Time for another horse training missive. So far we’ve “started” a horse by getting the animal comfortable with people and to build some trust with us as the leader. (Petting and scratching, “step-under”or “untracking activity”, teaching to lead, etc.). We’ve also established guidelines (the animal can’t invade our “bubble” and teaching the animal to focus) and we’ve taken a thoughtful approach on always thinking about how what we are doing affects the animals best posture by “riding the spine” even though we don’t yet have this horse we’re training ready to be ridden. We’ve repeated the above experiences enough that the animal is curious and friendly, enjoys being with us, and likes having us as leaders.
Today’s theme is “pressure and release”. I had a good discussion with a friend several years ago on how pressure is used in training horses. We were trying to think of any training that is done that doesn’t involve pressure of some sort. Almost everything we’ve done so far has involved either physical (Rope behind or a gentle tug to teach to lead) or a combination of physical and mental pressure (step under activity, bending the spine, focus/check-in activity, etc.) in order to get the animal to comply.
Future things we expect to teach our theoretical horse will also involve pressure. Some examples: A slight reduction in contact of the reins and squeeze of the lower legs tells the horse to go from standing still to a walk or to increase speed within a gait or transition to a quicker gait; letting your weight settle deeply into the saddle and slight pull back on the reins to stop, slow or transition down to a slower gait, etc.. Turning, jumping, backing up, etc. all involve the application of pressure in some degree.
My friend and I did come up with a discipline where we ask the horse to apply physical pressure rather than move away from it: Driving, where we ask the horse to lean into the collar with it’s shoulders to pull (or really, to push) the load of whatever the harness is hitched to. Roping, where the horse is trained to keep tension between the animal being roped and the dally around the saddle horn is another discipline where the horses is asked to apply pressure.
There are also times when you want the horse to ignore physical pressure such as when placing a saddle on the back; you want the horse to accept the pressure of the saddle calmly with no physical reaction. Same with equestrian vaulting, where the human athlete is changing positions while the animal is moving we want the horse to calmly accept it.
But most training of a horse involves putting some sort of pressure or combinations of pressures on the animal and asking the animal to respond to the pressure. The natural aids a rider uses are legs, hands (with the reins), and seat (weight) to direct a horse and they are used in combination to direct a horse.
The other half of the theme today is “release”. We want our animal to receive an immediate reward when it responds to what we ask it to do and that reward is usually a release from pressure. So when the horse takes a step when we are teaching it to lead we immediately take the pressure off or when a rider gives a slight squeeze with his/her lower legs to ask a horse to increase speed he/she immediately takes the pressure off once the animal responds.
Our goal with horses is to get the response we want by applying the minimal amount of pressure needed. An example to compare might be in training a dog. We start to teach a puppy to come to us with a verbal call and a slight tug on the leash, followed by the reward of a kind word, pat or a treat when the animal does come. But you don’t always want to have to use a tug on the leash. You want to reach the point where you can have the pup off leash, 30 yards away, give the verbal signal by calling it’s name (along with perhaps some body posture encouragement on your part such as making eye contact and perhaps a slight gesture for it to come with your arm) and the animal comes bounding back to you because it has been conditioned to respond in that manner and also wants to be with you.
So like with the dog, we strive to communicate with the horse in a manner that the animal learns to comfortably and eagerly comply with whatever we ask with as little pressure as needed. With any desired response to a pressure there should alway be a reward for the horse; and that in many cases can be given by the release of the pressure… and the scratch on the withers, and verbal “g-o-o-o-d”, etc..
I tell my students that the correct answer to all horse training questions is “It depends”; meaning, it depends on that horse’s experience and level of training, it depends on that horses particular mood and energy level on that particular day, it depends on what other distractions the animal may be experiencing and how much the rider and horse are in sync with each other, etc..
The goal is to be able to communicate clearly with our equine partners in a way they trust us and are comfortable in our interactions with them while allowing them to have their own personality. Since a horse is a living, breathing, sentient being, we want it to be a partnership with a willing and light response with a simple “ask” rather than purely a physical response. In reality, we’re getting into psychology as we’re exploring the different approaches and perspectives that influence animal behavior and that’s a pretty complex subject! But it makes the training and riding of horses a far more interesting and cooler topic than perhaps teaching someone how to drive a car which is more mechanical: You step on the gas pedal and the vehicle picks up speed, step on the brake and it slows or stops, turn the steering wheel it turns, etc..
Wow, who’d have thought we’d use psychology in riding and training horses? Lots to ponder if we also think about how we communicate and interact with the people in our lives (Employee, boss, worker, teacher, student, parent, child, spouse, etc..).
And if your dog doesn’t come when called… well, now we have another topic in which to muse.
Charlie is a little apprehensive about the bundles of fencing material that recently arrived. What combination of psychological approaches and pressure and reward are we going to use in training him to safely walk by them?
