And now for some untraining tips!

A Parelli thread on COTH made me think about a bigger issue...do you love how your horse was trained before he/she came to you? Or is there something your horse was trained to do that you just wish you could erase from his little horsey brain? Have you succeeded?

My peeve is always turning in to face me on the longe line. I hate that. I want horses to stop on the circle, facing in the direction they were going. Anything that has had any kind of NH training spins to face you on the halt, and half of them try to come into the circle and crawl into your lap. I think you can fix this with long lines but it's just a hard thing to un-do once the horse thinks it is the right way to do things.

Another really hard thing to fix is when the horse has learned to travel behind the vertical. Once they learn that - particularly if they learn to do it as resistance while their body goes wherever it wants - it is a real challenge to change that behavior.

So what did your horse do when you got him that you've been busy trying to un-do? I'm not talking about spoiled habits from lack of training. I'm talking about things some other rider specifically taught him to do that you don't like at all!