The Missing Element In Your Horse's Training

Have you ever considered what could be missing from your training?

A big marker used for identifying if you have a “good” horse is submission.

Submission, willingness and obedience are seen as signs of a “good” horse and it may even earn the horse the status of bomb proof. It comes up regularly as a quality marked for in competition and judged on by peers, trainers and instructors. Resistance, on the other hand, is seen as a quality of a bad horse that’s being naughty and acting out.

Many riders that do have a horse that can act out get confused when we get told our horse is being naughty.

We get upset when we are told our horse is too much for us.

We know deep down our horse is good and we love them with our everything, but we can just end up at our wits end not knowing how to simply get along with our horse.

Why can’t my horse just cooperate so we both can just enjoy each others company!?!

Maybe you’ve even googled:

• How do I stop my horse from biting?

• How do I stop my horse from throwing his head?

• How do I stop my horse from bolting?

• How do I stop my horse from bucking?

There have been many times in my riding career where I’ve just sat down on the floor and cried, ready to quit and just walk away because its all just too hard. It never lasts. I pull myself together and try again. And after 25 + years of trying again… and again… and again….

It is my belief that the most important element lacking in our training is giving our horse a voice.

Giving them permission to say no.

Giving them some control in what happens to them in their training.

Let them consent to working with you.

It’s the two way communication that is missing for our horses!

When you think about the crux of the issue, resistance is just the horse saying no, and willingness is the horse saying yes!!

In our industry, willingness is demanded from our horse. It is expected. And if that willingness isn’t given it is common practice that it is forced.

So a lot of the time the willingness of “good” horses I see isn’t given because they WANT to be participating in their training, it is given because they don’t want to experience the consequences and the type of discipline that gets used on them when they aren’t willing. This can lead to a horse being shut down, or learned helplessness, where the horse really resents what is happening to it but doesn’t see any other option. Alternatively, they can go the other way and become aggressive and some may consider dangerous. 

Have you ever asked why your horse might say no?

We have. Here are just a couple of reasons:

• Your horse doesn’t understand

• Your horse is in pain

• Your horse can’t do what you are asking

• Your horse is uncomfortable

• Your horse has an underlying medical condition that needs treating ie. Ulcers.

• Your horses teeth need doing and are rubbing and cutting into the sides of their mouth

• Your horses feed needs tweaking

• Your horses tack doesn’t fit correctly

• Your horse has rub areas, galls or sores from either not being properly groomed or tack rubbing from poor fit

• Your horse is remembering or has an established learnt behaviour from a bad or poorly trained experience their past

• Your horse is getting overwhelmed and doesn’t know how to effectively process its emotions.

These are just a handful of reasons that I have experienced for a horse saying no and therefore resistance.

When I first go out to a new assessment lesson, the most common reason for the horses behaviour being unmanageable - the reason I was called out in the first place - is because that horse has at least one if not more of the above reasons that it hasn’t been able to get across. The horse gets more frustrated and upset, it doesn’t feel heard or listened too and the behaviour escalates past what the owner can comfortably and safely manage.

The first thing I do is open a pathway of communication. I let the horse know I’m not going to make it do anything it doesn’t want to do and that I am there to listen to them. Once they know this, all of that “resistance” and naughty behaviour deescalates rapidly to just small, manageable yeses and nos. Once the horse feels listened to and heard, they don’t need or want to resort to the big dangerous behaviours that are really the big, loud nos. And it is then we can work through and address all of the reasons our horse is saying no. 

This doesn’t mean that we allow our horses to bully us and push us around. We still maintain manners and expectations of how they should behave with us. The big difference is how we establish and maintain those manners and expectations we set. We give the horse the tools to say yes and no without it being a case of “them getting away with it” and them taking advantage of us next time. 

Once we have ruled out all reasons for our horse saying no, only then can we start taking small steps towards getting a yes and rewarding the yes to encourage more yeses.

Once we have a small yes (this can be as simple as leading in halter in walk, sending them away at feed time or just putting the halter on), we slowly build the number of yeses but we maintain the horses right to say no. Over time we will get consistent, multiple yeses not because they are forced but because the horse enjoys the mental stimulation of learning, the physical stimulation of movement and the emotional stimulation of a dynamic and respectful relationship. The bonus being they can also let us know if they are overwhelmed, frustrated, confused, hurt and all other manner of issues that can crop up in training without having to escalate their behaviour and become dangerous. 

The two way conversation is now established and we can move forward again with our education.

And that, my readers, is what is truly missing from most horseman’s trainings.