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.

There are no problem horses, only too many books to read...

 As a self proclaimed office drone, I don't spend nearly as much time at the barn as I would like to, and I know many of my fellow drones feel this way too.  

The problem for many of us who love our ponies is that we have to work our chaps off to keep them. This leads to a cycle of human fatigue - horse neglect - and inevitably some kind of 'misbehavior'. To fix our 'horse problems' we take lessons, join clinics and binge on books and DVDs. If there is any point to this blog, it would be to learn about how to step back, take a deep breath and remember why you're into horses in the first place.  

It's impossible to know it all. Lessons and clinics can lead to major breakthroughs, but are a luxury many of us cannot afford, especially if you want something/someone good. And books; even for someone like me who loves to read, especially when it's about my favorite topic, cannot for the life of me keep on top of every horse book. Time is not the only constraint; books can be expensive, and I often question their credibility. How do you know what you are reading about is even current and applicable to your horse/situation/level? There is no sanctioning body of master horse trainers who approve a book for publishing. If it'll sell and make money, out into the world it goes for readers to take at face value. Some of the 'classics' are great and share some really insightful things, but much of what was a 'training and/or mental state breakthrough' 20 years ago, is common practice now, and much of what was common practice back then, will get the SPCA called on you now.    

[Monty here is actually being defiant as he was the one choosing
to do nothing, but I still took it as an opportunity to regroup
and figure out where I was going wrong in this lunging exercise.]

Books on horse communication and mental state, exercises and games are fantastic tools in horse training, but sometimes you just need to stop playing and constantly communicating. So many of us have loads of 'methods' crammed into our brains from a countless number of books and teachings, many of which are conflicting, as well as overwhelming to horse and rider.  Instead of it being called horse whispering, it should be called horse listening. Your horse will tell you exactly what he/she wants and much of the time, all they really want is to do nothing at all. This is different from being lazy; it's you, actively choosing to do nothing.   

So the next time your  horse is pitching an all out fit, or just doesn't seem to want to cooperate, and your arsenal of training tools from last weeks issue of Horselink Magazine is failing you, just stop and spend some time with your horse, doing nothing at all.