3,2,1...FIGHT!

It’s so funny how things work together.

I was discussing the topic of fighting with the horse with a student a few days ago. Her horse was stuffing his head in the air and “daring” her to pull his head down. We were just working in the trot, he was going along fine, and then he started this type of evasion. The horse unfortunately had previous bad “training” in dressage, so he had developed this defense mechanism. When the student came to me a few weeks ago I was also told that he would periodically kick out in the dressage. This really took me aback, as I tried to imagine what would cause a horse to kick out like that! It soon became clear that the horse was very uncomfortable with the “training” methods he was pressured under, which included pulling his head into a frame and using brute force to make him do upper-level movements that he was not physically or mentally able to successfully accomplish.

When the rider would give in and pull his head down, he would, rightfully, be very upset and indignant, hollowing his back, slowing his pace and even pinning his ears. Instead, when she kept her contact steady without moving her hands, put her leg back on, and used her core to ask him to move FORWARD and accept the contact, he did so happily with no fuss. She essentially outsmarted him into going in the correct way.

A couple days later I had a friend and wonderful horsewoman come and help me with a horse that was having trouble trailering. We were discussing training methods, philosophy, the way the horse thinks, etc. She said this quote, “The horse will not fight you unless you give him a reason to fight.” I laughed because I had just had this discussion with that student! It also hit me that sometimes I have an “all or nothing” approach to training that I need to abandon. I feel like I HAVE to produce the correct response from the horse or I lose. While we were discussing this it came to me that I don’t want to WIN or LOSE, and I definitely don’t want my horse to LOSE! I want my horse to feel confident and trust me. How can he do that if he feels like he loses all the time?

I would love to hear your thoughts about this subject. Drop a comment with what you think and let’s talk about it!