Is your horse a "Trying" horse?
Is he Trying to figure out what you're looking for? Trying to help you with your job and trying to do his part of the job? Is he Trying to be a good partner? Trying to complete the task? Or is he doing just the opposite...he's lifeless, disinterested, distracted, defiant, or argumentative?
Teaching your horse to always START with a try is a sign of good and consistent training...getting there however is another story. The horse is naturally suppose to start with a "no" towards anything we do or ask of him, and accelerate/escalate this way of thinking and acting to what ever degree he deems necessary to not comply, because his survival is on the line.
No matter your training style or techniques, causing the wrong thing to be undesirable and the right thing to be desirable is the concept, and it's the timing of your release of stimulus that accomplishes this change in thought pattern in the horse. Remember, you're trying to change or replace instinct, and that's like trying to teach yourself not to blink when something comes straight at your eye. Patients and consistency are what you have to use and what you should let drive your motivation when you approach all new subject matter. And then your keenness in observation of the horse's physical signs, when they change from a "no" to a "try," and creating a release of stimulus instantaneously (where the timing comes in) is what builds a "Trying" horse.
Have a great day everyone.
~Kalley
