On the opposite end of the scale are people who mentally and physically intimidate their horse to do everything. A good example is trailer loading. You often see someone flogging a horse relentlessly with a whip to get it on the trailer. Now they may flog and flog, and eventually force the horse to go on to the trailer. But every time they go to load the horse, the horse never chooses to voluntarily walk on to the trailer calm and relaxed. The trainer will always have to force the horse to go on the trailer, and the chances of injury are always a risk.
Where do we want to be with our horse training? We want to be in the middle – somewhere between being a wimp and getting dragged all over the place, and being too rough and aggressive with our horse, always forcing him to do things for us. Both ends of the scale obtain very inconsistent results. If your horse does not respect you, he walks all over the top of you and will not listen to you – or if your horse is fearful of you, he will never trust and obey you, because he is too frightened. So, somewhere in the middle of our horsemanship scale is where we want to be, but that doesn’t mean we necessarily get to stay in the middle. There will be times when one must sway to either side of the middle.
When my horse is acting disrespectfully towards me or giving me the wrong behavior, I will step toward the hard side of that scale. When my horse starts to try and shows me respect, I will instantly step on the easy side of the scale. It is very important that you get your horse to understand that he is responsible for his actions. It is very important that he understand disrespectful behavior will cause more discomfort for him so he does not want to make that same mistake again. When your horse is doing what you want, or at least trying to do what you want, it is very important that you take the pressure off and reward your horse. A lot of people try to reward and love their horse to get it to respect them. You can’t love your horse to get it to respect you. You can love it and reward for respecting you. There is a big difference.
So, how do we get our horse’s respect? We get our horse’s respect by making our horse move forwards, backwards, left and right – just like the dominant mare does in the pasture.
Think about when feeding time comes around. The dominant mare will walk up to the feed trough and pin her ears back, immediately all the other horses move out of her road. If, however, another mare decides she wants to challenge and be the leader, when the dominant mare pins her ears back, this mare might not move. The dominant mare will start to increase her aggressiveness until she gets the less dominant mare to move. She will pin her ears or act like she might bite. The less dominant mare now has a choice. She will either continue to challenge the dominant mare, or she will move out of the dominant mare’s road, at which point the dominant mare will cease to put pressure on her. If she doesn’t get the desired response, she will not quit until she gets the desired response. Horses deal with each other in nature very simply, and we can obtain the same results if we duplicate their actions.
The time frame between when a horse pins its ears back and the less dominant horse moves away is a matter of seconds. The dominant mare doesn’t waste time and there is no debate. They have a very brief discussion – "I’m asking – what are you going to do? If you don’t want to do it, that’s alright; but I’m going to increase the pressure until you do." It’s very important that people understand that horses will deal with each other in nature very peacefully. They rub and groom each other and live in harmony. When there is disrespectfulness in the herd’s behavior, the dominant mare will do whatever it takes to make her point and restore harmony.
This is very similar to how I deal with my horses as well. When a horse treats me disrespectfully and pushes into my personal space, I increase the work load and the pressure until the horse begins to respect me. As soon as I get respect and effort, I instantly reward that behavior and back off the pressure. Reward is great, but you can only reward when you get a desired response.
It is very important that you teach your horse from the beginning that he is responsible for his actions. If you rob a bank and you get caught, you are going to go to jail – plain and simple.
You must teach your horse that he is responsible for his actions, meaning that if he bites you, kicks you, walks into you, runs over the top of you or does anything to you that is even remotely disrespectful, he must pay the consequences. His behavior put him under pressure and feeling uncomfortable – you just make the wrong thing difficult and the right thing easy. Very quickly, you horse should stop making mistakes and stop acting disrespectfully if you learn this important rule.
It is very important that you let your horse make mistakes. For example, if your horse doesn’t want to stand still, that’s fine. But you put that energy to a constructive use and make him lunge, stop, turn, or physically do something. After five or ten minutes, the horse is thinking "Man, it was much easier standing still and relaxing than what he is making me do now!"
Horses are basically lazy creatures. Use this to your advantage. Even the most athletic, fearful, crazy horse in the world would much rather stand still than work, if given a choice. Basically, the more you tell the horse not to move, the more he wants to move. On the other hand, if you let him know that moving will be more difficult for him; and standing still will be rewarding, the horse will want to stand still. This is an excellent example of letting your horse make a mistake and making him pay a price for it. Let your horse be responsible for his actions. Don’t protect him. A mistake is really a blessing in disguise, because every time your horse makes a mistake and you correct him, it’s one less mistake he will make in the future. The more you try and protect him from making a mistake, I guarantee the more mistakes he will make – and they will be a lot worse and will come when you least expect them.
Horses have a very natural desire to be controlled or led. Horses always follow a leader in the pasture. However, if you don’t want to be the leader in your relationship with your horse, your horse will gladly step up to the plate. If you want to get that leadership back, most horses are willing to give it up. However, if your horse has been the leader for a long time, he might be reluctant, but not impossible. Every time you let your horse take control, you are teaching your horse this is acceptable. Horses learn through repetition.
You don’t have to teach your horse to do anything. You just have to allow them to do it, and you are really teaching them. If you allow your horse to walk off as you mount him and don’t do anything about it, what are you really teaching him? You are teaching him that he is allowed to walk off when you are mounting him. If you allow your horse to pin his ears back at you when you do the girth up and you don’t do anything about that, what are you teaching your horse? You are teaching your horse that it is acceptable for him to pin his ears back at you. It is very important that you understand that horses don’t understand English. What do they understand? They understand action. So when my horse pins his ears back or acts disrespectfully towards me in any way, if I put pressure on him and reprimand him for this behavior, he soon figures out that it was uncomfortable for him to do that. Horses get away with whatever you allow. If you let your horse be disrespectful and act like an idiot, believe me – he will do an excellent job of just that. If you let your horse act respectful, patient and obedient, he will very quickly be respectful, patient and obedient.
Horses learn through repetition. When you do something to a horse once, you plant a seed. When the horse does it again, it becomes a habit. If it is a good thing, it is a good habit – if it is a bad thing, it is a bad habit.
Some people don’t like to hear the words reprimand or punishment, but horse training is very simple – it’s very black and white. You either have a respectful horse or a disrespectful horse. The more black and white you can keep it, the easier it gets. Your horse has to realize that every time he acts disrespectfully towards you, he will become uncomfortable. Every time he acts respectfully, he will be rewarded. A lot of people want to reward, and they understand that reward is very important; but let me guarantee you that the reward is only as good as the reprimand that backs it up.
Don’t bluff! When you ask your horse to do something and he doesn’t do it, you had better be prepared to step up to the plate and increase the pressure until he does, then instantly back off the pressure.
Remember, you can’t beg your horse to respect you. In general, the more you try to beg, the more disrespectful they become. The more you ask your horse to do for you, the more respectful your horse becomes.
Most people feel that they have a respectful horse if the horse does these things:
Most horse owners feel that they have a respectful horse if they can do these five things. However, if the horse does not want to load one day, doesn’t like his feet being handled, won’t lead or be saddled – as soon as one of those five things goes wrong, the owner panics and thinks he has a disrespectful, problem horse all of a sudden. Chances are, that horse has always been disrespectful, but he has never been challenged enough to show it. What I am saying is that you never know how respectful your horse is until you put some pressure on him and ask him to do something for you.
Remember this – horses have 23 hours every single day to sleep, eat and drink. Not a bad deal! For 23 hours a day, he can do whatever he chooses. For that one hour a day you handle your horse – and let’s face it, sometimes it’s not even one hour – that time is your time. That is your time to say, "Listen! I want to be a partner with you, but I am the leader! You are not the leader! You are not equal with me! I am the leader!"
The more you understand this and the more you get your horse to understand this, the fewer problems you will have. I always want to give my horse a choice. If he chooses to do the wrong thing, that’s fine. But he must pay a consequence for it. Horse training becomes difficult for people when they have too many shades of gray.
Unfortunately, there is no written manual on what is expected behavior you should get from your horse. For example, if you buy a brand new truck that should get 16 miles to the gallon and it doesn’t, the first thing you do is go back to the dealership and ask why. However, when you buy a horse, there is no written manual. Most people have a general guideline – their horse should not bite them, kick them, hurt them – but that’s about as far as it goes.
I try to raise people’s expectations in what they believe their horse should do for them. To me, my horse should respect me, cooperate and try. This is not good behavior – it is expected behavior. So many owners are used to disrespectful, bad behavior, that when their horse stops behaving badly, they think this is respect. On its very worst day, your horse should respect and pay attention to you. On his very best day, he never makes a mistake. I will never reprimand my horse or put pressure on him if he tries. I will put pressure on a horse and reprimand only for not trying and disrespect or challenge.
Most people who attend my clinics are too passive and to the point of, unless they can change their horse’s behavior, selling the horse or getting out of horses completely. I find that seven out of ten professional horse trainers are usually way too aggressive with horses. They never give the horse a chance to understand the desired lesson. Again, we need to be somewhere in the middle.
Horses will deal with each other at times very passively, but very aggressively towards disrespectful behavior. If nobody disputes this, why is there such a stigma in the horse industry that people are not allowed to reprimand their horse? Fifty years ago, everything was force and intimidation. That is completely wrong, however, now I feel the horse industry has turned people too far in the opposite direction and they are begging their horse to do things for them. I see so many wonderful people every weekend so close to getting injured by their horse because they are literally begging their horse to listen to them. You can’t whisper sweet nothings in your horse’s ear and expect him to listen to you. Horses understand actions. They don’t understand words.
Stay focused on what you are doing with your horse. Many people want to hear the easy story. Once or twice a week, this will be easy, and you will never have another problem for the rest of your life. If you want your horse to be a willing partner and really perform well, you have got to be prepared to put in the effort. You can’t expect your horse to go from Grade 1 to Grade 10 in four days and do it once every three months. It is very important to remember that horse’s learn through repetition and that you should be prepared to focus and work through any resistance that you come across and reward the behavior that you are looking for.
The main thing that I want to get across in this introductory speech is that there are two sides to horse training. There is a loving, rewarding side and there is a pressuring, reprimanding side. It is very important that you understand both sides, because your horse will want to choose the rewarding side – if you set it up for him to do so. Good luck, Mate!
