There is one key element when it comes to training horses: forward movement.
Horses are naturally lazy animals, in fact, they would much rather sit in a field a graze grass with their buddies all day than have to do any sort of intended work.
This is why when it comes to training horses, we train them by gaining control of their movement.
Gaining forward movement is incredibly important, especially when training young horses.
When everything is new to them, they are much more likely to throw some sort of fit or not want to move their feet at all.
With that being said, they learn through release of pressure - cueing them to move out under pressure and releasing it when they have done what you have asked.
Once a horse has learned to gain forward, lateral, and backwards movement, they begin to build confidence.
An important thing to remember, however, is that if a horse were to throw a fit, it is important to keep their feet moving because if the pressure stops amidst a fit, they will learn that all they have to do is throw a fit to get the pressure to stop.
This is why forward movement is so important.
Newton's First Law states that an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion in one direction unless acted upon by an outside force.
For humans, life only goes in one direction - forward!
When difficulties arise, it is more important to stay moving forward towards the things we are trying to accomplish.
Outside forces will always arise to try and stop us from moving forward, which is why this then becomes the battle that many of us face in life.
The difference between us and horses is that when the pressure stops, life still doesn't get any easier.
In fact, as humans, we learn more by constantly being under pressure.
If turmoil arises and we stop our movement, the situation doesn't get any easier.
If anything, our situation becomes more difficult because not only did we stop our pursuit of achieving what we had hoped to achieve, the hardship we are facing doesn't magically disappear - when one hardship arises, another one is to follow soon after.
Forward movement gains momentum, and the more momentum we gain, the harder we become to stop.
In Newtonian Mechanics, momentum is described by an objects mass times its velocity.
This means that the bigger the object in motion and the faster it is moving, the harder it is to top.
Momentum is a vector quantity, meaning it is an object of both magnitude and direction.
For us, the direction is forward.
The stronger we push to keep moving forward, the more we become better equipped for any challenges that may arise to try and stop our momentum.