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December 2007 • VOLUME 28 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine  There is always the age-old question of when to push. What would you do if faced with a horse that offers to rear? Which type of training will ensure that the behaviour will not happen again? What type of training will ensure keeping the rider safe?
To truly evaluate the benefit of any training, we need to understand where this behaviour stems from, from the horse's perspective. Understanding the horse provides us with the foundation that we need to achieve success. Or at least to point us towards the path that will prove successful, not just for the short term, but for the long term as well. What is Training?
Essentially, every moment we spend with a horse we are training him in one way or another. Training involves teaching something new, reinforcing something already learned, perfecting a learned skill, and/or increasing condition and the level of fitness. Often we tend to think of training more as the teaching of something new, and it is that aspect of training I will address. In that sense, training means the horse learns. It is important to make a distinction between learned behavior and instinctive behavior. Instinct by definition is unlearned behavior – it is innate. The most fundamental conflict between humans and horses lies in our respective instinctive behaviors. As predators, we have an instinctive urge to restrain, yet as prey animals our horses have an instinctive urge to flee. The conflict between restraint and flight IS the predator/prey conflict.
For the sake of discussion I will refer to the two parts of the brain most relevant to training as the primitive brain and the thinking brain. Horses readily and frequently operate from their primitive brain – i.e. their instinctive brain. Our job as trainers is to put them into their thinking brain. As a professional horse trainer I would say the vast majority of training problems I see in horses of all disciplines is they don’t know how to operate from their thinking brain. It is such a prevalent problem I think it deserves examination by all involved in the training of horses.
 There are physical as well as emotional signs as to which brain a horse is operating from. If a horse is in his primitive brain, he will mentally/emotionally be one or more of the following: • Fearful
• Anxious • Frustrated • Resentful • Confused • Reluctant • Cautious • Distracted • Etc.
If he is calm and operating from his thinking brain he will mentally/emotionally be one or more of the following:{viewonly:special}
• Relaxed
• Confident • Trusting • Willing • Attentive • Interactive • Etc. 
I think it is clear to see that operating from the thinking brain is most conducive to learning, and yet many riders attempt to teach things to their horses when the horses are operating from their primitive brain. Horses exhibit behaviors – some of those we call good, while others we call bad. The horse himself does not feel any of his behaviors are bad because from his point of view his bad behaviors are most often defensive, and who can blame him for trying to defend himself? But those behaviors we classify as bad include the following:
• Bucking
• Bolting • Rearing • Biting • Kicking • Striking • Spooking/shying • Spinning • Resisting • Evading • Etc.
The most important thing to realize about behaviors – good or bad - is they are the physical manifestation of the horse’s inner state of being. In other words, the bad behaviors listed above are the behaviors that arise when the horse is operating from his primitive brain. If he is fearful or anxious, he may buck or bolt. If he is frustrated or resentful, he may kick, bite, or strike. If he is distracted, he may spook, etc. His behavior is a direct reflection of his inner state of being. What that means for us is if we can change his inner state of being to one of quiet tranquility, the bad behaviors will diminish or even disappear. Therefore, our focus in training should not be on those undesired behaviors, but rather on changing the inner state of being that fuels those behaviors.
"Our
"control" lies NOT in fighting the behaviors that arise from the primitive/instinctive brain, but rather in showing the horse how to switch from primitive brain to thinking brain."
The old masters prioritized calmness and relaxation in a horse for a reason. Even though relaxation is on the first rung of the training scale, it seems all too often we only pay lip service to it. Some riders think if their horse is not bucking, bolting, rearing, etc., then he must be relaxed. Yet many horses are not calm or relaxed even though they don’t overtly exhibit bad behaviors. Many horses are what I call trained through intimidation. A horse can do the right thing for one of two reasons:
1. He can do the right thing because he is calm, confident, attentive, trusting, and educated, or 2. He can do the right thing because he is afraid to do the wrong thing. The latter is what I call training through intimidation. That horse has never left his primitive brain, but he is afraid to act upon those instinctive feelings of defensiveness. That horse conducts himself in what I call a civilized version of flight mode. He has bottled up his emotional turmoil as he attempts to avoid the punishment of his rider. That situation can exist on a continuum – meaning it can be in play to a lesser or greater degree. But even if it exists to a lesser degree there are telltale signs that it does exist. "Nothing is absolute. All we have is influence over others. Control is a rigid, demanding feeling we have inside ourselves - i.e. the need to make things absolute. When we have that feeling inside we actually set up resistance in a horse, which often makes us feel MORE like we need to take charge, and it becomes a vicious circle. The best we can do with that approach is make a horse so afraid to react to his own instinct that he mentally/emotionally "hides" from us. The ones that don't or won't hide become "rogues" (by human perception), and are sent to stronger and stronger trainers."
Contributor:
Of Life and Horses is a comprehensive
look into understanding the nature of horses and attaining harmony with
these magnificent beings. As much as society tends to describe horses
with one definition, the truth is that each horse, like each human, is
individual. Those of us who desire to understand horses and develop
personal relationships with them - the kind of harmony that is
sustainable and satisfying - must learn to understand equine nature.
The more we observe. . . and understand. . . the more successful that
relationship will be. Despite the perception, each horse has its
particular intellect and complexity of character. How do horses see
their world - literally as well as figuratively? What makes them do the
things they do? How can we develop a means of communication with an
animal so different in nature from ourselves? These questions and so
many more are addressed in Of Life and Horses.
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Ann
Bradley attended Kansas State University and her love for horses goes
back more than fifty years to her childhood. From the Mission Valley
Pony Club to working on a Wyoming cattle ranch, she showed
hunter/jumper, broke and started colts, galloped and conditioned
racehorses, and was the hunt seat instructor for the Park College
Equine Program. Ms. Bradley is currently a freelance trainer and riding
instructor in the Kansas City area. 