Ever envied the riders you see at shows for their abilities to reputedly control their horses with some kind of thought transfer, some bizarre ESP, it would seem these riders have attained some kind of invisible, inexplicable and intangible communication links with their horses. They just choose something in their minds and their horses perform instantly.

These riders use what’s sometimes called the ‘light touch’ and I have news for you: you also can develop this talent. It is not some sort of other worldly talent that you will need to get kidnapped by aliens to attain. It is very much a worldly capability that is the result of tons of patience, hours of practice and bucket loads of mutual trust and harmony between you and your horse.

You start off on achieving this talent by getting into the right attitude. The right mind-set is this: it is simpler for you to think like a horse than for a pony to think like you. I’m unshaken in my conviction that the human brain is among the most amazing creations of God or nature or evolution, whatever you will. And with all due respect, the brains of other species including the horse are just not up to human standards. The human brain is a dynamo that is really capable of multiple lines of sight, multiple viewpoints, 360 degree convolutions. A horse’s brain is linear and omnidirectional. It concentrates on one line of sight, one viewpoint. Asking a pony to adapt to human thought patterns is like plugging a square hole with a round bung. Things are sure to fall through. That leaves you with only 1 option: you adapt to horse thought patterns.

Once you accept that, you have taken your first and most critical step towards the light touch. If you think like a pony, you know that horses are slightly stubborn, moderately moody and somewhat intelligent. Yet, for all that , they are extraordinarily receptive to the right kind of training: training with the light touch. Since horses can also be susceptible to taking advantage, you need to blend the light touch with a firm straightforward approach: the iron fist in an exceedingly soft, very well padded velvet glove.

So what’s the light touch, the light tough involves communication with your horse that is much more than oral and physical exchanges: it’s a sort of bond that permits the invisible transfer of an order and the near simultaneous execution of it.

The light touch means your pony steps forward into the halter and the saddle and all of the other gear; he doesn’t wait for you to force him into it. It means he tightens his torso as you tighten the girth. It suggests he stands rock still as you mount on, and then heads the way you want to go just about without any direction from you. It suggests he responds to the tiniest of near non-existent cues and commands the proper way. It implies he never gives you grounds for reprimanding him for slacking or disobeying, unless of course there are extenuating circumstances like sickness.

That kind of light touch is accomplished when there is perfect understanding between rider and horse, and that kind of perfect understanding comes with hours of training and rewarding. You can attain the light touch when responses to commands just about become natural for your pony.

Horses are Heather Tomspassion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers go here