EMPOWER YOUR HORSE THROUGH “I believe horses naturally have tremendous faith in the Human Being. It is their natural instinct of self-preservation that the person needs to understand in order to gain the confidence of the horse.” - Tom Dorrance
As prey animals horses see things differently than we do. For example, let’s say you and your horse ride by the same mailbox four times without issue, but on the fifth time she spooks. Being a skeptical sort, she had been watching the mailbox each time she passed but suddenly saw it in a different light, on the fifth time around; her natural instinct of self -preservation kicked in. Horses are genetically programmed to go on alert, and it’s at this moment we need to support them through knowledge and strategies, proving to her, she is not going to be eaten.
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monster, spreading to other parts of a horse's life where they evolve into a nervous wreck over the littlest things. Not only is this horse now worried, all the time, because she’s naturally skeptical but she knows there’s a good chance she’s going to be forced through a threshold every time her leader is with her; a recipe for disaster. We learn new skills when there’s healthy pressure on us. However, pressure with little to no release can lead to serious emotional struggle. Let’s visit the self-preservation factor and a strategy for helping a This is true of humans, and is certainly true for our horses. It’s easy to skeptic. It doesn’t matter where the skepticism or fear originated fall into the trap of pushing through thresholds. We are, by nature, goal orientated, and we sometimes come to believe that our horses will from, but it does matter how you react to it. get over it eventually, or that we can hang in “What exactly is a sweet there, or we listen to our coach when they ask At some point in our relationship with our horse, whether intended or not, we have spot? To frame it succinctly, us to keep up the pressure, even though they do not understand our horse. all applied extra pressure during a training a sweet spot provides a I too have been in this situation. I have session or lesson. This extra pressure is called, horse with a feeling of allowed myself to listen and follow a coach's ‘pushing a horse through a threshold.’ I see suggestion, and it was not what my horse it often, and most riders don’t realize the safety and comfort. needed. She got worse instead of better, and negative impact this has on the performance and wellbeing of their horse. A horse can, at best, tolerate pressure but it took time, patience and understanding to get her back to where she never totally accept it, and at worst the fear and anxiety associated was emotionally and mentally fit enough to respond in a left brain with the pressure escalates to where they develop opposition reflex. thinking mode rather than right brain reactive. We're human. We make Opposition reflex refers to your horse’s instinctive reaction to any mistakes. We grow from those mistakes and our horse benefits from physical pressure. This pressure causes them to automatically do the this growth. In those mistakes and growth, there is the mystery of who our horses are and what is needed to connect with them. It is that opposite of what you want. Alternatively, they may perform an action like rearing, or head mystery that we are working to uncover. As Neil Armstrong is quoted as saying, “Mystery creates wonder tossing. These could be mild reflexes or they could grow into an ugly quines would never have survived these thousands of years if they weren’t skeptical of everything. It doesn’t make sense to us, but for a horse skepticism is necessary, perhaps life-saving. Skepticism can lead to fear which is real in a horse's mind, and the sooner we accept it and work with the way a horse thinks, the better. But, how do we address this?
16 • APRIL 2022
SADDLEUP.CA
