Akila – Session 3

Starting an Untouched Colt

In this episode, I take you inside the real, honest process of helping a young horse learn to relax, think, and trust – long before we ever ask for “training.”

This session with Akila captures the heart of foundation training: slow steps, clear communication, and meeting a young horse exactly where his nervous system is that day. You’ll see how tension shifts into curiosity, how pressure becomes a language, and how small pieces of handling like haltering, leading, and brushing shape the entire trajectory of a horse’s future.

The tone of this episode is gentle and deeply instructive. Throughout the session, I share the why behind every release, pause, and step away. You’ll see the difference between compliance and understanding, between moving a horse’s body and changing his mind. This is about building a young horse who thinks, not reacts, and who chooses connection over escape.

What you’ll see in this session:

• Recapping the Journey So Far: How eight sessions of haltering work reshaped Akila’s confidence and helped him feel safe enough to stay present.
• What Basic Handling Really Means: The essential skills a young horse needs – leading, touching, brushing, yielding – and why these micro-skills form the base of all future learning.
• Approach & Retreat in Real Time: A clear demonstration of how I use timing, distance, and release to help Akila find comfort instead of overwhelm.
• Teaching Connected Leading: How to create a horse who follows softly without dragging, freezing, or bracing.
• Pressure & Release as a Language: How steady pressure teaches a horse to search for answers, stay mentally available, and avoid shutting down.
• Confidence Building Through Touch: Introducing brushing and body handling as a way to create positive associations with human contact.
• Reading His Thresholds With Fly Spray: Understanding the small signs of rising concern, the moments where I retreat, and how I reward every “try” toward relaxation.

Perfect for riders dealing with horses who:

• Have a young horse and don’t know where to start
• Struggle with tension, bracing, or reactivity during groundwork
• Want to learn soft, connection-based training rather than force or micromanagement
• Work with horses who shut down, freeze, or overreact to new stimuli
• Want to feel more confident in their timing, releases, and energy
• Crave a deeper understanding of the horse’s emotional world – not just their behaviour

If you’ve ever felt unsure about the “right amount” of pressure, frustrated with leading issues, or overwhelmed by a sensitive horse, this session will give you clarity, tools, and perspective.

Foundation is not the boring part of training. It is the training! Everything we do with a young horse shapes how they process pressure, how they handle fear, and how they understand us when we step into their world.

This episode shows that:

• Softness isn’t an accident; it’s a conversation.
• Confidence is built through tiny, thoughtful reps – not big dramatic moments.
• Approach & Retreat is a nervous system dialogue, not just a desensitising method.
• A horse who thinks is safer, happier, and easier to develop in the long run.

Most importantly, it reminds us that horses don’t come to us knowing how to be handled. They learn trust, vocabulary, boundaries, and confidence from us – one careful moment at a time.

This training session with Akila is an honest look at what true horsemanship asks of us: patience, clarity, timing, emotional awareness, and the willingness to slow down so that a horse can understand.

A Note on Akila’s Hoof Handling

I talk a lot about preparing Akila for hoof handling and why that work matters, especially with a farrier visit coming up due to a developing issue in his front hoof. Unfortunately, my camera failed during the actual hoof-handling portion of that session, so you won’t see that specific work in this video.

Not long after this session Akila hd his first farrier visit, and I’ve included a short clip below to give you real context for why that preparation was so important.

Akila wasn’t emotionally 100% ready for a farrier yet and normally, I’d wait. But his hoof needed addressing sooner rather than later, and sometimes good horsemanship means making thoughtful, imperfect decisions in the horse’s long-term interest. This visit was about advocacy, clear communication, and helping a young, sensitive colt stay present through something genuinely challenging.

What mattered most to me wasn’t that he stood “perfectly,” but that he stayed engaged, recovered quickly, and didn’t leave the experience worse than he went in. That’s the difference between forcing a job to get done and supporting a horse through it.

If you’re interested in how I prepared Akila for this – from building confidence around the legs, to steady pressure, to teaching a young horse how to balance and think while a foot is held – you can download my FREE Farrier Prep Guide. It walks through the exact steps I use to help horses feel safer and more capable during hoof handling.

🎥 No quick fixes. No fancy edits. Just honest, real-time horse training exactly as it happens.

📍 Filmed on the Mid North Coast of NSW, Australia.

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