Discipline & the Trail Horse

the recipe for success. Your horse will actually love you more if you use appropriate discipline when necessary and if you are in control. Even if you buy a horse that is well behaved and better trained than you could create yourself your daily interactions with him require that you understand and implement discipline or you may lose that well behaved horse or worse experience heart wrenching and dangerous circumstances.
First although discipline can lean towards psychological or physical I feel that these elements are interwoven and support each other. Second if a physical action is appropriate like pushing the horses nose back out of your space it needs to be immediate. More than three seconds after the infraction is too long and the horse will not understand what the punishment is for. Although it may satisfy your anger it adds fear and confusion reduces trust and respect and undermines the value of your actions in the future. Third do not believe that because your horse is big and strong you need to counter with big and strong discipline. Respond with the least amount of discipline to get the job done. However you absolutely must win the moment and the horse must be worked through the bad behaviour or you will lose your status.
This past summer I had a good lesson in discipline. Ironically the horse was Sunny a true favourite who has the heart of a lion and is a welltrained goanywhere horse. As some friends and I readied our horses at the staging area I discovered that in my rush to leave home I had forgotten my bridle. So a piece of rope for reins and a rope halter for a headstall did just fine as I plodded along behind the group. Although the headgear was minimal Sunny and I have known each other a long time and he knew better than to mess with the dominant human.
Later in the day we got into a tangled mountain slope an old slide and the trail continued along faintly. My friends carried on along it but I thought the trail should wind its way down the valley. As we edged our way down to the stream bottom Sunny began to act up distressed that he was being separated from his buddies. Over the years Sunny and I have ridden off from the herd on many occasions but always with a bit