Do You Know These Horse Training Secrets?
I have a series of “training secrets” I’m gonna
talk about over the next few days. Today I’ll
start with something very basic.
When I tell you these secrets, you
may already know them.
Or…if you don’t know them, you
may think they are too simple to be useful.
So I’m gonna explain the implications
of each one. Truth is, you must understand
these things before you can be a successful
horse trainer and handler.
Here goes…
“Horses are prey animals
and are motivated by safety,
comfort, food, and play.”
That’s it.
That’s the first secret.
Now, let’s talk about it for a second
and why this is important. I urge you
not to shrug this off but read to the end.
Horses are prey animals. That being
so, they get eaten by predators like a mouse
is consumed by a cat – at least – that’s the mindset.
Suppose it was your mindset that you
could be killed and eaten by a predator…would
you not want to be safe?
Heck yeah!
Because you’re fearful of being killed
and eaten you are therefore motivated to
escape danger.
Not only that, if you’re a horse your
brain is not capable of reasoning like a human
brain. Instead, it reacts.
Thus, if a plastic bag goes rolling across
the front of the horse it could easily be perceived
as a threat since they can’t understand what it is.
And a threat, as you already know, means
the horse must escape to safety.
Next, humans are predators in the eyes
of the horse. Most of us eat meat, we smell like
like predators to a horse, and so on.
Now imagine a horse trying to learn
what the human predator is teaching. The horse
is already fearful. The predator is making some
kind of threatening gesture to motivate the horse
to move.
Plus, the horse cannot reason that you’re not
out to hurt him.
Wow! How overwhelming it must be.
Thus, when we want our horse to move in
the round pen we only need to motivate him just
enough to get him to move.
That’s it, that’s all, no more.
By doing more than that, the horse starts
desperately trying to figure out what you want.
And it’s not until the pressure of the motivation
disappears that he begins to understand.
[Remember my previous emails about pressure –
release? It comes into play here a lot.]
Thus, if he’s bein’ chased in the round
pen with a pole and plastic bag and the person
chasing him doesn’t back off the pressure to signal
to the horse he’s doin’ what he wants, the horse
can panic, become confused, and may even attack.
Another important one is horses are
motivated by comfort.
Horses have a lazy nature. They instinctively
know it’s not in their interest to run, run, run.
What’s comfortable is safety and relaxed
walking or standing.
So…for example…if you’re trying to
get your horse in a trailer and you’re having
trouble, one way to talk him into it is work him
outside of the trailer.
And once he gets in the trailer, he
gets petted. He can eat a little. He gets
brushed and so on.
The trick is to associate “comfort”
with being in the trailer because horses are
motivated by comfort.
If you really think about it, there’s
a lot implications to what motivates horses.
When you work with a horse, keep this
first secret in mind. Knowing what motivates
a horse to do something is immensely valuable
when teaching him things.
I’ll have a couple more secrets like this for
you in the next few days.
OK? Go work with your horses – but please do it safely!
Charlie
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“Charlie
I love your tips I receive on my email. You have
your own folder for all the advice you give us.
Even though we have owned horses for many years,
we still can use a reminder on things. I relay your
tips to my grand daughters and friends. They also
find them valuable.
Respectfully,
Brenda”
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