10/02/2026
At a clinic this past weekend, a lady had a horse who wouldn't stand at the mounting block. I worked with her a few minutes, got her pointed the right direction, and told her to keep after it. Then I went to help somebody else.
Here's the part I want you to notice. She actually did it. Made that one thing her project for a few minutes while everybody else moved on. By the time I looked back over, that horse was standing there like it had never been a question. No bracing, no shuffling, no worry in him about it at all.
Now, some version of "work on that for ten minutes" is about the most common thing that comes out of my mouth at a clinic. Ten minutes is a lot more than it sounds like. Do a hundred one rein stops on each side, which takes less time than you would think, and you will have a horse who starts looking to turn off with a reach. Not a pull. He shuts down when you just reach for the rein. That isn't a secret. That's just what happens when a horse gets a hundred clear repetitions of the same question with the same answer.
Same goes for everything else. Spend ten minutes for a couple of days getting him sure about dropping his head, and you'll save yourself hours later on a horse that's hard to bridle. Teach him to crave the trailer the way he craves the barn or a buddy, and you can quit forcing him to get in. Put a few minutes into having his feet handled now, and you won't be finding out what he thinks about it while the farrier is holding one.
Ten minutes of focused work will move more than you would believe. The difficulty is getting the human to focus. So we do something a few times and then go back to loping circles or checking our phone or visiting with a friend. And the horse never has the opportunity to get more sure about a particular thing.
That lady didn't hear anything that wasn't said to the whole group the same weekend. She just did it.
P.S. Make sure the ten minutes of work fits the horse. If he's a 2nd grader, ten minutes of 8th grade work will end in frustration for you and confusion for the horse. But ten minutes of 2nd grade work will get him sure enough to jump to 3rd.
