DON'T BLAME THE HORSE!

A horse is a horse, very intelligent, but he is still a horse. And horses are hierarchical—that is, the way the herd is structured means that there is always a leader, and the lower-ranked horses expect that leader to lead. As a rider, you are the leader in your herd of two, and your horse will normally expect you to be the one to make decisions and give instructions.

You are the leader. If the horse lets you put gear on him and sit on him, he accepts you as leader and will do as you ask. A problem often arises when the rider, who has already been acknowledged as leader, then feels he has to show the horse who is boss, or ensure that he doesn’t get away with anything, or try harder—the poor horse has no idea why he is being subjected to this aggressive behaviour and mixed messages from his rider, and is unsure of what is expected of him.

You are responsible—you cannot abrogate that by making excuses for the horse (a form of blame). The solution is always with the rider, never the horse. If the horse is not learning fast enough, it is the rider’s fault. The horse gets it, it’s the rider who doesn’t. The horse only does what the rider tells him to do.
Whenever there is a problem or resistance, first you should check him for pain, fear, lack of strength or psychological damage. After eliminating these, the only option left is the rider. The horse is never responsible for his own performance, it is the responsibility of the rider to create and then improve performance.

THEY ARE NOT LIKE US

Horses don’t get bored like us, they switch off. So the competemt rider should be able to maintain and regain the horse’s attention. They don’t have moods, they react to various external influences, so the rider needs to train the horse not to react. If a horse is bad-mannered it’s not because he’s a thug, but because he hasn’t been taught respect—a lesson that takes only a few minutes.

They don’t dislike dressage, or jumping, they just respond to what the rider is making them do. So the rider should ensure that the activity is enjoyable and interesting for the horse.

If schooling a horse is done intelligently, the horse will love it! Physically he will feel energised after a good session, with adrenaline and endorphins rushing around his body. Mentally he will know, from rewards and affection, that he has achieved things, and he will feel proud of himself.

Often riders will externalise their own fears or insecurities on to their horse, not realising or not willing to admit that it is them, not the horse, who is creating the obstacle to further progress. These fears and insecurities may well be very real, and a way around them has to be found, but blaming the horse is a denial of reality. Often this is expressed as “The horse wasn’t ready”, or “the horse needs a rest”.

HORSES RESPOND TO SIGNALS

We should not try and teach the horse to do movements — it is much more effective to teach the horse to respond to our aids. If our aids are correct, the horse will have no choice but to do what we want (all other things being equal). If the horse isn’t doing it right, then the rider is faulty in his request.

We teach the horse our aids for walk, trot, canter, halt, bend and yield. Everything we do with our horse is based on these key signals. Many years ago, Heath Ryan told me that riding dressage was just a matter of knowing which buttons to push, something that I’ve found to be true many times since.

The ridden horse shouldn’t be expected, for example, to learn a shoulder-in. He should respond to the rider’s aids for shoulder-in. Any horse will do shoulder-in if the rider uses the correct aids—the horse doesn’t have to be taught how to do it. We can teach an unmounted horse to do a shoulder-in, and it only takes about two minutes. It’s only when the rider gets involved that things may go wrong, or the quality of the movement is increased — whether the shoulder-in gets better or worse depends on the skill of the rider.
Similarly, the horse doesn’t need to learn how to perform a 20m circle — the rider needs to know how to ride a 20m circle, the horse just does what he is told. And the precision and timing of each movement — the size of the circle, or the angle of the shoulder-in — can only be determined by the rider. He can never blame the horse for being careless, for being early or late in a transition, going too fast or too slow, etc.

Similarly, the rider is the one responsible for setting and maintaining the rhythm that horse is to adopt.

CONTROL AND COMPLIANCY

When the horse gives the rider his attention, an experienced rider will able to have him perform almost any movement. How well or for how long is another question, but the point is that it is the good rider who controls the horse, and the poor rider who blames the horse.

If the rider is experienced and correct, the horse will do the right things. If the horse knows and the rider doesn’t know, the horse will not do the right things: he may do the movement, but perhaps not in the right place, or at the right time, or with the required precision. The important variable is the rider, and his ability to give the proper aids, clearly, precisely and consistently. This demands great discipline and self-control, to ensure that he must not be tense, unbalanced, or interfering with the horse in any way. It requires the rider to be aware of his own position and actions, and to be honest with himself about what he is doing or has done.

We are just beginning to discover that horses are able to learn much more than we ever thought possible. The horse is capable of understanding a great many voice commands, whip cues and body language. It is possible to teach a horse by voice command to do most dressage movements; to put his head in the right position; to increase or decrease his speed; to stop, go forward, sideways or backward. He can learn all these things and more, very quickly and easily. The only obstacle to faster progress is the slow learning rate of the rider.

Dr James Rooney says that the horse gives his brain to us when we ride—this is what we should aim for, an utterly compliant horse. If you have his brain, he won’t refuse, be defiant, choose to do something else or offer opinions. We need him to listen, pay attention, focus on us, but we don’t need him to think, because that’s our job. He relies on us to make the decisions, give the signals and the feedback. Compliancy doesn’t mean apathy, it means without resistances, being ‘through’.

Because you are the leader, you must accept the responsibility for thinking and accept that the horse’s role is to respond to your directives. You can make him brilliant or ordinary if you have control. Having control isn’t about being aggressive or strong—it means that you and your horse have such an exquisite understanding that you can work together in a partnership that is harmonious, with you as the leader.

QUICK FIXES ARE GOOD

If a problem isn’t being resolved quickly, then there is probably something inappropriate in the solution. The rider should always first check that his own actions have been correct, then consider other possible solutions. If he continues along the same unproductive path for more than three repetitions, he is establishing a habit in the horse (who learns very fast).

Once they get it, they remember it. Consider how horses learn from other horses—one kick or bite from the dominant horse is usually sufficient, and thereafter the mere movement of an ear or tail is all that is required for the subordinate one to understand.

One reason people have so much trouble is because we don’t know that he gets it. So we try harder. The horse gets confused because he has no idea why we are getting tense and more dramatic. Then he gets blamed for what is actually the rider’s lack of perception and/or skill.

As long as the rider puts the responsibility for learning on to the horse, progress will be limited because the rider won’t be thinking of the other options, he will only be thinking that he must be more determined, practise more, get stronger, etc. He doesn’t realise that the reason the horse didn’t completely get it is because the rider didn’t take full responsibility.

It’s not the horse who is gradually comprehending, it’s the rider who is stopping him from comprehending faster — you’re slowing him down!

EFFECTIVE TRAINING

Always chunk lessons down into the smallest possible components, and teach each component one at a time. The horse then gets rewarded whenever he does the right thing. The behavioural psychologist B.F. Skinner showed that when an animal has done the thing correctly three times, that thing has been learned.

Once you accept this responsibility you have control. You are the one who can analyse the problem, research solutions, visualise correctness—there are many tools available to you. Until you are accountable, you have little control and therefore will make little progress.

The horse will only ever be as good as the rider, so don’t congratulate him for finally getting it—it’s you who is getting it. Accept the responsibility of being a leader, you owe it to your horse who trusts you. It is dishonest and weak to push that responsibility on to him. And if you lose that trust by being inconsistent or incomprehensible, it will take a long time to regain it. When trust is gone, the horse will have to think for himself, and your role of leader will then be invalidated.

If a problem arises while riding, the best thing to do is usually to try softer, to do less. We human beings can get so engrossed with details and complications we create more difficulties while trying to solve a relatively elementary original problem. Often the solution is to simplify, to interfere less, to be quiet with our hands, body, legs. It is important to be aware of the possibility that using a bizarre solution could probably create major problems at some later, more advanced stage.

It’s not usually correct to say (even lightly) that something isn’t working because of some inadequacy of the horse. The horse is the way he is because of us. If his response is not what we want, we have to examine our actions, and modify them until we are understood. We can’t effectively change anything unless we first face the truth.

Horses react to what is happening to them now. At any moment, they are mirrors of the rider's skill, tact and understanding of basic equitation. Therefore, the very best trained horse cannot be expected to answer the rider's questions with an excellent performance unless the rider has performed excellently in asking. Riders have an erroneous expectation that the horse should do X or Y or Z just because he knows it. This method of thinking will never lead a rider to improvement because the focus of the method is on the wrong partner of the duet.

Off-loading responsibility onto the horse, whether it’s for improvement or failure is taking the easy way out. We have to ask ourselves“Is it working?” If it isn’t, then do something else. Don’t keep on doing the same thing if it isn’t showing results.

There is a saying "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got", and it's true.

By giving the horse the responsibility for success or failure we are addressing the symptom and not the cause. As long as we continue to do that we are merely putting band-aids on to the problem.

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