The Replacement Concept     

             

    

Horses sometimes do things we don't like, but there's a positive way of saying no to them.

          John Lyons is one of America's most popular teachers of horsemanship. One of his most ingenious training ideas is called the Replacement Concept. John puts the horse to work on an unrelated positive task when he exhibits negative behavior.

"For an example, he may be biting. I may work on softening his shoulders, moving his hips, picking up leads. What happens is he starts doing more and more of what I do want and less and less of what I don't want. Pretty soon it's non-existent what I don't want and I've never even brought the subject up to him. I've never said to him, 'Don't bite.'"

There's an important principle here: A horse can't be thinking about two things at the same time. Keep him busy doing one thing and he soon has to give it one hundred percent of his attention. John's pet name for this principle? The "walk and chew gum theory." 

     

Taget från boken "Horse Smarts" av Rick Lamb.

Mitt bästa beslut denna termin har varit att börja på yoga igen. Min kropp börjar lossna lite här och där och jag tycker att det är underbart skönt :)