Obedience is only the beginning and not the end. Many people conflate obedience with willingness. Both are part of training, but they produce very different outcomes for the horse.
My definitions are:
Obedience is a horse doing something because it believes not doing it is a bad idea.
Whereas….
Willingness is a horse doing something because it believes doing it is a good idea.
People see obedience as the aim. They measure their skills as a trainer and the success of their methods by how accurately a horse performs a task. If a horse shows no objection and no resistance, many horse people consider it a happy horse.
However, obedience without willingness is never a happy horse. If we just train for obedience, we are creating a horse that feels emotionally conflicted. It performs because we have taught it there are unhappy consequences if it doesn’t. Training obedience alone does not make for a good partnership.
Willingness should be the aim. With willingness, our idea and the horse’s idea are the same. Two brilliant minds working together to achieve the same result.
Photo: This is from a recent clinic at Bredbo, NSW, Australia. Willingness or obedience? What do you see? Phil and his mare Antiquity
This is from a recent clinic at Bredbo. Willingness or obedience? What do you see? Phil and his mare Antiquity