out my TikTok:
www.tiktok.com...
#horsetrainer #equestrian #horseriding #equestrianvlog