There is a common phrase in horse training circles of “make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy”. I’m not 100% sure who coined the phrase and this is also not a comment on their training as I genuinely have no idea of their methods and with the right application it is a very logical training principle. I do want to talk about how this phrase can be taken too literally at the detriment of the horse and their relationship with us.
As with everything we need context, what do we mean by “make the wrong thing hard”? If we mean apply a little pressure to the headcollar or a quiet, visual pressure, then I’m cool with that. If we mean hammer the horse on small circles or hit them with a flag and only let them rest when they do the thing I want, I’m definitely not cool with that. This is my issue with this phrase. I’d much prefer we focus on the “make the right thing easy” part.
Its very easy to get quick results and seemingly amazing behavioural transformations when punishment is used, and making a horse move their feet harshly is punishment, although it is never described as such. But the problem with this sort of training is the effect it has on the horse emotionally and their associations with us. If you drive your horse hard every time he makes a mistake or offers his opinion, how do you think he feels about you? We can frame it as “being a good leader”, but I don’t think a bully makes a good leader for anyone. Its a fast-track to creating a shut down, albeit very obedient, horse. This is not “trust” or “connection” and it certainly isn’t “making it the horse’s idea”.
Amazing things happen when we back off with the pressure and make the questions easier. Once a horse learns that he can make a mistake, or offer his opinion, and instead of being punished he will be met with calm and given time to assess the situation, his stress levels in training will plummet. It can take quite a long time when a horse has been trained with high pressure, but you will often find these “sharp/dominant” horses aren’t sharp or pushy at all once they don’t find training highly stressful.
As always, pain is often a factor for many horses and it wouldn’t be a post from me if I didn’t mention it. Let me give you a scenario based on a video I watched recently. Horse suddenly won’t accept being saddled and is moving around, biting and swinging her quarters into the owner. There was zero mention from the trainer of anything except a training issue despite this horse showing very clear pain signals. He put the horse on a line, approached with the saddle and as soon as she protested he worked her hard on a small circle, he’d then let her stop and approach with the saddle again. Rinse and repeat. Within 20 minutes the horse was standing to be saddled. What did she learn? That humans don’t listen and nothing she does will work so she might as well give up even if she is in pain. But if you don’t care how the horse feels and all you care about is compliance then its a perfect way to train I guess.
This is my issue with so many training methodologies not considering the horse as a sentient being with complex needs and emotions. The first thing I think anyone should be taught is to read behaviour, yet there are countless professionals out there right to the top of the sport who can’t seem to read even simple stress behaviours and are spreading misinformation as fact. The industry just does not prioritise it and we’re still doing the same stuff we were doing 50 years ago as if we haven’t made huge progress in behavioural science research. We know what this stuff means and its right there for anybody to look at.
Instead of training being “if the horse does x you should do y”, I’d prefer the first step to be, if the horse does x lets think about why and go from there. I suppose my phrase would be “make sure the horse is physically and emotionally able to perform the desired behaviour and make it as easy as possible for them to succeed by keeping our asks very small and appropriate” but I guess that doesn’t have such a good ring to it. 😅
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