The horse is a very special animal that gives itself 200% in a collaboration. But how can we ensure that this beautiful spirit of the horse is preserved within the cooperation with humans? Did you know that the idea you have of what training is has a lot of effect on the course of your training? Did you know that you can subconsciously get in the way of the horse in a manner that the connection can never become as optimal as it could be? In other words, what lessons can we learn from horses?
Training a horse via a strict training method.
Often people come to me because they experience problems with their horse. How can I get my horse to quit from going faster than I want? How can I ensure that my horse is no longer scared? My horse bucks if I want to ride away from the stable, what can I do to stop this behavior? They are looking for ways to teach the horse, so the horse understands what is expected and how to behave. We want the horse to fit the picture we have in mind of what a good horse looks like. On the internet we find many horse trainers offering fast solutions for problem behavior. Somehow this creates the image that undesirable behavior is problem behavior that needs to be fixed. And all these ways of thinking have one thing in common, its based on the idea of ‘keeping the horse under control’. A lot of horse training that we see around us is based on systematic methods in which the horse structurally learns to accept something that does not feel quite right to the horse. And for us that actually feels quite normal, because let’s face it, we also have to do things that we don’t really like. That’s just part of life, isn’t it? But what if our culture had taught us to make unpleasant things fun together? To help others deal with negative feelings instead of pushing each other to just do what needs to be done and get over it.
So it may well be that the culture in which you grew up has made you blind and its not easy for you to see what exactly is happening within your relationship with the horse. Even when we train through positive reinforcement, it may be that our focus is primarily on teaching certain actions of the horse and not on how the horse feels about it and neither on whether the horse is ready for what we are teaching. Let me give you an example: imagine a horse that refuses to leave the herd and refuses to walk away from the property for a trailride. Through positive reinforcement you can ask the horse to move forward and this movement is rewarded. You take your time and in about 45 minutes to an hour the horse walks away from his horsefriends, but is still not completely relaxed. If you look at this as a successful training session, it would mean that the fact that the horse is not relaxed is less important than the fact that the horse walks away from the stable. What happened is that you ignored why this horse tries to communicate that it does not want to walk away from the property and you have focused on solving the ‘problem’ behavior.
Training is entering into a relationship.
If you ask me what training means to me, I can answer this question very briefly and clearly. For me training is building a beautiful and strong relationship with a horse that’s based on trust, knowledge, fun and honesty. For me, the fact that a horse listens to me and works with me is nothing more than a welcome by-product of a good relationship. Yes you read that right, the fact that a horse listens to me is just a welcome byproduct and not my goal. My priority is to get to know a horse and make a safe connection where the horse and I trust each other 100% and we both have the space to learn and grow. This means that I exert influence on myself and on the environment but leave the horse free to react as it feels is the best way at that moment. And all the behavior the horse shows is very important information in what is going on for the horse. In the answers that the horse gives, the horse also shows me who I am in this situation from the horse’s point of view. So, I observe not only my horse but also myself. By working this way I learn a lot about myself and that is precisely why horse training can be particularly healing for a person. Horses have made me a better human being.
Tadita Orenda 