When its all going wrong: Have you ever wondered why your horse always does what you ask him?

Did you realise that is was you that asked him to stay standing on you toe?

Did you realise that you asked him to skip to the right as you approached the fence?

When something like this happens with a horse, try going back and reviewing what you actually told him. You’ll usually find the answer there.

The problem is that we often don’t have the knowledge or the skills to ask for what we want. We ask for something which the horse interprets as Behaviour A. We thought we were asking for Behaviour B. We keep on asking for B which the horse interprets as a request for Behaviour A. It keeps escalating. The horse is “bad.” Actually, the horse is trying to comply, but rather than his not listening to us, we’re not listening to him.

“My horse won’t do what I want—here comes the fatal saying—so …HE IS BEING BAD.”

As soon as I add that cop out conclusion that the reason my horse won’t do what I want is “because he is being bad,” I give myself “permission” to punish him for that “bad” behavior, and the downward spiral into a fight has begun.

“BAD” is a value laden word, which implies malign motive on the part of the horse. Even though we know that a horse is reactive we still insist that he is proactively challenging us. A good trainer almost never says or thinks, “My horse is being bad.” She may well say, “My horse won’t do what I want.” That’s a frequent fact. But then the GOOD trainer will start hunting for the REAL reason.

She might say, “My horse won’t do what I want BECAUSE…” one or several of these:

1. He doesn’t understand the aids I just applied.
2. He’s not calm enough yet in his work to handle this request.
3. My warm up was too short—he’s still “high”.
4. I`m asking him the wrong way, as in, I don’t know how to ask this question.
5. The horse isn’t physically strong enough yet to comply with what I asked.
6. Something hurts him, saddle fit, bit, hocks, stifles, back, something is making him uncomfortable.
7. The atmosphere here is too electric for him to handle.
8. Oops, I am in a bad mood, and I asked too roughly.
9. I as a rider am not yet physically elastic and quiet enough in my riding to not upset him.
10. …….or one of the other 101 other real reasons.

 

Don’t be demoralized, we all need help from the ground, talk to your trainer or find someone who can help you change your approach.