How do you implant an idea from a human mind into the horse’s mind?
Since the only part of a horse capable of having an idea and the only part that commands the body’s reactions is the brain, it seems obvious that we have to figure out how to shape the thoughts inside that little walnut-sized organ called the horse’s brain. This is where it is important to understand how pressure works.
(I probably should say here that if you are about to scream at your screen that positive reinforcement is the better way to approach the issue of shaping a horse’s thoughts I suggest you read my previous essays on that topic or my book so that you understand why I don’t push the +r barrow and find it to be potentially just as or more abusive as –r.)
Horses are capable of loading their brains with more than one idea at a time. We know this. Take for example a horse that runs up and down the fence line when we take their friend out of the paddock. The primary thought is focused on their friend leaving, but their secondary thought is "don't touch the electric fence" separating them from their mate. Now the two thoughts don’t have equal weight, but they both have their place in shaping the horse’s behaviour. It’s always the thought that is the most influential on behaviour that we call the primary thought. So in this case, separation from the other horse is the primary thought. Therefore, we can deduce that if we want to have maximum influence over a horse’s behaviour it is the primary thought that we should replace in a horse’s thinking.
However, to substitute the primary thought of a horse with our idea, we have to somehow create a reason why a horse should let go of its primary thought and adopt our idea. The hard part is convincing a horse to give up its primary thought. Once a horse has let go of its primary thought, it is relatively easy to suggest a new primary idea to it. But this is not as simple as it first sounds because the reason an idea is a primary thought is that it holds more importance to a horse than any alternative ideas available.
Now we come to the notion of how much pressure to apply when asking a horse to perform a task. The answer is the answer to the question, “How much pressure does it take for a horse to give up its primary thought?” See, many people mistakenly assume that increasing pressure is intended to make a horse do something. But I see it differently. I believe the proper use of increasing pressure is intended to convince a horse to abandon the idea it presently has – its primary thought. It is not to forcibly implant a new idea but to convince it that the old primary thought no longer works to the horse’s benefit. Once that occurs, the deal is done because the horse is ready for a new primary thought, which we just happen to have on hand for the lucky horse searching for a new primary thought.
So how strong must the pressure be to get a horse to abandon its primary thought? Answer = as strong as the primary thought.
Some primary thoughts weigh as much as a hydrogen atom and that’s how much we should increase our pressure. Other thoughts have the mass of a black hole and that’s how much pressure we should apply. But most of the time a horse’s primary thought weighs something in between and that’s how much we should increase the pressure. In general, the closer a horse believes its primary idea is linked to its survival the stronger the thought. So getting an unhandled wild horse to go into a trailer for the first time might require firm pressure, but convincing a well-trained seasoned traveler to load into a trailer might require almost zero pressure.
The final thing to say about this is that there is no point in using any pressure unless it causes a horse to change its thought. Without a change of the primary thought, a horse has learned nothing from the application of pressure, in which case we are just annoying the horse for no good reason (except our incompetence). Always be sure that when you use pressure to ask something of a horse it results in a change of thought and not just get the horse to move or do something. A change of thought should always precede a change in the feet and never the other way around. Otherwise, there is no learning.
An example of the primary thought being in the distance (indicated by their visual focus) and the secondary thought being on the electric fence. If the horses touched the fence there would be a re-ordering of priority of thoughts.