Figs & The Flip Side

One of my pet peeves is triggered by the casual use of the buzz word, "Natural Horsemanship". I have to wonder if there haven't been some great masters of horse training that have been grossly misinterpreted and their words bastardized over time. Have these concepts morphed over time like the game of Telephone, where one person whispers a phrase in the ear of the next person and down the line until the phrase is no longer even remotely resembles the original phrase?

It's pretty funny when you're a kid, not so funny if you're a horse and the gentle advice of a training master has become twisted into a directive recommending punishment as the only solution in training horses.

How many times have I heard the phrase, "Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult?". Too many. A continuation of that statement by one of the Natural Horsemanship Gurus (He Who Shall Not Be Named) is the statement: "If you never make your horse feel uncomfortable for wrong behavior, nothing motivates him to stop making a mistake."

Ok...lets think about this logically and attempt to digest these concepts, one piece at a time... Make the right thing easy. I like that idea, if we set our animals up in a win-win situation, they come to understand what we want and we've made it easy for them to give us what we asked for. Everyone is happy. YES!

But then there is the flip side... make the wrong thing difficult. I can interpret that a couple of ways, one with a punishment oriented spin, and the other with a more positive spin. Let's start with the more positive spin, because that makes ME more comfortable.

Ok, the more positive spin would go something like this: I want my horse to pick up the left lead so with an understanding of footfalls and exactly when to cue the canter based on the footfalls of the current gait, the horse will naturally and automatically give me the lead I want – that is making the right thing easy. I’ve created a win-win situation, I ask and he gives me what I want, no fuss, no muss, many carrots, everyone is happy.

The flip side of that might be to cue the horse for the left lead and as soon as he picks up the right lead, pull him down hard, hit him with a whip and ask again. Eventually, perhaps by accident, he picks up the left lead and then the rider can ease up on the pressure as he is now "making the right thing “easy”.

Or, and odds are you’ve heard this one before, let’s say the horse doesn’t want to go as slowly as you want him to. So He Who Shall Not Be Named (of the make the wrong thing difficult camp) says tell him to speed up when he doesn’t slow down when you ask. According to this strategy, if you keep him moving, air becomes a commodity that he values, and therefore you have a bargaining chip of sorts. AND as an added bonus, by causing discomfort, you cause the horse to have respect for you too!

So, while we’re on the flip side, I have to ask, what behavior modification did the horse learn from being run until he can’t breathe? What happened to the Three Second rule that says if you must punish a horse, do it within 3 seconds of the infraction in order to be clear to the horse of WHY you lost your cool.

And why must a horse be uncomfortable in order to respect another being? Does a foal lack respect his dam unless she bites or kicks him on a regular basis?

The “make the wrong thing difficult” of the Punishment Variety has so many reasons why it’s not a good strategy:
1. The punishment often doesn’t fit the crime
2. The punishment is often delayed long enough so the reason isn’t clear to the horse (and therefore isn’t an effective behavior modification strategy).
3. If there is no behavior modification, what is the point of the punishment?
4. Punishment potentially creates fear & confusion in the horse (and sometimes anger)

So, what are the results of punishment?
1. A breakdown in the relationship between horse and human
2. Feeds the predator in us that likes to push around “lesser beings”
3. Perhaps some of us feel more powerful when we can dominate an animal many times our size?

And sometimes it does modify behavior, yes punishment CAN work as a training strategy. However, anyone can whack a horse, and not just anyone can train a horse.

Ok, I hear you, you’re saying “If you think you’re so smart, how in the world would you slow down this horse that is refusing to listening to its rider?

Here are some things to try, depending upon the horse & situation, that will not hurt the horse/human relationship:

1. If the horse is naturally more forward than you would like, circle. If you ask the horse to circle just small enough to slightly challenge his balance, he will regulate his speed without being strong armed by the rider or pushed to a point of oxygen deprivation

2. If the horse is strung out and not very balanced (he may be falling on his forehand or running to keep his balance) lots of transitions will help balance him back on his hind quarters. Also, as he anticipates the cue for a transition in a stride or two, he will, he will begin to prepare for the upcoming transition which over time will create a more balanced horse.

Note: If the horse can’t execute a smaller circle or transitions between gaits upon request, then the trainer needs to back up and establish better basics and not expect the horse to perform at a level beyond his training or physical conditioning.

3. If the horse is tense, the secret is going to be working toward greater relaxation. Pushing a tense horse will only feed the tension, and will not solve the problem. On the topic of relaxation, there are lots of ways to approach this, but first there are a few things to consider:

-- If he’s tense at the current level of work, it’s likely that he’s missing some basics and the trainer should back up a few steps or break down the current task into easier to digest chunks.
-- If he’s tense by nature (regardless of the task at hand) he probably needs some confidence building and ground work is a good place to start. One behavior that works very well is teaching the horse to lower his head on cue. The head down position releases endorphins that trigger relaxation. This is a great default behavior for the horse to understand and he can learn to utilize this himself (without a human cue) when he’s stressed
-- If the horse is tense, he may be confused about what is being asked of him, make sure he has solid basics and can perform them in a relaxed manner before increasing the difficulty.

Back to the statement made by "He Who Shall Not Be Named," hand in hand with making the wrong thing difficult... this bears repeating... he said “If you never make your horse feel uncomfortable for wrong behavior, nothing motivates him to stop making the mistake.”

One word pops into my mind when I read that: REDICULOUS!

Why would this be? How could anyone think that makes sense? That statement assumes horses are only really motivated by punishment and that the only way to modify a horse’s behavior is by discomfort. In other words, horses can’t be motivated by “good” things. If he can value avoiding discomfort, doesn’t that also mean that he can value comfort? How can anyone have such a one sided view? Let’s have some balance, please!

Ok, I’m no NH Guru making millions of dollars by selling halters with my name on them or special training sticks, but still, it seems perfectly obvious to me that patterns can be set and behavior can be modified without discomfort. Actually, that is a basic scientific concept. Science has proven that animals repeat most often behavior that is rewarded.

And you don’t have to be a scientist to see this in action. Proof of this concept happens every day with each of us. Horses learn things that we intend them to learn and also things we didn’t intend for them to learn, all based on what is rewarded. Rewards may be intentional or unintentional, but to the horse, a reward is a reward and a motivator to repeat what earned that reward. Horses are constantly learning, they don’t have to be made “uncomfortable” in order to modify their behavior.

For example, I have a fig tree in my back pasture. For years I ignored the fig tree, and the horses did too. I occasionally experimented with making fig bread with some of them, but mostly the tree existed as a fig buffet for the local birds.

This year, I noticed that every time I turned out my new pony, Etude, in the back pasture, regardless of having put out fresh water or hay, he had a single purpose in mind. Ignoring everything, he consistenly marched over to the fig tree and rooted around in the dirt for a while before joining the other horses eating hay.

I noticed the dirt under the tree was quite trampled and bare. I thought maybe he was looking for a low branch to scratch his back. I thought the behavior was curious, but didn’t give it a whole lot of thought until it hit me that little sucker was after the FIGS!

What Etude had discovered is that some percentage of the time he would be rewarded for ignoring what was normally of high value to him (hay) in order to investigate the ground around the fig tree. I’m sure he didn’t always find figs, in fact, he probably rarely found any, but the behavior was rewarded enough times to inspire consistent change in his routine.

Now, fig season is coming to a close, and Etude still checks out the base of the tree. What he learned is that he could bypass the sure thing (hay) for a intermittent reward (figs) because the figs have a higher value to him. Did his behavior change because he was made uncomfortable? NO. Yet, clearly there was behavior modification at work here.

Mother Nature motivated Etude’s behavior modification without discomfort. We could take a lesson from her book and give up the silly notion that the ONLY way to motivate a horse is by making him uncomfortable.

Conflicting Expectations and the Space/Time Contiuum

This is part two of my thoughts on managing expectations. Of course, the only expectations we can control are our own, we can't really control others expectations, but we can work toward modifying them.

Horse expectations are normally those "in the now", meaning they are about where we are going now, and how we are getting there, NOW. Not about what things will be like once we get there. That's why when your horse is tired after a day at a show and doesn't want to get on that trailer - he's not thinking about his nice stall with fresh hay, clean bedding, and dinner at the end of a two hour trailer ride. He's thinking about how he's tired NOW and doesn't feel like getting back into his box on wheels.

Humans think in terms of the future and the space/time continuum, not horses.

So, getting back to the idea that humans created a horse's expectations… Horses pretty much have a good, bad or indifferent view of things around them. That evaluation is based on experience. They tend to repeat behaviors that nets something they value, they tend to try to avoid things that are unpleasant. Horses are the ultimate non confrontational wimp when it comes to facing what is unpleasant. I'm not saying they give in easily, but they will avoid confrontation if allowed to, by leaving and finding something to occupy their time that is more pleasant. The fight comes into play if they are not allowed to avoid what is unpleasant. If their fear is strong enough, they will behave as if they are fighting for their lives, because in fact, that is probably how it feels to them.

Fighting isn't really natural to horses. In the wild, they fight (other than in play) in few situations, all of them when they are threatened. Stallions fight to protect their herd from a predator, if fleeing isn’t an option. Or he will fight an interloper stallion to keep from losing his mares. Mares will stand up to a predator to save a foal that is to small or weak to flee, but her first choice is always to run first, stand her ground second. It's the exception, not the rule that inspires fight rather than flight.

Then along came humans. Sometimes we have a talent for bringing out the worst in horses. Let’s say I want that horse to load in a trailer and the horse is determined not to. MY expectation is that they horse get in that trailer and does not defy my wishes. The horse's expectations is that getting in a trailer is a bad thing at the moment. And the more I push the horse and make it uncomfortable for the horse around that trailer, the more I confirm his notion, because bad things ARE happening right now!

If the horse had any doubt, I’ve just erased them by upping the pressure. And now I'm scratching my head wondering why the horse is so stubborn? How clever is that? Not very.

We have two expectations at play here, one being the flip side of the other. The human wants one thing and the horse wants something else entirely. Often what the horse wants is nothing specific besides NOT doing what is being asked. He’s not necessarily being stubborn or bull headed, he has his reasons, which us humans may never really understand, but his reality is that he doesn’t want to get in that trailer and his expectation is that it’s not a pleasant place to be at the moment.

Often it seems that the outcome of these conflicts of interest (horse vs human) hinges upon who has the stronger will, who is going to back down first, and who is more determined. If the horse is really frightened, my money is on the horse. If the horse is merely bothered by something but not terrified, he can probably be convinced to do as he’s being told, but did he learn something positive from the experience? Probably not.

We don’t always know what triggers the horse's expectations. But it is probably based on past experience, regardless of if humans are aware of the cause or not. Some horses appears to have a needle phobia or fear of fly spray or paste wormer and they react at the very sight of a shot, spray bottle or worming tube. They have a reason, the needle may feel like the bite of a horse fly and he remembers the pain of that experience. Who knows? It doesn’t matter why, it only matters that he is anticipating something unpleasant.

Dealing with a horse's expectations takes as long as it takes. If the horse and human have conflicting expectations, and the human insists and wins this little battle, was the horse’s expectation changed for the better or merely reinforced or strengthened?

The best, most successful way to modify a horse's expectations is by rewarding behavior we want and ignoring everything else. The reason is that to punish a horse who already has a distasteful or fearful experience only strengthens his resolve that something is bad or should be feared. Now the catch to rewarding what we want is that we have to set the horse up to give us what we want. Humans all too often focus on what we don't want instead.

Ideally we want to manage both our own expectations and that of the horse as well. We don’t want to get stuck thinking about time or being late or any agenda other than giving the horse a chance to modify his expectations. Again, it takes as long as it takes.

The problem with forcing a human view point upon the horse is that we can't always know how that horse will internalize pressure or force, even if we consider it insignificant. After all, who are we to decide what is insignificant to the horse? What we can be sure of is that we have contributed to a memory of something unpleasant. Unpleasant memories cause angst on both the physical and emotional level. So the next time the horse is confronted with the same situation, he may have a physical and/or psychological reaction and the anticipation may feel worse than the actual situation that inspired the memory.

For example, when i was a kid, my family dentist has this idea that children shouldn't need any pain killer to fill cavities. So, he would just drill away and would only numb my tooth if I wiggled too much. Crying didn’t phase him, only wiggling did but I also had a healthy fear of him piercing my cheek or tongue, so I did try to hold still. What did I learn from that (other than Dentists are Barbadians)? I learned to anticipate pain. And the angst that I felt at the mere suggestion of a dental appointment was much greater and lasted much longer than the actual process of filling a cavity. AND at the time of the appointment, I didn't even know there was a cavity to fill. But that didn't stop my heart from racing and the tears from flowing.

As another an example of conflicting expectations, my pony, Etude hates bathes. I have no idea why, but from the day he arrived, I've noticed that the sound of running water made him jump, even simply filling his water bucket will cause him to put some distance between himself and running water.

His angst about hoses was so deeply entrenched that although under normal circumstances he leads well, when I headed toward the water nozzle for his first after workout rinse, he suddenly screeched to a halt and let me know he had no intention of cooperating if I was going toward that faucet. To make it even more surprising, this is summer in the deep south, so for most horses, a cool shower is a good thing, but not to Etude.

So, my options were to reinforce his expectations that this was NOT going to be a good time had by all, OR I could manage his expectations by working toward changing his view of showers from something bad to something not so bad, and over time, hopefully, to neutral or that it's something good.

When there is a built in emotional response to an event (real or imagined) rational thinking isn't going to help. It didn't matter to me one iota that my mom told me I needed to go to the dentist and that without dental care, I might lose all of my teeth. Seriously, to a 6 year old with a vivid memory of a dental drill, being toothless sounded like a great alternative! If I had no teeth then I would have no reason to suffer trips to the dentist, AND as an added benefit, I would rake in the bucks from the tooth fairy. (-; Nor can I expect Etude to see how a nice shower on a hot day would be a nice thing.

No amount of force, even the tiniest bit, was going to change Etude's mind. He had no interest in getting wet, regardless of the heat. Even the tiniest suggestion of force would reinforce his notion that water is a bad thing. My goal is to manage his expectations, not support his idea that bad things happen near running water.

Instead of force, I simply went back to the basic principle of rewarding what I want and ignore what I don't want. There is no payoff in focusing on what we don't want. I didn't belabor the idea of bath time because there was no profit in that either. I discovered Etude's thresh hold of tolerance, meaning how close could I get the hose to him before he moved away, and used that as the starting point. With his favorite goody in my treat bag, I bridged the act of standing still in the presence of running water near his thresh hold until his focus moved to anticipating the next treat instead of anticipating the horrors of a bath.

This is important - in effect, I've switched his focus from bad things to good things. I NEED that change in mind set in order for him to come around to my way of thinking (that baths are good!). It's all about where the horse's mind is, not where he is physically. If his mind isn't willing to get on that horse trailer or cross that culvert, his body won't be willing to take that next step either.

This is just the starting point and it's not just a matter of changing the focus, I'm after an attitude shift. If the expectation is deep rooted or strongly fear based, it can take some time to get to a permanent attitude shift, BUT it can be done.

With Etude, it was a relatively quick fix, gradually, he became willing to let me wet down his chest, neck and shoulders, with a bridge signal telling him exactly what I wanted, while I ignored any fuss. Since I'm after a long term attitude adjustment on this topic, I didn’t need to give him a full blown bath, I only needed to make a positive change that day. Since, I've made it a habit to give him a quick rinse after every training session, regardless of if he broke a sweat or not. After 2 short bath sessions he would let me hose down his quarters. After the third, he was willing to escort me to the water faucet to turn it on. After the forth, he decided that I could hose down the inside of his back legs, which didn't thrill him (based on is posture and lifting his back feet) but he did not leave. The shift to my way of thinking isn't complete, but it's well on it's way.

I could have accomplished the same thing with a bit of pressure, after all, I have a long hose and a spray nozzle adds some distance as well. How far can a pony back up? How many times can he turn in a circle before he decided it's easier to submit? Won't he eventually grow tired of the dance and just hold still?

Yes, probably so. But again, I'm after acceptance, trust, and building a partnership, not just submission. I want him to trust in me and our relationship, not just tolerate my behavior.

Managing Expectations or The Pollyanna Approach to Horse Training

The topic of managing expectations is a special request topic... And since I can muster up an opinion on just about anything, why not this one? Here you go, Kim...

I'm not sure who's expectations (horse or human) are supposed to be my inspiration for waxing poetic... so I'll touch on both. But this particular Blog will be on managing human expectations.

I think many people could benefit from tweaking their perspective about training horses. At least I have evolved my own attitude about it over the years and I'm happier now than I've ever been with my horses and amazed at how fast they learn, how smart they are and how willing they generally are to do what I ask. Yes, I must sound a bit barn blind, but it's true.

The common goal of any interaction with our horses seems to be that we want our horse (or pony) on his best behavior. Do what we want, when we want it, how we want it. And ultimately, I want the same thing. BUT I've found that this isn't a realistic expectation most of the time, not with young horses, and not with horses that have expectations of their own that need to be managed... that's part two of this blog, so more on that later...

I have managed my own expectations of my horse by welcoming mistakes. As long as I keep that mind set, I'm happy with every interaction with my horse and never disappointed, regardless of the outcome. That said, I have not totally eradicated the demon that inspired me to be disappointed in myself, but that's another topic all together. I try my best to look forward to the issues, the flaws, the snafus, the wobbles, the balance checks, the fussy moments, and the hesitations.

You're probably thinking that it would be so much easier if the horse just did what I asked, so that I didn't have to "work" on these issues. I mean, work is WORK, right?

Yes, but an opportunity is more than "work". It's a chance to further develop my relationship with that horse. It's a chance to build his confidence in me as a fair person who will listen to his concerns and help him manage his own expectations as we work through this problem together.

That probably sounds twisted, why would I welcome things going wrong? Because they aren't really "wrong", they are an opportunity to open up a dialog with my horse about what I really want. Every less than perfect moment is a chance for my horse and I to come to a point of understanding. If the horse didn't show me the holes in his training bucket, I wouldn't have a chance to patch them. And more importantly, he's giving me a chance to take our relationship to the next level.

I'm not saying I always take the opportunity to work on a problem, sometimes, at that particular moment, it's not practical, I may be on the way to work or have a prior commitment or just don't feel like it. But if I'm on top of my game, I make a note in my head that an opportunity as presented itself and I make time later to work with that opportunity.

Assuming I'm fair and communicate what I want using positive reinforcement, good things will come out of our interaction. This is a chance to be clear about what I want and for me to ensure that the horse isn't worried about the outcome. With postive reinforcement, when we come out the other side of this challenge, our relationship will be a bit stronger, his trust in me is a bit more solid, and we're just that much better at communicating clearly with each other.

And why is that important? Because essentially, if I'm riding or driving, I'm trusting my horse to take care of me to some extent. The more he trusts me, the less chance he has of over reacting to something new, knowing I wouldn't put him in danger. The better we work together as partners, as a team, the less risk that we will part company on a ride or drive. And the more clearly we are able to communicate, the more sure I am that he'll understand, and be willing to give me what I want, the next time I ask for something.

It's a matter of building a foundation, flipping the horse's internal switch from "I'm scared" or "I'm not sure I want to... " to "Sure, lets do it!".

If I do my part right, I get what I want, AND we are better off for the experience that evolved from that little (or not so little) mistake.

There was a time in my career with horses when I would have read this and said "Fine for you to say, but this is BUNK!" I would have put it up on that shelf right next to my step Mom's lecture on how we create our own reality and to change things we don't like is simply a matter of changing our attitude. Now that I'm in my 50s, I guess it's safe to admit that she was right all along? (-;

I'm sure that sounds quite Pollyanna to some of you, and honestly, I would have thought that too, once, before I proved to myself that it's true. If our reality is one that says force and pressure is appropriate (as much force and pressure necessary until we get what we want) then that is what we will tend to get back from the horse. It's Newton's Third Law of Motion (for those who might recall your high school physics (this, by the way, is about all I DO recall from physics class!) that says:

"... in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects. The size of the force on the first object equals the size of the force on the second object. The direction of the force on the first object is opposite to the direction of the force on the second object. Forces always come in pairs - equal and opposite action-reaction force pairs."

This typically holds true for horses as well, apply force and they will react in kind, responding to the degree of force they felt applied. It's important to note that I said "felt applied" because the human may not feel there was much force applied and the horse may react 10 fold... based on his assessment of the force applied, not based on the human "view" of it.

So, having tried my best to give up force and work with a more positive and communcative approach, I can say that it works. I have few disappointments in training now, because every flaw in our interaction or performance is a chance to make things better. In order for this to work, I had to come to accept and believe in the principles of positive reinforcement. Without that, then these "opportunities" are potentially points of conflict and exercises in frustration. And the more I lean toward exclusive positive reinforcement and lean away from punishment, pressure and force, the more effectively this approach proves to be.

Why? Because there is nothing in force and pressure that builds a horse's confidence in his human. Horses lean into pressure naturally, we have to teach them to move away from pressure, but even if they know to move way from the squeeze of a leg or the tap of a whip, their most base reaction is to lean INTO pressure. We can't totally eradicate that concept, they are hard wired for that, just like we are hard wired to breathe. Anyone that has spent any time with new foals will tell you that they lean. Try to push them toward the milk bar and they push back. It's natural, it's what they do. We can teach them to respond differently to specific situations, but in fact, horses are hard wired to lean into pressure and to flee when they are scared.

Apply pressure, the horse pushes back, apply enough force and the horse will flee. Neither of those scenarios are confidence builders and in many cases, they are confidence destroyers.

The other "thing" I had to give up was my own fear. Fear of looking like a fool in public, fear that the horse would not behave the way I wanted or needed him to. These fears are in fact, pretty irrational. IF the horse's training is based on clear communication and a strong partnership, why wouldn't he comply? Fear comes from insecurity and doubt in what the future will bring. That applies to both horses and humans.

Confidence comes from knowing that my horse will give the best he is capable of at that moment. If a porta potty blows over in gusty wind at a show and he bolts, so be it, he wasn't able to control his concern for that moment. But it was the best he could do and how many chances do we have to train for flying porta potties?

Confidence comes from believing in my partner and knowing he believes in me. And so what if something goes wrong? It's not the end of the world, it's just an opportunity. (-:

Who's Leading Whom?

"Leadership" is one of those horse training words that is tossed around all too casually, in my opinion, without really thinking about that that means. It has become a buzz word used commonly in context of how we (humans) need to be good leaders in order to train a horse. This idea of successful training depends upon building the horse's trust and confidence in our leadership abilities. And most problems are attributed to a horse's lack of "respect" or our inability to be a strong "leader" that can inspire the horse's "respect". These two concepts are intricately tied in most conversations about training.

Millions of dollars have been spent on clinics, lessons, DVDs & books which claim they can open the secret door to this idea of creating "respect". One of the most common example of how to get respect is by moving the horse around a round pen. The idea being that who moves whom indicates to the horse which creature is the leader and which is the follower. Ultimately, the "mover" is "The Leader", the being moved, by default, makes one "The Follower".

Pondering this idea of respect and leadership, I've decided this concept (that humans need to be strong leaders in order for the horse to respect us) is pretty much backassward.

In order to build the horse's trust and confidence, AND in order for them to learn to respect us, horses need humans to be good followers and keen observers. The horse needs someone who makes requests, but doesn't insist, and allows the horse to lead, by indicating if he is comfortable and confident enough to do as asked. That partnership, built on a conversation that respects & honors the horse's opinion, is one that will evolve into "respect".

Respect doesn't develop out of fear, respect develops from trust and admiration. Fear simply produces more of the same: fear. And generally, when there is fear, there is also tension & anxiety. After all, who wants to be partners with the local bully?

When we insist, (decreeing ourselves to be the leader rather than earning that position), we assume the horse is ready physically and/or emotionally for . A true partner will follow the horse's lead, letting the horse dictate when he's ready for the next step in the training progression. After all, it's his body, his mind, and who would know better than him if he's ready to carry a human on his back, jump that 3-foot fence or spin on a dime?

In my world, that makes me the follower, not the leader. I can request, but the horse must decide how he answers that request. I can't make that decision for him. If I do, I'm just asking for tension and angst. And even if it's not obvious to the casual observer, the tension and angst will bubble to the surface, it's just a matter of time.

How many times have I heard some say "he did it just fine last week, he just doesn't WANT to ".

Some days I get up in the morning with a sore back or an aching joint and doing certain tasks could cause physical damange if I did them anyway. Nothing in life is static, neither our physical or emotional states, nor those of our horses. Some days I don't want to either. But it's normally not without a reason. Can't the horse have one of those days too?

Ah, I can hear you thinking "but if I wake up in the morning and don't feel like going to work, school... (again, fill in the blank), I DO IT ANYWAY". That idea implies if humans push themselves to do things they are not physically or mentally comfortable doing, the horse should live by the same rules. Only horses aren't humans, and human rules don't apply. Force a horse to live by human rules and the human is asking for a wreck, because at some point, the horse will feel over faced, and try to avoid his discomfort and the task. According to Horse Rules, when your uncomfortable, FLEE! And generally fleeing doesn't include behaving in a way humans typically covet.

It also implies that the human is the authority on the physical, mental, and emotional boundaries & limitations of the horse. Tell that to the race horses that break down on the track each year, they don't run for their own health, but at the direction & discretion of a human.

Another common opinion is that if a person "lets a horse get away with " then the horse will always try to "get away with" not doing that task when asked in the future.

OK... being a realist here, that's dipping one's toe in the paranoid pond, isn't it? Horses just aren't really that conniving. Humans are conniving, horses are much more black and white in their thought process, they do what they are comfortable doing, they do what they enjoy, they do what comes naturally to them, they generally try to do as they are asked, IF they understand what that is, but they often don't understand. And lack of understanding isn't due to their poor communication skills, but rather the humans lack of skill conveying what they want. Horses speak "horse" just fine. If we want them to understand us, we have to present our concepts in a way that is clear to them.

So, back to the idea of leader vs follower: If I am a good follower, I suggest "can we try this?" He answers yes or no, if he answers no, he's telling me I need to back up a step or three to something less demanding. If he answers yes, he's leading me forward to the next step. If in the "next step", he tells me he's not ready after all, he's leading me to either break things down into more fundamental steps or he's telling me that he was mistaken and wasn't ready to move on after all and we need to go back to a prior step. Again, he's leading me, I'm not leading him.

In my world, this is a dance, based on communication. The bottom line is: How can we demand respect from our horse when we don't respect his opinions and concerns? A good leader needs to be able to listen, swap roles and become the follower when needed. Life is about balance. Training animals is about balance as well. Pushing an animal too far out of it's comfort zone is an accident waiting to happen. AND it's never really necessary, after all, if a whale can be taught to jump into the air and perform flips for an audience without being forced, why can't we apply the same training concepts to our horses? Of course we can...

If we face resistance in our horses, we need to look at the root cause. Where did we fail to communicate clearly? Where in our partnership together did we stop listening effectively or responding appropriately to the horse's hesitation?

Preceptions of pressure

I was watching someone try to load a horse the other day and I commented that the mare didn't like the pressure they were applying. The person responded with a confused expression and responded that she didn't feel they were applying much pressure. As if her perception was more inportant than the horse's view on the topic.

This brought me to speculate, how could their be such a different interpretation of "pressure"?

Webster's says:
Pressure
1 a: the burden of physical or mental distress
2: the application of force to something by something else in direct contact with it

So, back to this horse, they had run a lunge line behind her to try to push her into the trailer, which looked to me like force "by something in direct contact" with her (definition #2) and as the mare reared to spin away from the trailer, it seemed clear to me that was an example of "mental distress" (definition #1).

This all ended with the mare not getting into the trailer and with multiple lacerations on her face from her nylon halter and possibly anything she hit on the way down as she reared and flip over backwards when she was lashed to the inside of the trailer.

I'm at a loss as to why humans have a different idea of "pressure" for themselves and their horses. If a human was forced into a room (or a box) with ropes, I have no doubt that they would feel they were "pressured". If they were pushed to the extent that they were fighting against restraints, I have no doubt this would be perceived as "pressure" as well. I think the very thought of rope restraints would give all but the most kinky of us humans some level of "mental distress". (-;

Horses can feel a fly on their coat, so surely it's not appropriate to assume they are insensitive to the point of requiring more pressure than we humans feel comfortable experiencing.

Is the human perception that force isn't significant pressure because horses are so large in comparision to our own physical size? Whale trainers know they can't pressure a whale into performing, and they are certainly larger than a horse, so size alone can't logically be the reason. Or is it because whales won't tolerate pressure and horses will? Horses will forgive us if we pressure them and whales just leave and ignore humans that try to apply force. Or worse, and hurt the trainer.

If the reason is because horses tolerate us, then it's a horse's good nature that allows humans to behave in a way that is potentially harmful to the horse. If the horse was a human child, forced, drugged, and finally pushed to the panic point of hurting herself in her struggle to get free, the local Children's Protection Agency would have stepped in and taken control. But it was only a horse.

At the rist of being labeld a tree hugger (which I probably really AM) I think we should all look at what force is truely necessary and consider how we can become more compasionate in our interaction with the animals that share our planet. After all, just because horses tolerate force, pressure and abuse, doesn't make it right.

On Being in a Hurry

The other day I was loading a new pony into my trailer and of course, I was in a hurry, and had been told he loads fine... but he wasn't jumping on like I hoped. I could feel my anxiety going up a bit, I hate being late and here I was with this pony, acting quite stubborn and we had someplace to be!

To make a long story short, I did get him loaded but his contentment to stand in the hot sun rather than get on that trailer gave me some food for thought....

How many times have I heard people talk about how stubborn their horse can be when they are in a hurry? Suffice to say, I've heard that often, and why would that be?

Horses are certainly intuitive enough to know that we want them to hurry up. And I can see why humans would see resistance to that idea as being "stubborn". But is it really?

From the horse's point of view, they "hurry up" if it's not safe to stay where they are. Being flight animals, that's the best reason for moving fast. The second best reason may be play time, but when we're talking loading in a trailer or crossing a creek on a trail ride, play is not part of this conversation.

Seems to me that they horse is justified in thinking if the message we project is "hurry up" then the message they get is "something is amiss, it's not safe!". The question left for the horse to answer is: "What is not safe and how do I get to safety?"

"OH!" Thinks the horse, "You want me to walk inside that little box, but you told me it's not safe!" OR, "You want me to cross that creek, but you TOLD me it's not safe!"

Logically, I think if the horse trusted the human, at that moment, it would just do as asked. And maybe it would, but life isn't all black and white, there are shades of grey.

Even if the horse trusts the human in most cases, once we have tapped into that part of the horse brain that says "it's not safe", then we're fighting a battle we can't win because WE are telling the horse it's not safe. WE are offering the contradiction to them, and they have to figure out what to do about it, because we are sending mixed messages.

The contradiction is:

• The horse trusts me to give him good guidance and take care of him
• I'm telling him it's not safe because I'm telling him to hurry
• Where is safe? It's at home, but you want me to leave home?
• I'm getting upset, I increase the pressure and now he KNOWS it's not safe, I've just confirmed his resolve to put safety as his top priority.

So, in fact, by not loading or crossing the bridge, creek, or ravine, the horse IS following our lead. The problem is, what we projected to him isn't what we meant to project, and the message we gave isn't the directive we THINK he should be following.

Clear communication is the biggest conundrum in our relationship with animals. Did they understand the message we thought we projected? Or are they acting on the message we actually sent? (-;

Sometimes A Cigar Is Just A Cigar

Some of you may remember that at the end of 2007 I took on a rescue Curly gelding that was headed to an auction (and from there, you can only imagine). He had issues about most things, (from loading in a trailer, handling his feet, taking a bit in his mouth, most interaction with humans). I sorted this out with a combination of clicker training, effectively directed energy and clarification about boundaries and my space (vs his space).

The short version is that he was one unhappy guy, but basically a nice horse underneath all of his bluff and bluster. I’ve been accused of anthropomorphism in the past and I’m happy to say that doesn’t bother me in the least, because I believe that animals have a much greater capacity for emotion than most humans credit them. They may not express it in a way that’s obvious to us, but I don’t believe humans have cornered the market on feeling.

Back to Cal: I always learn from every horse and the bigger the challenge, the more I learn. One of the things that I got out of this experience was an awareness of an aspect of the inner workings of the human mind.

Once I felt he was ready to be rehomed, I took a series of videos of Cal: Cal being tacked up; Cal under saddle; Cal seeing a giant umbrella for the first time; & Cal walking over and wearing a tarp). One of the more valuable lessons I learned from the videos is that in MY MIND he still made aggressive overtures and my memory held visions of him at his worst. I had to see the videos to realize how far he had really come. When working with him I would see a flash of ears back out of the corner of my eye and my mind would fill in with the worst behavior I remembered. Not so… the flashes of ears back were few and far between, and only a couple in all the videos I did of him. Once again, I proved that my own sensors don’t always give an accurate read.

There is a name for this phenomenon: Fundamental Attribution Error. When humans interpret the behavior of others, we often make a particularly human mistake. We tend to attribute too much to character and disposition and too little to situation and context.

So, how does this fit into a training blog? Simple. How many times have we all heard remarks such as “My puppy chewed the leg of the couch out of SPITE!”. Or “My dog peed on the floor to get back at me for leaving him home alone! “ Or “My horse won’t stand still when I mount when we’re away from home, just to make me look foolish.” Or “My horse won’t load in the trailer at the end of a show day just to make me crazy!”

In fact, in many cases, the animal does what it does without any personal affront intended. The puppy is bored, and there was that nice couch leg tempting him to see if it was tasty. The dog pees on the floor because… well, it has to pee and no one is there to let it outside. The horse won’t stand still for mounting away from home because it’s nervous or anxious or just needs more training or help relaxing (or both). The horse won’t load because he’s tired and just doesn’t want to exert the energy to maintain his balance in that long trailer ride home. None of these are personal afronts, but humans often take things personally, seeing what we want to see or seeing what we normally see instead of the reality of what is actually happening.

Back to Cal’s story… During Cal’s rehab, I did struggle with feeling his ugly faces and aggressive posturing were personal. After all, I had never done anything to inspire all that, had I? Lesson One for me: I had to see him for what he was, which was a product of his past, he was conditioned to react to humans by keeping them at a distance with his expressions and posturing. It had nothing to do with me personally.

Lesson Two (for me): Considering Cal’s past and defenses, I expected to see a “glass half empty” attitude, so that’s what I saw. Once he began to profit from our rehab work and show a more “glass half full” attitude, I had to not only see how he was changing but also stop focusing so much on the flickers of negativity and see the big picture of how he was blossoming into a new horse.

This came to light when I was watching videos I had created for a potential new home for Cal. I had wanted anyone that might be interested in sharing their life with him to get the full picture, so I created a series of long dull, uncut videos that would show the extent of his ugly faces and how the expressions would come and go. In reality, when I watched the videos, there were only a few flickers of attitude and long stretches of engaged, cheerful, cooperative Cal. Yet during the actual making of the videos, my mind focused on the few moments of attitude and basically not the prolonged periods of pleasant interaction.

The bottom line is that I saw what I expected to see, which was attitude and it felt much more frequent than it really was. My expectations didn’t allow me to notice how infrequently the “attitude” surfaced. I saw what I expected to see.

Sometimes it’s hard not to see what we expect to see, whether that means seeing something better than it is or worse than it is. Reality can be a hard pill to swallow at times, and at other times, it’s a welcome bit of good news!

I did rehome Cal and I’m happy to say that not only did I learn a lot about rehabbing difficult cases from him, he learned a lot about giving humans another chance from me.

The best news is that Cal is not only in a great home but here’s an excerpt the latest email I got from his new human:

“Cal is simply wonderful. You were right when you saw something under all that bluster. He's still funny old Cal with those ears but he's SO willing and he SO wants to do the right thing. In fact, the only mistakes being made in this relationship are mine. I absolutely love him to bits!!!
I've learned to be much much lighter with my hands and ride with a loose rein most of the time. He's a lot of fun to ride. Last week it even warmed up enough for us to leave the arena and ride up the road and through the trainer's bush and fields - the snow was up to their bellies and Cal just plowed through it. Such a good boy! Have I mentioned that I love him?”

I’m not sure it gets much better than that. Life is a series of lessons and teachers that join us on our path to wherever we are headed. I feel fortunate that Cal and I could share what we had to teach each other during our time together and most of all, that he’s finally found a home where he is loved and happy!

May all horses in need be so lucky!

Asking the right questions…

Across the internet I see horse trainers that have hung out their personal shingle with the answers to your “horse problems”. Some are selling books, some have DVD sets, videos, special halters, lead ropes in various lengths, tie rings, special harnesses, bridles, bits, saddles, bareback pads, sticks, wands and whips, and some market training packages containing "all" you need to answer your questions and solve your problems. It’s all about what you might add to your tack box of solutions. We are a culture of people looking for quick fixes and instant answers. Answers… that’s what we search for. Would a different saddle fix the problem? A new bit? Or maybe NO bit?

Some of these trainers have developed an almost cultish following, and some have created a marketing machine that has literally swept North America (possibly the world!) with its ability to tap into what horse people seem to want most often, and offer it for sale. What is it that horse people seem to want the most? Pure and simple, it is a formula to solve problems, a rote pattern to follow in order to find that illusive bit of indefinable attitude that we seem to have labeled “respect. In short, these marketing geniuses are selling Respect-In-A-Box that can be delivered to your door or mailbox.

“Respect” has taken on an almost mystical meaning. Like some unattainable, un-measurable aspect of our relationship with our animals. It’s what always seems to be missing when horse does something that displeases a human. What’s wrong with that horse? It doesn’t have enough RESPECT. But what is that really? Do we want the horse to just stay out of our space? Do what we ask? And what does “do what we ask” really mean? Comply without question? Not express any opinions? Never resist or evade?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being critical of those that market their goods and services. What I’m suggesting is that before looking for an answer, perhaps the move valuable place to start is by asking the right questions.

Animals have been depersonalized by science and by the food industry. Unfortunately, that depersonalization seems to have carried over into other aspects of our lives with animals. At the risk of being accused of relentless sentimentality, I’ll say that animals have personalities, feelings, emotions, preferences, and reasons for doing what they do. Of course, many scientists argue that animals don’t live in a world complete with emotions, but they have also been unable to prove that animals are devoid of emotions. Certainly anyone that has spent any time with horses knows that they form emotional attachments with offspring and also unrelated horses and even other species at times.

At any rate, before buying that next quick fix or subscribing to a trainer with “answers”, I think it would be useful to ask a few questions first.

Culture Clash

If I were to discover that I have a long lost second cousin from a distant land who I was going to have the chance to meet, I would certainly try to find out about my cousin’s culture and what would make him comfortable in my home. I’m not suggesting that if I found out he loves to eat goat’s eyes as a bedtime snack that I would run out looking for a goat’s eye’s supplier and learn how to prepare them, but I wouldn’t disrespect that preference, but I would politely explain it’s not readily available in US grocery stores!

The first question I’m proposing is that we try to understand the other “culture” and what makes the other individual comfortable. I venture to say that being treated roughly is not the answer to what makes a horse comfortable. And what might WE be doing that brings out poor behavior in our horses? Do we use aggressive body language (we are predators, after all) that pushes them away when we want them to come closer? Do we get in front of their movement on the ground forcing them to face us instead of move forward on the lunge or round pen and then wonder why they are being so obstinant?

Who's the Boss?

This brings me back to the age old question of dominance and treating a horse the way other horses would treat him. This is the justification that so many people use and perhaps the polite way of saying they intend to use “punishment” in training horses).

I don’t want a horse to treat ME like I’m a another horse, and seems like we’d be pretty silly to think they can’t tell the difference between a human and another horse OR to assume that they can’t develop the emotional control to refrain from hurting us. That whole idea is ridiculous to me – it comes from humans who think they are “thinking like a horse” while putting limitations on the horse’s ability to comprehend… I don’t believe the answer is to “think like a horse”, but to understand how they learn and try to understand a bit more about their emotional lives. That insight is what will help us communicate with horses more effectively, not assuming the horse has limitations.

The hierarchy in a herd can shift and the hierarchy isn’t consistent across the board. What I mean is that a horse that is #4 in the pecking order in one situation might be #2 or even #1 in a subset of that herd. And certain personalities are challengers, looking for their chance to move up the ranks. It’s not like #1 is always #1 in all cases for the lifetime of the herd, horses can move up and down the ranks. Nothing in the horse world (or dare I say in any “world”) is so static, the nature of life is a non-static environment. Expectation that life is static is bound to result in disappointment. Some horses with more dominant personalities are going to see a dominating (with violence) human as one that horse might defer to *today*. But only the battle was lost, not the war. I don’t want my relationship with my horses to be a *war*. Logically, I don’t want any horse seeing me as a potential higher ranking mare that could be displaced in the ranks with a good opportunistic bite or kick!

Learned Helplessness

Now, if a human is diligent enough with beatings, they can create a creature that adopts an emotional state that psychologists have labeled “Learned Helplessness”. This is a condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to act or behave helpless in a particular situation, even when it has the power to change its unpleasant or even harmful circumstance. Battered women who refuse to leave their husbands are often considered in this state of clinical depression. In a twisted way, I think this is what the cowboys were after that coined the term “breaking” a horse. They wanted to “break” the horse’s ability to fight back and convince the horse it had no choice. Again, this doesn’t fit with my idea of a relationship, but it does come closer to guaranteeing a subservient attitude, if that is what a person values more than creating a partnership with her horse.

Asking Questions

I think much of the answer to most human/horse conflicts is not around what are the answers, but rather, did the human ask the right questions?

So, what are those questions? Beyond understanding the horse, his culture, and his emotional life, I think we need to look at our horses and ask what WE want and need from them. It’s not about if these things are possible, these questions are purely about what drives us as a human to want to have a horse in our lives. It’s not about the horse we may already have, just pure and simple, what do WE want?

Do we want a friend? A partner? A slave? A creature that behaves as consistently as a machine? Or do we enjoy the interaction? The unpredictable nature of horses? Do we want to commune with nature? Do we like the surprise of what they might teach us or of uncovering how they look at the world? Do we want a horse that will make us shine in the show ring? Do we want one that can be competitive in some particular area? And of these things we want from our horse, how are those things prioritized? Is the show ring success more important than all else? Or is the partnership top priority and any show successes just icing on the cake?

Once those questions have been asked, the next set are about if the horse in our lives is capable of offering what we want. If a person really wants a horse so consistent that it behaves like a machine, then few horses really will fit this “role". After all, horses are not machines. Certainly anything inexperienced and young is less likely to meet that expectation. Also any personality with much of an opinion isn’t a good fit.

Why does this matter? Because there isn’t really such a thing as a quick fix in the horse world, there are gimmicks and lots of things to buy, lots of ways to spend money that may or may not help, but no real quick fix. Sometimes we just have to figure out if what we want is reasonable to expect, or if we need to rethink what we want or rethink if the horse we have is able to meet our expectations. We need to understand we can't squish a squre peg into a round hold, nor should we want to. At a minimum, by asking a few questions first, we might know what we’re trying to fix, or if it’s even possible to fix it. After all, odds are the “problem” horse probably doesn’t think he’s the problem, he probably feels the human is the problem. Odds are, I would agree.