It has been our experience that with an open mind anyone can learn and change. Approaching challenges, new situations, life with a mind that is locked into a “known” cripples the ability to learn. As Linda Parelli noted in one of her training sessions, you have a 50/50 chance of getting it wrong. If you do not get the results you were striving for, change direction.
Horses are amazing creatures. They try with their whole being to find the ‘right’ answer. The answer that brings them the greatest reward – be that reward food, release, comfort, survival. Unfortunately humans are not nearly as open to seeking other options. When something does not work, humans often just get a ‘bigger hammer’ instead of seeking a variation of their approach/behavior that will result in movement towards their goal.
Applying this to our relationships with our horses, if we do not get the behavior/response we hoped for when interacting with our horses we need to look to ourselves as the horse is guaranteed to be trying its heart out to find the solution while we, the human element, are too often not communicating what we think we are.

Bit-O-WY