[ridegrrl]

This has been rolling around in the back of my mind for a while. I'll write a book some day. LOL. Anyway, this is not in reply to any particular subject or person, and there's no such thing as "written in stone" when it comes to horses. I only wanted to shed a little light for all, especially for the less experienced horsemen and horsewomen, on some points that are easy to forget when we get caught up worrying about such things as diagonals and winter blankets and horseshows. So please take this for what it is, an open-ended list of lessons that horses have taught me. I hope they are of some use to you, my fellow horse addicts, in your equestrian endeavours.




LESSONS LEARNED

...On Herd Mentality:
Horses evolved in herds, and their adaptations for survival are all based around herd mentality. In essence, a herd is a heirarchy. Somebody's the boss. Somebody's the second-in-command, and so on down the line... and at the bottom, somebody is the grunt.

What isn't so obvious to the untrained eye, is that the boss doesn't associate with the grunt, especially in a large herd. And the lowest-ranked horse will NEVER hang around the boss - there's too much of a gap in rank. A horse takes direction from everyone above him, but will only hang around the horse ONE RANK above him, and one rank below (whom he can boss around). Within a herd, trouble-makers are disciplined by being pushed away (kicked/bitten). A horse that feels pushed away from his herd knows that he is vulnerable to predators. Therefore, he will suck it up and behave himself, to earn acceptance again.

...On Establishing Dominance:
This one is misinterpreted as often as not. The phrase "teach him who's boss" comes up all the time, and it's a little misleading. To us, our horses are our friends, our pets, our family members. But to them, we are a herdmate, pure and simple.

The key is that when you are working with your horse, the two of you are the whole herd. As a herd, somebody has to be boss. In the interest of safety and achievement, the boss must be you. Horses are perfectly content to follow. A horse will only attempt to take the lead if he feels a power vacuum (in other words, he isn't confident in your leadership).

You need to be the boss, but it's important not to outrank him by 8 notches either - he simply won't associate with you if he is overly intimidated. You can direct him, command his respect, but avoid being domineering. He must yield to your direction, follow your guidance, but he needs to trust you and be comfortable as your herdmate - thus you need to be the "horse" that's one rank above him.

...On Interaction:
As much as we might like to believe it, horses don't do what we request of them because they love us. There is certainly a bond between horse and rider, don't get me wrong. But a horse follows your directions because he respects you. Because he trusts that you won't lead him into harm. And most importantly, because you rank a notch higher than him, and he knows that there are consequences to disobeying. He'll get "pushed out of the herd" (disciplined) and will do what he needs to, in order to be accepted by his herd (you) again. Not only do you need to treat him as a horse, but you need to behave as one yourself.

...On "Courage Under Fire":
Horses don't make decisions the way we do, based on logic and weighing pros and cons. In a pressure situation, they make a choice between fight or flight - that is, to face/challenge whatever threatens them, or escape it. Whatever seemingly odd, mystifying behaviour your horse exhibits under stress (be that stress environmental, during training, or within a herd), will be some presentation of either fight or flight. Remembering this helps with knowing what your next action should be.

...On Attention Span:
This one's simple - horses don't have a very long attention span. They become bored easily and distracted even more easily. Expecting a horse to devote sixty minutes of concentration, the way a student would in calculus class, just isn't realistic. Limit the "new concept" portion of training sessions to 15-20 minutes - keep it short and sweet.

...On Memory:
A horse's memory is great for what he views as major events. Something that terrified him will stay in memory for months or years. Something appetizing like the sound of grain in a bucket? He'll never forget that either. But for small occurances, memory is short - if he misbehaves, you've got a very narrow window of opportunity in which to discipline him (generally within 3 seconds to react)... if you take a minute to react, he's already forgotten and doesn't know what he's in trouble for, so the discipline is ineffective. In the interest of keeping him happy with his work, end training sessions on a good/successful note - a positive memory.

...On Learning:
Horses are extremely intelligent. They learn differently from humans, but they are constantly learning. It's a common misconception to think that horses are only learning while we're trying to teach them something. Wrong! They learn from what's around them, while you lead them, groom them, saddle them, ride them, walk them out, and so on. And they learn things we don't want them to, as easily as the things we do want them to learn. Because of this, it's just as important to avoid situations where you inadvertently teach something "wrong", as it is to create situations where you teach desired behaviours.

...On Training:
"Training" is kind of another misleading term. We should call it Language 101. Now, arrogant species that we humans are, we think that we can "teach" a horse all kinds of neat things to do with his body. Little do we know. What we can in fact do, is establish a kind of code, a way to communicate our intentions to our horses, to let them know what we expect them to do with those naturally athletic bodies they've got. The "code" is just a set of cues. What are you doing when you're riding? You're not teaching your horse to trot, he knows how to trot. You're not teaching him how to stop or change leads or turn, he can do those things too. You are teaching him what you expect, for example "when I do this with my leg (placing your right lower leg back and adding pressure), I want you to do this with your legs (depart into left lead canter/lope)". Pretty simple. Let's not confuse the issue.

...On Introducing New Maneuvers:
Horses don't read the training books we do, and nobody ever told them that they need to learn everything one baby-step at a time. Every new gait/maneuver/skill can be viewed as a pyramid. Everyone has heard that we need to train in progressive increments, and that's true. The mistake is in defeating our purposes by choosing the wrong building blocks.

Focus on the end result you want. Then "zoom out" to see the big picture on how to get there. If there are three basic pre-requisite skills your horse needs before he can do the new maneuver, be sure all three are solid before trying the new thing. Once those pre-requisites are in place though, tackle the big chunk of the pyramid - do whatever you're trying to do - and perfect it later.

This is a little convoluted, I know, so I'll use an example we've seen a lot of lately - flying lead changes... and it's a little controversial ; I mean no offense to those with other methods. Again, these are my thoughts, but they've worked for me and all my students/horses.

The common mistake would be to start with a figure-8 and trot through the centre 6 steps, change... next time trot 4 steps, change... and decreasing so on, expecting that in a few days, the horse will miraculously decide off the top of his head to do a flying change instead. Why would he? - you've just spent 3 days "teaching" him (remember, they're always learning) that when he gets to the centre of a figure-8, he's to trot a few steps and pick up the other lead.

This would be my suggestion. End result desired is flying lead changes. Pre-requisites are taking leads on cue from walk or halt, and moving laterally (leg yield/half pass) at the walk, jog/trot and lope/canter. So assuming you can get your leads every time from the walk or halt, and your horse will move laterally, grab the bull by the horns and ask for the flying change. It'll be a little hairy the first time or two, but you got it. Praise your horse. And now you can perfect it.

...On Expectations:
At the end of the day, we expect a lot of our horses. We expect these prey animals to accept that we (as predators) may capture them, confine them, get on their backs, and give them directions. We expect them to let us primp and pamper them, fuss over them and manicure them, dress them funny and haul them all over the countryside in a cave on wheels. Then of all things, we believe that when we take them away from their home environment, paint their hooves with polish, braid their manes and tails, and ride them into a noisy arena with a crowd and butterflies in our tummies that make our cues awkward and tense, they should take this all in stride and turn in their best performance to date. Are we nuts!?

Since we insist on doing all of these silly things to our horses (and I say this tongue-in-cheek, I do all of the above and more), the least we can do is give them a little leeway. The best you can realistically expect out of your horse in a strange environment such as a horseshow, is about 85% of his best at-home performance. If you get better than that, be ecstatic. But with this rule of thumb in mind, work hard at home, train at a level higher than what you expect to achieve in the showring. And then when you get to the show, relax and ride the horse you're lucky enough to be aboard.



AREN'T WE FORTUNATE THAT HORSES ARE SUCH BRILLIANT TEACHERS?

[belle4]

Isn't that the truth?

[CanadianWrangler]

Well done! Well said! "^10"

[ridegrrl]

Thanks Belle.

Originally Posted by CanadianWrangler

"^10"

Thanks CW. ^10 back @ ya.

[John]

Very Good.... Merry Xmas

[Sea Ha]

ridegrrl,
That is a really really good post.
Me as a 'horseperson" for 40+ yrs picked something from it. I know its invaluable for any and all with a horse or even admiration for them.

[ridegrrl]

Thank you.

[belle4]

Everyone needs to read this! Just wanted to bump it back up.

[sazzy]

hey thats really gd. im an equine student andthink i jus grasped alot frm that. cheers

[sazzy]

.... u sshud write a book : )