Deep down we all know this. If something doesn’t happen the way you want it, it is almost certain because of you. A horse is by nature a prey animal that lives in a herd. All his reactions lead back to this. If you scare him, hurt him or you make him uncertain, he wants to flee. If you restrict him in any way to do so, he wants to run even harder and will panic if he’s not able to. In that state he is certainly not open to learning anything, let alone improve what he’s supposed to do.
If this is done over and over and he’s got no way of getting away from it, he’ll go into a dull, switched off state, which is referred to as ‘learned
