What are you telling your horse? I mean,
when you interact with your horse on a daily
or weekly basis, what are you teaching him?
Have you thought out what signals you might
be sending your horse?
I have a question for you. Let’s say that
you were working with a young horse teaching
it to pick up his feet. Let us say that your
horse lets you pick up his foot and hold it
for a couple of seconds. After you release
his foot, what would you do? Well, I would
guess that you would pet him and tell him
that he was a good boy, right? That is what
I would do, and it is what I see other
people doing. We praise and reward our
horses for good behavior or when they give
us the correct response. This is a good
thing.
Here is another question: Perhaps you are
riding a younger horse, say, 2 or 3 years
old, and you come across something scary,
whether it is a car or just something that
your horse sees. Your horse might ignore it,
but if he is fairly young, it is likely that
it will startle him and scare him. He might
jump a little, back up a step or two, or
just freeze and get ready to run. Now, what
would your response be? For many of us, we
would probably pet our horse and tell him
“eeeasy” or “it’s okay, boy” in a soothing
voice, and try to calm him down. Well,
essentially, you are rewarding him. You are
rewarding him for doing a bad thing:
spooking or acting nervous. This is a bad
thing.
I mean, think about it. When you praise your
horse, you pet him and talk to him in a
nice, soft voice; when you are calming him
down while he spooks, you pet him and talk
to him in a soft voice. To your horse, you
have rewarded him for doing bad behavior;
you are rewarding him for spooking. Most of
us do not want spooky horses. So, if petting
your horse and talking to him when he is
scared is not the right response, then what
is?
Of course, different trainers say different
things all the time. One trainer says do
this to calm your horse down, another says
something completely different. I will never
say that one trainer is wrong. What I will
tell you is how I train, how I give my
horses the foundation they need. I teach my
horses “whoa.” I start at the beginning on a
lunge line and teach them that when I say
“whoa,” they must “freeze” and not move
until I tell them to. If they stand still,
then I reward them by petting them and
talking to them. That is the time to soothe
them, not when they are jumpy.
Training horses can be tricky sometimes. We
must give them all the right signals at the
right times for them to really be well
trained. This doesn’t come naturally to most
people. It takes much patience and not a
little knowledge of how the horse might
think. It takes thought and understanding to
grasp what you are communicating to your
horse. Please try to learn just what you are
saying to your horse.
