We need to stop ignoring our horses

We are constantly looking for fixes for our horse’s behaviour. And there are plenty of people happy to sell it to you.

How do I get my horse to stand at the mounting block?

How do I get my horse to stop biting when I groom her?

How do I get my horse to stop snatching the reins when I’m riding?

Often the advice given is to make it horrible for the horse to continue this behaviour, although it is usually wrapped up in a nice-sounding narrative about connection and trust or something or other. When we really break it down the training is actually just “hassle the horse until he does what you want, repeat until he stops trying to protest”.

I meet people who are so confused, because they’re trying their best to listen to their horse, but they’re being given conflicting information. They tell me their horse bites when they’re grooming them, but they don’t stop immediately because someone told them they’d be teaching the horse that biting gets them to stop. Biting should get you to stop, that’s a really big communication that the horse is unhappy with what you’re doing.

Every behaviour has an underlying cause, and ignoring that communication is not going to build a trusting relationship. It can build a compliant one where the horse behaves as you desire sure, but the horse is going to view you as someone who doesn’t listen and someone they cannot feel safe around.

If we take our earlier examples, mounting issues are almost always pain/discomfort or anxiety issues, adding pressure until they stand is not going to address any of this. We need to look way deeper.

Horses who bite when you groom them again usually have pain/discomfort issues or really negative associations with being groomed. Punishing that communication by continuing to groom until they quit protesting is not going to address any of that.

Horses who snatch the reins are trying to relieve discomfort. You can imagine how it would feel to snatch on something with metal in your mouth, if your horse is doing this he is not doing it for fun. He is uncomfortable whether that be from fatigue, discomfort or just inappropriate riding and training. If we fight with the horse until he stops resisting, we are again shutting down his communication and teaching him we do not listen. That horse is not going to have positive associations with being ridden.

We need to start looking at things differently if we genuinely want a good relationship with our horses, not one that we feel good about while our horse just puts up with it.

Instead of asking “how?” we need to start asking “why?”🐴