All of us who have had the (mis) fortune to deal with a tricky horse would give our eye teeth for there to be just one thing that solves the problem and makes both of our lives easier. If I could just find the one thing that will flick the switch and change the situation.
Maybe if I could just get the diet right, he wouldn’t be so reactive? Maybe this new calmer will finally be the magic pill that makes life tolerable? Maybe I should check the saddle fit, again. Maybe this pad will make him more comfortable under saddle.
Obviously the first thing is to rule out physical problems. Is it his back, his ulcers, his teeth? Because horses can’t speak, and they show pain in a thousand different ways.
But here too lies a problem. 80% of racehorses in training and 60% of leisure horses show ulcers on endoscopy. However, 80% of racehorses and 60% of leisure horses are not threatened with the knacker’s yard daily for dangerous behaviour. There are numerous studies showing very little correlation between severity of x-ray changes and behavioural changes in horses with kissing spines. I am not advocating ignoring the physical issues in the sensitive horse- they absolutely need addressing- but beware.
Solving the physical issues may not solve the behaviour, it may just rule out that physical issue as the cause of the behaviour.
Then we go looking for trainers. How nice would it be, especially as the middle aged and rapidly ageing amateur, to abrogate our responsibility, to literally hand over the reins and get given back a suitable horse. And then ride our dream horse off into the sunset and live happily ever after.
But this horse isn’t easy for a reason. If we could have the dream that easily with this horse, I promise you, we would already have managed it. Horses want to co-operate. Horses are first sentient. The underlying issue is trust, confidence, self-regulation, not training.
We need to look at training. What are we seeking?
Are you seeking compliance with your commands, no matter what? In which case, employ the trainer who uses flooding and coercion, however light and kind, to get results.
Make sure you watch the trainer in action. If the trainer won’t allow you to come watch them at work, then why on earth would you trust them with your horse? You wouldn’t send your dog away to a kennels you hadn’t checked out. Or let your child to stay with a stranger. Most of us have a level of applied force that we won’t tolerate, and that may differ between individuals. Firm, non-negotiable coercion can appear very kind, but it is still coercion.
You will get back a trained horse who has learned that his opinion is if no value and that he has no choice in life other than to do what the human wants. Which is fine if you intend to keep that vibe going; it works, plenty of people do it and they have happy equestrian careers based on that premise. Where it doesn’t work is if that shutdown horse comes home and you offer them a voice again; then the compliance construct will come tumbling down and the undesirable opinions will surface. And then you can either accept or reject those opinions. Most reject them; it’s often difficult having a non-compliant horse. You then need to send the horse back to the trainer or learn how to be the coercive trainer yourself.
Most of us would say that we seek cooperation with our horses, a partnership based on trust and mutual understanding. That is easy with a low energy horse, or a naturally happy phlegmatic horse. It is not so easy with a high energy horse, anxious that the world is out to get them. They are the horses we call sensitive or tricky. I believe that all horses are sensitive, but there are the horses who wear their nerves on the outside and are difficult and dangerous to handle in high stress situations as a result. They are the individuals who default to flight or fight, not the cohort who freeze.
How do we train these tricky horses? Trainers can still flood them. Some horses will come to grief fighting of fleeing their way out of an overwhelming situation. If they can be kept physically safe until they reach a state of learned helplessness, they might become useable riding horses. Or they might be designated a professional’s ride, never completely reliable but talented enough to make the undesirable behaviour acceptable within the paradigm of their existence.
What if that horse happens to belong to the ageing amateur with limited funds?
You can sell the horse, free yourself from the burden, devolve the responsibility, not care where they go, because they are no longer your problem. There is no shame in that decision, many people before you have chosen this solution. Horses are expensive, they can be dangerous, and they are meant to be fun, our leisure activity, our joy and our release.
What happens if the ageing amateur is too stubborn to give up? Some get hurt, then sell the horse anyway. Or euthanise him, to keep the horse and other dreamers safe in the long run.
But is there another way?
To answer that question, we first must ask ourselves what is it that we seek from our horses? And be very honest about the answer.
I want to ride my horse. I don’t care what level, competitive, non-competitive, hacking, or eventing, but for me to have a full relationship with a horse, I like to ride them. I have a retired horse I no longer ride but there is a decade of ridden history that forms the undercurrent of the relationship between us. That is my choice, my paradigm, my construct. Other people keep horses they have never ridden, that cannot be ridden. I am not sure I could. Especially if the non-ridden horse were to be an athletic 16.3 warmblood that does aerobatics for fun.
I like a bit of compliance. It makes life easy. I have a saintly Irish sport horse. He is easy to take anywhere, do anything, to simply enjoy life with. Does he enjoy his life? I do hope so. I do my best to make sure my horses have the best horse life I can offer them within our logistical limitations. Apparently, the half draught did miss me when I was away in Mongolia. He looked for me bless him. And audibly breathed out a long sigh of relief when I got back.
What I really seek in my relationship with my horses is joyful cooperation. That’s every pony girl’s dream, right, a melding of souls and spirit.
I don’t want simple compliance, especially if the compliance has been trained with coercion.
I want a partnership with my horses. I want them to have a say in our relationship. However the fundamental principle of offering our horses a voice is that we must listen to all the answers, not just the answers we like. We must validate the no as well as the yes, or the voice and the yes will have no value.
When we hear and validate the no, does that have to be the end of the conversation? I believe not. It might be, if we are splatted on the floor!
Can we moderate the situation? Can we lower the demand, metal or physical, to get nearer threshold? If we are working at a level near threshold, then the horse might be able to calm himself enough to stay below threshold and investigate, employing curiosity for learning. Can we explain? Using aids and signals we have in place already to help the horse to achieve a new task.
Can we compromise our training principles for a day because we need to get something done that has long term benefits? The compromising for a need of the day nearly always backfires, in my experience. That lesson will still need learning. So only compromise for emergencies. Or if you like doing the work over and over again (rueful grin here- don’t be like me).
The flip side of joyful cooperation is that we must accept there will be days of no joy, and moments of non- cooperation. And we as owners and trainers must find a construct that allows that to be true. We had an in joke when I was on the panel designing the course Excellence In Surgical Supervision; “it is all about the relationship”.
There is never just one thing, no magic bullet, no simple solution. Just trust, in love, in ourselves, in sound basics, in the truth offered by the horse.
