If you were trail riding your horse in the forest or open range land, dismounted and took the bridle off your horse what would happen? What is your expectation of the horse’s behavior in this situation? Many of you would say that this would be the last time that you ever saw your horse alive.
My expectation would be that my horse would stand quietly until I asked for something else to happen. These are my expectations. I have been in the middle of open rangeland and dismounted only to have my horse startled by an aggressive dog. My horse made a large circle around me (round penning), and I was able to yield her and get her to hook on and come back. All of this from body language without me having to move. This was with a three year old horse that had six months of training. You and your horse can get to this point too.
When a horse is afraid or startled, you want their first reaction to be to look to you for what to do, this is the concept of support. You don’t want them to run into you or through you to flee from whatever "spooked" them. If a horse has your "respect" and looks to you for support, they will first look to see if the noise or movement creates a reaction in you – if you are calm they will be calm. If your first reaction is to get "big", grab the lead rope or rein and expect that the horse will over-react – it probably will. You must build the relationship with the horse before you can gain their respect.
It’s real easy to train a horse that whenever a loud noise occurs they should get nervous, throw their head up in the air, spin and flee the area. It’s equally easy to teach that same horse to remain calm when a new situation arises. If you project a catastrophe when a new situation arises that’s what you’ll get.
We have done clinics where we ask people to stand next to their horse in an arena. We put a metal garbage can in the middle of the arena and set off fireworks inside it. The goal of this exercise is to have your horse stand quiet next to you while the fireworks go off. Most horses can’t do this without a lot of groundwork. But, after exposure to this and proper communication with the horse most people are able to do this exercise while on their horse in a relaxed posture. As they say on TV "Professional Horse Trainer – do not try this at home".
What you are working for is not just reaction to noise, but movement, new objects, other horses, etc. Your horse should stand quietly when asked and not react to strange things on the trail.
Respect from a horse's standpoint is having them see you as their leader. You have to earn respect through trust, support, and time. You want to elevate yourself to the lead mare role. You also have to carry yourself with an air of authority. The leader in the herd is the horse who all others look to for direction. If you watch a herd, the weak and the meek will avoid conflict and show this with their body language and posture. The lead mare has the respect of the other horses in the herd. They won't get into her space, they move (yield) when she asks, and she only uses force when all else fails.
It's easy for you to confuse respect with fear, but the horse knows the difference. You don't get respect by beating the horse, ear twitching, or using a harsher bit - those things will get you fear and avoidance.
Never hit your horse, they don't understand the concept of punishment as it relates to humans. It's not about punishment if you don't get the desired result. Horses aren't smart enough to understand a correlation between not having done something correctly and being hit. If you hit your horse or kick them in the stomach, all you will have succeeded in doing is making them afraid of you.
On the flip side of this is the concept of correction. A horse that is running through the bit or stepping in to you needs to be corrected. Use your tools for corrections. If a horse tries to run over you, use the lead rope to move the horse off you. The proper rope handling technique is to twirl the rope overhand at the horse if it moves into you. The horse may "run into" the rope if it keeps moving into your space. You are teaching the horse to respect your space with this exercise.
Horses are herd animals, they understand things differently. The worst thing that can happen to a herd animal is to be sent out of the protection of the herd on their own. In the wild, a horse that acts out will be sent out 100 yards or so from the herd until they have learned their lesson. This is severe punishment to a horse. On their own, they are vulnerable to predators. In the herd there is safety in numbers. You want the horse to look to you for that safety.
When a horse is afraid or startled, you want their first reaction to be to look to you for what to do, this is the concept of support. You don’t want them to run into you or through you to flee from whatever "spooked" them. If a horse has your respect and looks to you for support, they will first look to see if the noise or movement creates a reaction in you – if you are calm they will be calm. If your first reaction is to get "big", grab the lead rope or rein you should expect that the horse will over-react too. Support is more than just getting your horse to perform or respond. Support is a direct by-product of your mental attitude, posture, and timing in a given situation.
By attitude I mean, what are your expectations of the horse in this situation. If you think that your horse will refuse, stop or hesitate -- it probably will. And your attitude carries over to your posture. Think about it, a down/dejected attitude by you is a sign of uncertainty. Your shoulders are down, you sit lower in the saddle, and your reactions are slower. The horse senses these things too. Your posture is telling your horse to slow down, stop, or fail. You are inadvertently training your horse to balk or hesitate.
In contrast, an upbeat/can do attitude is projected to the horse in your posture with confidence. You carry yourself with your shoulders up, back straight, ready to react. Your horse can sense this too. A horse can feel a fly land on his neck, what makes you think they can’t tell the difference in your posture?
Timing is related to anticipation of the horses next move. Do you think that your horse may slow or stop in the corner of an arena? Well, then why don’t you do something about it and keep the energy level up. Drive the horse through the corner with your seat if you think they may hesitate. This applies to any situation were you anticipate the horse may not perform – be an active participant, do something about it!
A good example of support would be getting your horse to cross a river or stream. If you just "go along for the ride" and approach the water with a green or untrained horse -- chances are, the horse will stop or hesitate. Your responsibility as the rider is to support the horse through this situation. What does that mean? Well, you should anticipate "new" situations or experiences. In this case you should anticipate that the horse may stop or hesitate and you should drive the horse through the water with energy in your seat.
Another example would be jumping over a log, the same logic applies here too. If you approach the log with the attitude/posture that you can’t do it, the horse will probably refuse to jump. If you approach this situation with the attitude that you and the horse are going to jump, you will. You can support a horse through just about any situation if you have the proper attitude, posture, and timing.
How would you react if someone threw you a beach ball while you were on your horse? Would you immediately tense up and grab the reins so the horse wouldn’t run away? While that may seem like the right thing to do, you would be teaching your horse to over react to this situation. What you should do is relax, remain calm, pet your horse and show them that this is no big deal. Through positive exposure to new situations you can teach your horse to be dead calm. Sure they may get nervous, but unless you have done your ground work you shouldn’t be on the horse.
Trust is an easy concept to understand. It relates to humans just as it does to horses. Everybody probably has an acquaintance (not a friend) you couldn't trust with your valuable possessions. You probably also have a friend that you would trust with your life. Your horse falls into this category. Trust with a horse goes two ways; your trust in them and their trust in you.
Your trust in the horse relates to the foundation, ground manners, training, and quality time spent with the horse. You know how they are going to react to situations. With the proper foundation you know that you can rely (trust) on them to make the right decision in a situation where you may not be paying attention.
The horses trust in you is a little more fragile. Horses don't instantly trust humans, we have to earn it. If you violate that trust, you don't get another "free" chance. Horses are better animals than humans, they don't hold a grudge. They just lose their ability to trust you in certain situations. It will take you much more time regain your horses trust than if you had tried an alternative method.
A good example of a situation where trust is important is with ground manners. I have seen a person punch a horse in the mouth with their fist because the horse was eating grass with a bridle on. This person should have worked on the ground manners first with this horse, but that's another issue. They now have a horse that is fearful of a closed hand coming near it's mouth. This is kind of necessary when you are putting a bridle or halter on the horse. They didn't know it, but they made a problem horse. Now they have a horse that doesn't trust them in a fairly common situation.
If you put the proper foundation on your horse, you will have all of the respect and trust that any animal can give you. We can't say this enough times.
Petting & scratching your horse are the easiest way to reward your horse. Do you know where your horse likes to be scratched the most? Can you name the three best spots to scratch your horse. Would your horse rather be scratched by you than eat? This is such a simple thing to do that doesn't cost any money and gets the horse to understand when it has done something correctly.
Probably one of the best horse scratching spots is on the withers. Scratches work better than pats with the horse. When you see horses grooming each other in the pasture, notice how they nibble on each other's withers. This is almost like a massage to us humans - they love it. You want to teach your horse that when they respond correctly, the reward is a scratch on the wither, forehead, or other favorite spot.
This is almost too simple, use it to your advantage. When training your horse and you get a desired result immediately reward your horse with a pet or scratch. You can do this on the ground or in the saddle. Once the horse understands that there is a relationship between doing something and the reward, subsequent learning happens faster.
There are other stimulus/response methods of training. Clicker training and treats are both common. These methods do get results, but when you are trail riding or in a show is it realistic to rely on a prop for the proper response? Are you always going to have food or the clicker with you? I tend to think about reward training this way - I always plan on having my hands with me when I train and the horse understands clearly what the relationship is with the reward.
One of the worst things that you can ever do is hand feed a horse, PERIOD! When you choose to hand feed your horse carrots, treats, etc. you can never meet your horses expectations. Every time they see you they will begin to expect a treat. When you don't come through, they get annoyed. The horse will soon look to you as the "human vending machine". This is one of the quickest ways to turn a horse into a "sour" animal. What we mean by this is a horse that pins its ears and acts cranky when you come to see it without any treats. (c) 1999 Natural Horse Supply, Cloudburst Farm, and Rhett & Marilou Russell. Reposted with permission.
