WHAT HAS MY HORSE GIVEN UP?
This is a challenging post to write because it challenges many of the things we want to believe and strive towards with our horses. I’m writing this simply to offer another perspective on working with horses, and you are welcome to consider or reject any of the ideas within.
The reason why we have been able to work and exploit horses for our benefit over millennia is that they evolved to be highly trainable and compliant. We don’t ride grizzly bears, and we don’t plough fields with giraffes for good reason.
Horses have simple needs that we must fulfil if we are to get along with them. They need to feel safe, and they are constantly in search of both emotional and physical comfort (often these are the same thing). If we can satisfy these two needs, then getting along with a horse should not be too difficult.
But what does that really entail? How can the time we spend with our horse make a horse feel safer and more comfortable than the time it spends away in our absence?
The adage, “make the right thing easy and the wrong thing less easy,” is sound in principle. However, consider that very few people spend more than an hour a day with their horse. The exception might be people who take their horse on a long-distance trek or pack-horse trip where horse nd human live 24/7 with each other. But most people can only commit to intermittent time. Time with our horses is a pleasurable interruption to the other 23 hours of our day.
That means that while time with our horses is a pleasant break in our normal day, likewise, time with us is a break in our horses’ day. We are not a normal part of their day. We are an interruption to the normal part of their day. The things we do with our horse at that time are not things it would normally choose to do as part of a normal day, where it seeks safety and comfort. Our horse finds safety and comfort in grazing, hanging out with other horses, scratching against a tree trunk, sleeping in the sun, watching two kangaroos arguing over the attentions of a female, wandering to the dam for a drink, rolling in the sand, and snoozing in the shade of a tree.
So how do we make a twenty-metre circle in a sand arena or a 10km trail ride more appealing, feel safer, and more comfortable than grazing in a paddock with a group of its best friends? Is it even possible?
So many people have told me about how much their horse enjoys being worked. Their horse greets them at the gate, works without any gear, follows them everywhere, and appears to enjoy being ridden. We all dream of our horse feeling this way about us and the time they spend with us. But, as I said earlier, we ride horses because they are so compliant and easily trained. We train them to believe that being easy to catch and ride is the safest and most comfortable option available to them. We do this because they are so trainable. But I ask you, what mind game do we play to convince our horse that going to a competition is a safer and more comfortable option than hanging out with its mates and grazing in a paddock? If my horse leaves a flake of hay and follows me to have its feet trimmed, what have I offered that is of more value than the hay?
When training, a horse’s needs are always in conflict with our needs. Changing their thoughts and feelings about that conflict is what the art of training is all about. We eradicate the conflict by changing their idea to be the same as our idea. A horse has an idea because it believes that idea will lead to safety and comfort. When we change that idea, we are telling it that its idea of safety and comfort is wrong. But remember, it is not free will we are offering a horse. We are asking a horse to give up its view of safety and comfort in part by making their idea feel wrong. We are asking a horse to allow us to interrupt its day. We are asking a horse to give up its understanding of safety and comfort and its nature for an hour that day.
So, when you think that your horse loves to work and you have a relationship that only best friends can have, consider if you are an interruption to your horse’s day and what it has given up to make you feel you have a wonderful friendship?
I wonder what has our pony, May given up to come and hangout with me?