at a clinic i rode a twhbea wgc (more than once) flatshod horse and as soon as I lifted the reins he took off like a shot , it felt almost like a bolt to me, he was suddenly just running walking at great locomotion around the arena and when i tried to stop him he did a little rabbit hoppy head tossing thing and the clinician and owner of the horse, said in the microphone in front of a crowd of about 200 people "why are you squeezing your legs and trying to stop him at the same time" and the crowd just roared laughing when i blurted "when I squeeze my legs my horse slows down cause he knows I'm about to fall off".
so horses pretty much "get" what you teach them, but then they "know" how it really is. Like highly trained pilots etc, they kow how to fly, but sometimes they just fly by the seat of their pants. Janice -- yipie tie yie yo
