Beyond behavioural modification

One of the biggest differences in how I approach behavioural issues now is that I never just start trying to “fix” the behaviour. Horses are so much more complex than I was led to believe in the past and my understanding of equine behaviour was extremely flawed.

Studying behavioural science was an uncomfortable personal journey as I came to the realisation that the way I had been training was not ethical and I had just been hassling my horses into compliance and shutting down their attempts to communicate with me.

When I take on a new client now we cover the following areas:

🐴 Discussing the full history in-depth to understand what may be going on, this includes yard moves, living situations, medical history, bodywork, previous training, handling, tack and equipment, forage, feed, hoofcare, musculature, posture and the client’s understanding of behaviour. Listening to people talk freely to me about their horses gives me a really useful insight into where they’re at in their mindset at the moment and helps me support that person appropriately whilst advocating for their horse.

🐴 I then talk about what I see observing the horse in their environment and we discuss my take on their behaviour and what the horse is telling us. These conversations are so important as helping people understand their horse’s behaviour is stress or anxiety rather than dominating or stubborn like they’ve often been told really helps us empathise with the horse rather than feel frustrated. Empowering people to develop an understanding of behaviour and learning theory for themselves helps them make choices that align with their own ethics rather than just being told what to do.

🐴 Many horses are not in a trainable state when I first meet them, by this I mean they are too anxious or stressed to learn without using high-pressure, so my focus is on giving the client the skillset to help their horse down-regulate their nervous system. Management changes are hugely influential here and we will discuss at length how we can improve the horse’s day to day stress-levels.

🐴 I’m always putting pain/discomfort on the table when we’re dealing with behavioural issues, even if we just slip it into a little box to potentially come back to later. I often meet horses who have been cleared by vets and bodyworkers which I personally feel have significant discomfort going on in their bodies and I will then refer onto the relevant professionals who I hope can help. I feel fortunate to have a team of professionals who are extremely skilled and I know are on the same page as me regarding ethics so we can work together to support.

🐴 In terms of training my first priority is cultivating positive emotional states. So many horses have developed negative and stressful associations with people and training. They have often never been given any autonomy or done anything they found to be fun. We are not going to improve those associations by adding more pressure and battling through. We need to teach them that being around people and in training environments can be fun and relaxing. This often looks like using food, playing enrichment games and encouraging their curiosity to counter-condition their feelings around being with people and in a training environment.

🐴 Only after all of this do I then consider starting to “train” and modify behaviour. So there are now 5 detailed steps I go through, instead of just jumping straight to this one and getting into it with a horse.

Its difficult as “just a trainer” as I’m sure many people think you should just stay in your lane. If a vet/bodyworker/saddler has cleared a horse that should be none of my business and I should accept that the other professional has deemed the horse fine and crack on. But I just cannot stay in my lane, I feel like my lane is all of the lanes.

The horse in a training scenario is not a different entity to the horse in every other aspect of their life. If I just stayed in “my lane” then I would’ve let many horses and clients down. I am a professional too and my expertise is in reading behaviour, which covers that horse’s entire lived experience, not just what happens in the training scenario.

I’m planning to start writing a series of “case study” posts to give an insight into what this process can look like and perhaps give some food for thought with your own horses. I don’t really film my clients or do “before and afters" as I find these situations to be sensitive and emotional enough but I will share some stories with permission. 🐴