First meeting with Arthur -
I wish being with me to be enjoyable for him. I want him to remember this association with me for all time to come
come with me
togetherness
From this we want our horse to follow us where we venture. Whether it be inside and arena or an open field or trail, we want him to come with us on our journey. So again we must make being with us something positive to him and something enjoyable enough for him to want to willingly seek out. This is not hard to achieve if we are patient and take the time to do the right things by our horses to achieve the ultimate results in the long run.
If our horse feels content and safe in our presence then he should seek us out and respond willingly to our asks and suggestions as we should also do in return to his. Again it’s about allowing him the choice to come with you, once we understand him and his ideas, wants, concerns etc finding things to do together becomes easy to a natural state of being and doing in unity. So asking him on a journey or adventure with you will become an activity you both enjoy.
But how do we get to this stage in our relationship with our horses? Time, patience, authenticity and dedication are all needed to do so. But we may start somewhere small, in an arena or paddock, or we may be ambitious and do so in a wide open space if that is all that is available to us. We must take into consideration where we are in our ability to communicate, but it’s often safer to start in an enclosed area if possible.
So we can ask our horse to join us with our intention, stay with us because he enjoys our company, so now why would he not want to follow us? He will if we have done everything with his feelings in mind, but the first steps are small. Maybe just a couple, then a few to the left and right. This is all we may start with. But it's all we need to shape where we wish to grow.