How to add the halter to make it easier for the horse

In this video, Gabi and Troy are working together to find the benefit of adding tack back into their training journey.
Gabi has done a beautiful job preparing Troy with all his basics at liberty and using a handheld target to guide him. But when she started re-introducing the laterals, Troy was finding it very tricky to move next to Gabi without losing his balance and falling forward, even when she broke the exercises down into tiny steps for him.
In this lesson, we decided to add the halter back in to explore if this tactile cue could make it easier for him to find the answer. (Spoiler alert, it did!)
We started by isolating the cue on the halter i.e. picking up a feel on the lead, and then coupling it with a cue he had already learned with the handheld target. Once he could rebalance back out of a halt with just the feel on the line, we then took him forward into walk along the side of the arena.
The key to this process is not to brace or escalate the feel on the line even if the horse doesn't respond correctly. This is why Gabi moves her feet with Troy and offers a soft, consistent feel that Troy can trust will remain the same and not escalate. If needed, Gabi could bring her liberty cue back in to assist Troy, or even add in the handheld target for a short while.
Once Troy finds his balance with Gabi's help and gains confidence within the exercise, Gabi can go back to liberty and check to see if he has built up enough coordination to do the exercise without needing her to "hold his hand".
This process is such a good example of not being rigid in any of our chosen approaches, but rather doing what the horse needs us to do to set them up for success and make the right answer easier for them to find!
For more ideas on how to bridge the gaps in the training with our horses, check out my Online Classroom: www.zanetageorgiades.com/membership
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