When our horse's personality impacts their training

Have you ever had a situation where you were working with a horse and thought,

wow, this horse is totally different to the horses I am used to.

Perhaps you are leasing a friends horse while yours is on break. Or it could be that you have chosen to purchase a second horse. Maybe you have started at a riding school to get in some extra skills while your own horse is growing, much like I have been.

It is at this stage you realise, all horses are not equal!

• They don’t come with the same, preset buttons trained in

• They don’t exhibit the same reaction to the same stimulus

• I will admit thought, they do seem to have the same tendencies to get into trouble…

SHOCK! HORROR! GASP!

Ok, so you probably already knew this or realised it to some extent. What you probably haven’t realised is that using the EXACT SAME TRAINING APPROACH may, at it’s best, fail; at it’s worst, end up with you in hospital.

A number of things will determine how your horse learns, but none is more crucial than a horse’s default personality.

• All the tricks of the world trained in won’t alter their default response to stress significantly

• Trauma or pain will tend to exacerbate their default behaviour

• Maturity and enducation will tend to mellow their default behaviour

This personality is there EVERY SINGLE MINUTE we spend with our horse, whether they show it loudly or subtly. It is up to us to understand their default personality and support their unique emotional needs when pushed.

Using this default behaviour, Katie and I put together the Trainability Scale, a part of the Training Trainability Program.

The Trainability Scale looks at the three default reactions of Fight, Flight or Freeze, and puts it together with the horse’s level of responsivity (i.e. do they over-react or become ignorant and passive).

When we compare where the horses sit within these areas, we can easily see what behaviours the horse may escalate towards, and then understand how we can tailor our approach to help these horses work calmly, confidentally, but still ENGAGE in their training.

How can you learn more?

Register your interest for the next round of Training trainability enrolments by clicking here.

Can’t wait? Our mini course Opening Communications, shares some more insights and will give you a taste of what is available in Training Trainability.