I want to talk about the role of using pressure to direct or drive a horse’s movement. In the past, I’ve written a lot about driving versus directing pressure, and it is a major focus of my teaching at every clinic. Today, I want to connect these principles to creating willingness and obedience in our horse.
A few weeks back (October 8, 2026), I wrote a post about training a horse to be obedient and comparing it with training a horse to be willing. But for the sake of clarity, I’ll repeat my definition of obedience and willingness here.
Obedience = a horse choosing to do something because it believes not doing it will lead to discomfort and risk safety. So with obedience, a horse is focused on escaping discomfort.
Willingness = a horse choosing to do something because it believes doing it will lead to comfort and safety. In this case, a horse is focused on comfort.
The difference may seem subtle to you at first, but as you learn to apply the concepts to your horse training, it is as subtle as being stood on by an elephant.
So how does using driving pressure or directing pressure influence our ability to help a horse to be a willing partner or just an obedient servant?
To begin, I want to make sure you understand the difference between driving and directing pressure.
Driving Pressure = when a horse’s movement (response) and its thoughts go in different directions, ie a horse moves away from the pressure.
Directing Pressure = when a horse's movement and its thoughts go in the same direction, ie a horse goes with the pressure.
If you understand these concepts, I hope it is obvious that using directing pressure leads to a willing horse. While using driving pressure creates only an obedient horse.
Watch the video below. It was created a few years ago to discuss driving versus directing pressure. I explain the difference, but I also demonstrate how it affects the horse’s ability to feel okay when asked to do something.
You can’t have a happy, willing horse if you are using pressure that drives. Driving pressure only leads to an obedient horse because a driven horse is a horse that is escaping from pressure and from us (as the source of the pressure).
However, to be clear, driving pressure and obedience are an inevitable stage (and important part) of the early training of a green and inexperienced horse. In the early stages, driving pressure is almost unavoidable when presenting clarity. But please understand that as the horse develops more clarity in the work, driving pressure and obedience must be replaced with directing pressure and willingness for us to have a happy horse and a good relationship with it. There is no excuse for applying driving pressure and being satisfied with obedience when working with an experienced horse that knows its job.