How long to form bad habits?

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Tosty

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Lots of people I know have said that horses can quickly pick up and learn different and new things - some horses quicker than others etc. I know horses just as easily can pick up bad habits also. So, not sure if there is a time limit or anything, but as a rule of thumb how long would you say it takes a horse to pick up a bad habit? Random question, but have a new horse and keep getting in deep to jumps and although not him, and 100% my fault I am worried he will loose confidence in me :(
 
sorry cant help on the time limit to pick up bad habits-guess it varies.but dont get down.why dont you have a jumping lesson on your horse then you can sort the problem out-good luck :)
 
I believe (from a book I read once) that a horse learns by repetition, and that it has 'learnt' the behaviour when it has repeated it between 3 and 5 times. So on the bad side, a horse can learn an unwanted behaviour very quickly, but then it can also 'unlearn' the behaviour fairly quickly too. It's why you've got to clamp down on any unwanted behaviours very quickly.
 
Alot of people have problems adjusting to a new horse. Have a couple of lessons on it and you will probably find after a couple of weeks that you are fine. Keep the jumps small and only jump once or twice a week and your horse shouldn't get fed up or scared. If it's not stopping or crashing through jumps then it shouldn't lose too much confidence. Oh and congratualtions on the new horse!!
 
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