SOLVING YOUR HORSES PROBLEM BEHAVIOUR

MY TOP 3 REASONS WHY YOUR SOLUTION TO SOLVING YOUR HORSES PROBLEM BEHAVIOUR IS NOT WORKING

So you found a potential solution to your horse’s problem behaviour. You have read the testimonial after testimonial of how a particular approach as transformed horses. You have subscribed, joined up and started to invest the time in following the approach. You may have got a bit of improvement…but it was short lived, stalled, gone backwards or you seem to be stuck in ground work and while the horse is good on the ground you still have problems under saddle.

So what has gone wrong?

Here is my top 3 reasons why:

1. YOU ARE NOT CLEAR OR MOTIVATING: When we work with horses we are communicating to them by how we behave, move and apply pressure to them. If you are not consistent in how you behave, move and apply pressure you will make little sense to your horse and worse still they will give up on trying to work you out. Even if you are consistent, you may not be motivating. When a horse identifies you are communicating to it to do something it will consider the consequence of doing what you are asking it to do and also the consequence if it doesn’t. If there is little consequence for not doing it and what you are asking it to do requires effort on its part or something that makes its feel uncomfortable (anything from move away from its friends to having to hang out with you and you are just confusing!)…then the horse may not put in much effort or chose to ignore you or worse get agitated and emotional at the request! Solution - get some hands on help...I have found it is mostly the smallest tweaks I have to make to people that completely change everything for them and their horse!

2. PHYSICAL DISCOMFORT: If you are clear and motivating you have set the horse up to adopt behaviour change. If the behaviour change is not occurring or inconsistent then there is a glitch in the horses ability to perceive the “release of pressure” so learning can take place. This can be caused from the horse experiencing pain in some way. Pain conditions can fluctuate for example – if it is a hoof issue, it might depend on the surface; soundness issues might only appear or be an issue in a certain gait; it could depend the equipment being used or even what the horse has consumed or time of day….but pain can fluctuate for many reasons depending on the cause of discomfort. Therefore, always consider pain and discomfort.

3. THE PROGRAM YOU ARE FOLLOWING IS FAULTY: There is a hell of a lot of what I call “fluffy” horse training out there. I have seen people who sell horse behaviour solutions by advising people to ONLY open their heart chakras, get mindful, focus on their breathing, channel Zen mediate in paddocks or change their mindset and think positive! Now before I get a lot of hate messages there is nothing wrong with ANY of these things….they are ALL cool and all relevant! BUT you can have positive thoughts, a growth mindset, regular breathing and open heart chakras BUT if you are not clear with your body and pressure none of these things will work effectively! This is because first and foremost your horse is going to be observing YOUR behaviour, how you move and how you apply pressure and HOW they PERCEIVE that is the BIGGEST part of the behaviour equation and if you are not doing that in a way that the horse can CLEARLY understand you can open your heart chakra, breath and channel your Zen all you like but the horse is going to struggle with you and you are right back at my first point in this list – being UNCLEAR! Learning to train and work with a horse well is very similar to learning a martial art and the martial arts has great depth that delve deep into really deep philosophical or spiritual stuff BUT they never ever start there. The art is built up, developing a person’s coordination, physical condition, physical and mental discipline and awareness of many many things before a person is ready to be able to understand and utilise these deeper aspects of the art. Working with horses is no different, we need to appreciate them as a species and how they learn from their interactions with us and how this must be in order to progress deeper into the relationship. As Mark Rashid puts it – harmony never comes from chaos, harmony comes from order. Think of it this way, if you want to go overseas to a foreign country and form a good relationship with a person where you teach them to do a job and you both work together well – it makes sense that you learn how to speak their language and about their culture! Going over with positive thoughts and an open heart chakra is cool but it is just not the most effective or efficient way of kicking off the relationship because you cannot explain things clearly and might accidently do something that really upsets them because of your ignorance of who they are, what they believe and how they do things! Therefore, be careful not to get sucked down a rabbit hole into a program or person that doesn’t get you to appreciate the basics of “communication” and “culture” of the horse as a priority and can teach you to do this. Alternatively, realise that you might need to develop your positive thoughts but you will need to find another program to help with the communication side of your horse’s behaviour.

Bottom line is – LISTEN to your horse. Horses are very honest creatures and if you have not helped them feel better about working with you they let you know! If you have been doing ground work for months and months and you have not been able to progress YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH YOUR APPROACH. Drilling ground work for months and months or years and years is NOT the answer and please do not think this is ever ok or you just have to be more patient etc! If your horse is not progressing there is a bigger problem at play and it resides in your ability to be clear and motivating, or the horses discomfort or you have gone down a rabbit hole that is not a complete package you need for helping with the problem or is just taking you to martial arts Zen master level without first letting you get your white belt!