Thursday, March 03, 2011

Your horse is only as brave as you are...

 I'm currently working with a tall, studly, young TB named Epic. Recently I was talking to someone about his future as an eventer, and her reaction was to base his future success on how brave he is. Although true that his success will be based on his ability to not fear the objects he is to jump over, his level of bravery will be directly proportionate to  my level of bravery as his teacher. Horses absolutely vary in the natural amount of fear they contain, but I as the trainer am directly responsible for how my mount will react to this fear. A horse's talent in any sport does not have to be limited by how fearful they are and technically even the most nervous horse could make a good jumper with the right rider. Anyone who claims to have a scared-y cat horse unwilling to cooperate based on fear (or at least one they have been working with for a while) is unintentionally calling themselves one. 

Braveheart was named accordingly, as he naturally
has little fear of most things, even being a walking buffet table. 
 Ultimately, horses by nature are not brave, as they abide by the precautionary principle. Out in the wild, looking fear in the eyes and standing your ground will only get you eaten, and horses have adapted to the horse mentality of 'flee now, still be alive later'. Theories in evolution say that any prehistoric horses that exhibited heroic behavior would have been weeded out fairly quickly at the claws of large predators. 


 Many humans on the other hand, have these odd little traits, such as courage, and pride. We have this inner drive to face the things that frighten us. We first contemplate our chances of survival, and then decide if it is necessary to run and hide. Heck, even when the odds are working against us, often we still go forth, head held high, to take on the world. 

 This inherent difference of thinking can cause some pretty serious miscommunication between you and your horse, particularly when it fearfully darts 10m to the left, and you'd really rather just stay where you were. As much as horses are energy conservers, they'd rather be tired, than become something's next meal. You as the human have the ability to be brave, therefore, be brave. We all know how sensitive our horses are to how we are feeling, and the worst thing you can do is justify your horses fear by also being scared. Just as we decide where our horses go and at which speed, we are also responsible for how they feel.  

 I often see riders who will purposely stay away from certain areas, or even worse, proclaim that their horse will, as it always does, spook 'here now'. It is surprisingly easy to teach a horse to spook at certain spots. As a rider approaches that dreaded corner of the arena for the umpteenth time, their body is already tensing and giving the horse the appropriate signals in preparation for a hell-bent joy-ride bolt to the other side of the ring.

Moving forward with confidence is what you
 ultimately want from your mount. 
 Granted, some horses are more scared-y than others, some have even learned to use spooking as an aversion to work, [and I'm not going to pretend like this isn't really hard for most of us] but the best thing you can do in this situation is just pretend like the scary thing isn't scary/doesn't exist and ignore your horse's reaction to the scary thing.  This is especially true when it is one of those 'invisible tigers' or horse-eating rocks they have sniffed, pawed at, and/or walked past 100 times. It is best to ignore their irrational behaviour and just carry on day dreaming, talking or taking deep breaths. This has an added bonus, because the more relaxed you and your muscles are, the more easily you move with your horse in the event of a 90 degree flail to the right. If that doesn't work and/or it's fairly obvious the spooking/refusing is a learned aversion to work, a consequence is fully warranted in the form of a good, hard "No." or a swat across the ears [note the added benefit of temporarily distracting them from whatever they are concerned about].

 Moral of this story; if humans are instinctively more brave than horses, your horse can only ever be as brave as you are.  So, the next time your horse is being a 1000lbs baby, ask yourself, would I follow myself into the face of adversity? Would I march behind myself into battle? If the answer is no, your horse agrees.

2 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

I really liked your bravery article. I learned from a dressage rider that I really admire that when her mare (whom the woman had trained all the way by herself) would spook at something, the woman would use that object as a mounting block for a week. I know not all objects can be a good mounting block, but I have found this to be a good tactic when it can be applied