Going into details in HORSEMANSHIP

Story and Photos By Alessandra Deerinck

Having a horse is a pleasure for us, therefore we should really treasure him and always keep in mind his well-being. When we want to ride, it is very important to learn to truly understand our horse in order to establish an effective communication and a good relationship with him.

In this moment in time, many are the approaches explored in order to meet the needs of the horse, and to bring horses closer to humans, but in most cases the interaction is based on training, the horse is still restrained with tack or physical barriers and deprived of expression and freedom of choice to participate in the action.

The stimuli

The horse is a live individual, not a machine! Through the senses the horse is always aware of it’s surroundings, perceives stimuli and always responds to them, even when they are as light as the touch of a fly or a blade of grass.

When horses have freedom of movement, we can observe how they really feel about a situation. The horse always responds to stimuli, and not just when it has been conditioned to do so. Indeed, the horse sometimes responds unexpectedly to stimuli that should arouse a conditioned response, adding to his action real emotions, such as aggression, depression, or anxiety. These emotions arise when the horse is placed under excessive pressure, or even forced to repeat an action over and over again, and this typically causes negative reactions from human beings.

To collaborate effectively with our horse, it is important to give him the opportunity to express himself freely about a situation so we can see how he feels about what we are doing together.

Leadership

Human beings very often try to rigidly take a leading position towards the horse, without realizing that in nature this much sought-after position is not static over time, as we would like it to be. For the horse, the leadership state is linked to primordial survival, and is based on dynamic social relationships and environmental situations that change over time. In short, assuming the role of leader in a herd in its natural state also implies the responsibility of taking the herd to food, water and safety, which is maintaining a behavior appropriate to the position.

Another obstacle to true communication with the horse is the presence of both fixed (fences) and mobile constraints (tack), which limit his movement in space, an important part of his true expression. Without being able to perceive his silent expression, how do we know how the horse truly feels? But, are we really interested in how he feels or do we just want him to do what we want? Are we interested in seeing his expressions, or do we prefer to stick to his behavior with some prepackaged labels that only we like? The human being tamed the horse because he understood what enormous benefit could derive from it. Traditionally, in the relationship between man and horse, the horse is expected to learn to respond to stimuli through conditioning, with positive or negative reinforcements, meeting the needs of the human being, which often have nothing immediately interesting for the horse. Indeed, sometimes even if involuntarily, in interacting with the horse the human being abuses the animal. What the human being would like is for the horse to learn certain actions, and the way in which we present them to him not only does not attract him, but often it does not activate in him the process sufficient to form the memory necessary for learning the behavior. This is true, even if, at times, the horse momentarily performs the action requested of him. The horse can live and thrive in this condition due to its extreme adaptability, not because it is an animal of low intelligence, but because his extreme ability to adapt to survive.

The horse spontaneously and instantly understands our silent ‘body language’ and if we consciously use our movement as a communication, we can learn how to communicate with him efficiently.

In my experience with thoroughbreds that came out of racing, I established a social relationship with the horse, a natural and very interesting context for him, before trying to teach him another sporting activity, which, on the other hand, is not always attractive to the horse. With racehorses, that are normally considered very difficult, these results are achieved by working with the greatest possible freedom, also respecting their expression, acknowledging their responses, and responding to their actions. From this experience I observed how horses learn, if they are genuinely motivated by curiosity. Another element that I observed is the possibility of working with the horse’s emotions, which instead are always feared or carefully ignored, because the human being does not know how to contain or welcome them, and respond adequately. The relationship that is created by giving the horse the opportunity to freely express himself is truly unique and new and the possibilities that open up to work in collaboration between man and animal are endless.

Constraints

We know that people forget what you said, people forget what you did, but they never forget how you made them feel. The same is true for horses too! I often find myself working in freedom of movement with horses I don’t know, explaining what I do ‘in words’ to people who are interested in understanding how to communicate with horses spontaneously. One day, during a course I held in Rome in 2009, I was working with a horse I just met, in a very large arena, right next to where they kept some cattle. It was the beginning of the course, and since I didn’t have a halter or a rope in my hands, everyone was wondering how I was going to work with the horse, which was far away, on the opposite side of the arena and seemed more interested in the cattle than in my presence. For those present it was strange that my first thought was not to go get the horse and put the halter on him. I knew that doing so would make the horse even more interested in the cattle in the adjacent paddock rather than in working with me. It would have been as if I had started talking about spurs and whips to those present who wanted to know how to work with horses in a natural way. I started walking towards the horse and spent a few moments close to him. Then I brought him a carrot and offered it to him while I was next to him and left soon after. In the time between my short visits, the horse had the opportunity to think about me and the brief moments we spent together. It took me a few times to convince him that my presence was something pleasant and so I was able to invite him to follow me with a wave of my hand to join the group of bystanders on the other side of the arena, leaving the side where the cattle was. It was the horse’s free choice, and since he didn’t have a halter or rope attached to me from the other end, he could also go back and stay close to the cattle. It was my responsibility to have a positive dialogue with him worthy of his attention and consideration. Someone was still surprised by the fact that I had nothing in my hand, and that I did not offer the horse other carrots, but above all that, he was with us and did not go back near the cattle. This state of affairs was what I wanted to achieve in the audience, and at this point I could start talking about the dialogue between man and horse and how to establish it correctly. Those who were present saw how important and effective it was to interact with horses without taking away their freedom of choice. The action had been unequivocal and had awakened everyone’s emotions, and that is when they really started to be able to understand the dialogue between man and horse!

Behavior and Freedom

Traditionally, the relationship between man and horse takes place according to a script established through training, which conditions the animal to respond in a predictable manner to certain stimuli, excluding its freedom of choice from the interaction. In the behavior of the horse, alongsidethe actions that have been conditioned in him, instincts are always involved, and other components that are beyond our control (his emotions!), But the difference between these components is rarely highlighted. Understanding the relationship between freedom, instinct and horse behavior can help in trying to solve the many mysteries that escape us in the relationship between human and horse. To do this, we also need awareness and understand that species barriers must be overcome with facts, not by force or by denying that they exist. Freedom is a natural part of the horse’s essence and is the first thing that is limited when a human being approaches him. Instinct is that behavior that always and constantly manifests itself in the same way following the same stimulus.

The behavior of an individual has instinctive components that are constant for his species, others that are singular characteristics of him and that derive from his life experience and still others that are part of the emotional sphere and escape all control. The behavior of any individual changes constantly, even if, in the case of the horse, we men try to regulate a large part of his life experience. If we want to communicate with a horse, is it important to consider each horse an individual, to know its nature, and to allow the horse to express himself in the relationship we have with him. Horses are all different individuals and this is a fact that not even training and constraints have masked. Therefore, considering him an individual is now a universally accepted fact. In the matter of animal behavior, instincts are like the laws of chemistry and knowing them means having constant elements to understand the behavior of an individual, useful for overcoming the barriers between species and for communicating effectively. By starting to get a horse interested in interacting with us and letting him express freely, we can also come to face the parts that escape us in our relationship with the horse, such as his emotions.

About food

Between mare and foal the very first subject of interaction is food, that is an essential need and that the foal receives it from his mare, who teaches him how to behave respectfully about it.

How to ‘interest’ a horse in a way that is natural to him? Everyone knows the trick of the sugar cube, but not many know how to cope with the implications of a hierarchical order that arise from offering food to the horse. Food is a subject that the horse understands without needing to be trained by conditioning. Generally giving food to a horse can put us in a position of subordination, which is far from that of a ‘friend’ that everyone wants to assume when they offer their horse a treat. Getting out of this misunderstanding and solving the enigma that our food offer presents is not difficult, and we do so by respecting some social rules that the horse naturally respects. The teaching of good manners about food is one of the first topics to be handled in order to establish a bond of friendship, built on mutual respect with the horse. I have experienced that a good way to introduce food can be done in a fenced area, where the horse is at ease, in freedom of movement and without constraints. We can start by putting down some food so that the horse can see it, close to us, but outside the fence and out of reach of the horse. Carrots are ideal because they are easy to handle and can be given to the horse at will. When he chooses to approach us, we should touch him, let him stay close to us for a few moments, then ask him to move away. If he walks away and doesn’t try to return to us, we should bring him a carrot. When asking the horse to move away we should make the action of taking space towards the area occupied by the horse, aiming the movement at the ground, and not towards the horse’s body. Then, go back to the point of the fence near the food and wait, when the horse returns, stroke it and repeat the actions. When the horse shows to understand what is happening, hold the carrot in your hand and wait for him to return. When he is approaching, ask him to stop, moving towards him as if you want to send him away from the area in question. If he stops, give him the carrot. If he doesn’t stop, put the carrot back on the other side of the fence and start over. In a short time, the horse will understand that the carrot is yours and it is a gift you offer him, not something that he is taking away from you. The horse must eat the carrot gently, ceasing to eat from your hand if you ask. If he does not behave like this, start the lesson again from the beginning, without reprimanding the horse. When he understands that the carrot is a gift, and you see a change in his disposition and behavior in the presence of food, you can begin to use it in your interactions. You can also repeat the lesson if your horse loses enthusiasm, patience, kindness or respect. Between human and horse, details from each side are an important matter.