Coal Lake Stables

05/17/2026

The Arab princess sleeps unconcerned-flanked by her beautiful black bodyguards

05/17/2026

If you just wait long enough the sun will break through the clouds and shine again-

05/15/2026

Breakfast with the boys-ears up-have a fabulous Friday💕

05/14/2026

This-!

Exposing The Things Affecting Your Horse That Aren’t in Riding Manuals (Part 2) 🔦

Teaching the Horse to Wait⏱️

One of the most invisible, misunderstood, and often frustrating qualities you need to nurture when building a partnership with a horse is the quality of *teaching the horse to wait*.

In practice, this means teaching the horse to stay with what you have guided them to do until you change the instruction.

This is what people often call “self carriage.”

But self carriage is far more than posture or frame.

It is everything from standing calmly and patiently while tied up, to maintaining a gait and speed, to following a direction without needing to be constantly reminded every second.

Let me explain it another way.

Imagine working with your horse like having a telephone conversation.

An obvious part of training is getting the horse to understand the instruction in the first place.

When I put on the halter and lead the horse, the horse learns to follow.
When I pick up the left rein, that means flex or turn left.

In the telephone analogy, this is the horse answering the phone and understanding the conversation coming through the line.

In Part 1 of this series, I talked about attention and focus.

Practically, that means the horse stays on the phone call instead of hanging up and looking outside the arena at distractions.

But this next quality is different.

Teaching a horse to *wait* means the horse not only understands the instruction and stays connected to you, but maintains the instruction.

That is an art.

Horses learn to wait because they trust they *will* be released from the instruction.

Not when they will be released.
But that they *will*.

That distinction matters enormously.

Let me give you some examples.

Many horses constantly bob their heads up and down in the contact.
They might soften momentarily, then brace again.

Other horses constantly need to be pushed to stay in gait.
They are forever being hustled forward, only to instantly dial themselves back down or drop out of the gait again.

Now, soundness issues can absolutely sit behind these problems.

But another very common reason is that the horse has never truly learnt to *wait* within the behaviour.

The horse has learnt the answer...
but not how to stay in the answer.

So instead of being asked and maintaining the behaviour until released, the horse gets continually nagged to perform it.

And a horse that constantly experiences pressure often becomes irritated, frustrated, mentally disconnected, and reactive.

Its understanding starts to deteriorate.
Its focus starts to fall apart.
Its trust begins to erode.

Then people wonder why the horse becomes resistant, reactive, anxious, or reluctant to work with them.

Often, this issue gets accidentally created by the training itself.

One example is horses being rushed into frames and postures they do not yet have the strength, balance, or fitness to maintain.

They fatigue.
They struggle.
They feel trapped.

So they either go behind the leg and tune out to constant kicking...
or they fight their way out of the posture in an attempt to find relief.

Another common contributor comes from a piece of genuinely helpful advice:
“Release on the slightest try.”

This is excellent advice when introducing a new idea.

But many people accidentally get stuck there.

So the horse softens for one second and pops back up again...
because all they learnt was the *slightest try*.

Or the horse trots for one stride...
because one stride was enough to get released.

What has to happen next is the horse gradually learns to *maintain* the behaviour.

They learn to wait within it.

That requires carefully increasing the expectation over time so the horse becomes confident that if they maintain what has been asked, they *will* eventually be released.

And importantly...
they trust you to do it.

That means giving horses lots of practice.
Stretching their abilities thoughtfully.
Making sure they do not become physically or mentally fatigued.
Ensuring what you ask is achievable.

Because confidence grows when horses become physically capable, mentally clear, and successful in maintaining the behaviour.

And just to throw a spanner in the works...

You also have to teach a horse to wait within focus and attention.

So these qualities all feed back into each other.

The horse has to:
Answer the phone.
Stay on the line.
Listen to the conversation.
Maintain the conversation.
And trust that eventually the conversation will end.

And they also need confidence in their own ability to perform what is being asked.

Now here is the uncomfortable mirror for riders.

Have *you* learnt how to nurture a horse’s wait?

Or have you accidentally trained the horse to constantly search for escape, relief, distraction, or resistance because they never developed trust in the process?

Because rider psychology plays a huge role in this.

Perfectionism is a major barrier.

People often cannot wait for the horse to develop the strength, understanding, balance, confidence, or fitness required to perform well.

They want the horse to look good now.
Up and round now.
Consistent now.

Others do not feel safe enough to allow the horse to truly go forward.
So they hang onto the reins, creating restriction...
which inspires the horse to brace and fight against it.

So perhaps another question worth asking yourself is this:

Have you helped your horse stay on the telephone line and remain in the conversation?

Or have you simply never realised this was something the horse needed to learn in the first place?

Collectable Advice 209/365

If this gave you a lightbulb moment, consider hitting SHARE or SAVE.

Please do not copy and paste this blog.

A reminder that you can learn more from me through my upcoming workshops and clinics, where I share these unique and practical frameworks for understanding horses, people, and the process of developing genuine partnership and performance together. More on this below.

📸IMAGE: Lovely photo by Jean's Photography taken at one of my recent clinics Perth. This OTTB has been beautifully retrained by her owner❤

05/14/2026

I think my sweet, senior mini, Barbie Doll is my spirit animal. I think it when I see how she closes her eyes as she enjoys her food and she how she holds tightly to a warm winter coat that she no longer needs. A very definite alignment of our energies. And I see how she touches my heart every time I look at her. A heart connection that defies description 💕

05/10/2026

When I was a boy the greatest complement someone on a horse could receive was being called a horseman, and at that time the term was inclusive of women. It was also a vailed insult to be called a rider in certain circumstances, meaning you were not a horseman. For example, in a hunt Field if someone could not control their horse and bumped into you, you might say to them, "You are quite a rider".

To become a horseman, you must learn the fundamentals of horsemanship. Many of these principles are very detailed. One fundamental of balance when riding is the 5 degree rule. A rider must not lean back in the saddle more that 5 degrees.

Why? Because any greater lean than 5 degrees will potentially unbalance your horse. This is because once you lean beyond 5 degrees, you will have moved your center of balance away from your horse's center of balance to the point that your horse will very often have to rebalance themself, which is a disruption to a horse that a horseman always avoids.

www.facebook.com/BobWoodHorsesForLife/posts/pfbid0ZveZskpLrRc9Ww9Vaa7dyGwjjQ5CcPDjMWG43nLomZSkx2CXZP3nmGM6uLJT6s9ul

The left image is of Étienne Beudant, a great French horseman and cavalryman. He is leaning back 5 degrees, which can subtly amplify a rider's seat aids. On the right is a modern dressage rider leaning back approximately 8 degrees.

You might say that leaning back 3 more degrees in insignificant. Many people today think so but that is because they are riders, not horsemen. Horsemanship is a state of mind that truly cares for a horse with great specificity in order to make a horse as comfortable as possible when they are doing their job for you.

There is no room in horsemanship for the phrase "close enough". Sure, horsemen fail to maintain this high standard at times, but when they do they try harder. I offer a spoken apology to my horse when I fail and I disrupt their work.

Horsemanship takes years to learn. We cannot expect it of students who are learning. But we can teach them the fundamental principles, including why these principles are important and how failing to apply them makes a horse's life more difficult.

The pictures show longitudinal or hind to front leaning. The same is true of lateral or side to side leaning, in fact leaning more than 5 degrees laterally on a slope with challenging footing can put your horse down on the ground.

I am writing this for all the supposed "caring" riders who will buy their horse a new blanket every winter, purchase the most expensive feed and supplements, and have people like body workers come for their horse all the time, who think that they are showing there horse how deeply they care. But if they really cared, the way a horseman does, they would improve their riding and stop unbalancing their horses, making their work increasingly difficult.

01/14/2026

I don’t believe there is a lovelier sound