Today’s topic is very simple in its conception, but bloody difficult in its practice.
With horses, the source of their worry and anxiety is a lack of clarity. I’m trying hard to think of an exception to this premise, but nothing comes to mind.
Think of an electric fence. When a horse first touches an electrified fence, all hell breaks loose as they think they are about to die. At first, they don’t know why the fence zapped them. They don’t know if the electricity will randomly jump out and shock them again. They don’t even know if from now on all fences are out to kill them or just some. Not only does a horse experience worry as a result of being shocked, but it also feels worried because it does not yet understand the rules by which the electric fence behaves. It is not until a horse understands the limitations of the fence to cause a shock that the worry dissipates. My horses are so clear about the rules regarding an electric fence that they can fall peacefully asleep with their noses just centimetres from the fence.
The principle of clarity is what makes horses comfortable in life and when working with humans. I believe this simple fact is what many people miss.
I know trainers who blame equipment for poor outcomes in the training of horses. One Australian trainer is constantly ranting about the evils of flags or round pens or rope halters etc as training tools. He claims they are used to unnecessarily terrorize horses into submission. Yet, he simultaneously endorses and uses whips, spurs and square pens in his training. He mistakenly assumes the effectiveness of training comes from the equipment itself and not the feel and clarity with which these tools are applied. If the difference between doing a good job and a poor job depends on the shape of the training pen, or using a flag versus a whip then the concept of clarity has eluded the trainer. He is a trainer who is incapable of thinking outside his own tiny square pen.
Even with regard to the perpetual argument that supporters of positive reinforcement methods put forward regarding the emotional harm caused by negative reinforcement approaches, there is a lack of understanding that pressure can (and should) provide such clarity to a horse that the pressure becomes a comfort. Again, I refer to the example of the electric fence. The clarity that the electric fence provides is so obvious that it causes no more worry to a horse than a tree in a paddock – a horse learns not to run into the tree as clearly as it learns to not run into the fence, with no worry attached to either concept.
I may be over-romanticizing it, but I like to think that I am working towards the day that applying pressure as a teaching tool, feels like it might when a mare nudges a newborn foal to find the teat – clarity and comfort
In previous essays, I have described that when I first approach a horse I have no idea how I am going to get done what I have in mind to teach. I don’t have a plan on what to do except to ask the horse a question. But what I do know is that whatever follows the initial first question will be my absolute commitment to bringing sureness to the horse. I know for certain that the only way to overcome a horse’s confusion and anxiety is to put beyond doubt the easiest solution to its troubles. I might resolve the same problem in different horses with varied approaches because the common denominator will be clarity.
If clarity is the underlying aim of everything we do with a horse, then specific methods lose their hold over us. Most training focuses on certain exercises to teach new lessons and overcome bad behaviours. It doesn’t seem to matter what discipline interests you or what problems face you and your horse, somebody can always refer you to a particular exercise for every occasion. That’s okay because we need exercises as an excuse for giving a horse a job.
The problem becomes when we think the exercise is the solution when in reality the exercise is just an excuse to impart understanding, which in turn brings comfort. Exercises themselves have no purpose without clarity.
Repeated exercises can become a huge problem. Horse loves routine because the predictability of a routine can become comforting to a horse. They will often latch onto a routine and even more so when stressed. But routine is not clarity, it is just a pattern that can’t be broken if we are to maintain a horse’s okay-ness. On the other hand, clarity allows us to not have routines and predictability because a horse learns how to always yield to a feel (any feel) and still be okay.
In my work, the methods are always changing and are not very important to me. I can take any other trainer’s methods and use them in a way that brings clarity and comfort to a horse or I can use the identical method in a way that ensures they will need a lifetime on a couch with a good therapist talking about the relationship with their mother and their bed-wetting problems. But the principles with which I try to apply any method never change. They are unswerving in their goal to achieve clarity, accompanied by comfort.
Bringing clarity to our training is hard and skilled work. Different horses require different amounts of time and patience because they all have different agendas and hold onto old compulsions with different degrees of desperation. Some horses are more skeptical than others and don’t let go of established habits as easily as others. But the principle is always the same – clarity, clarity, and more clarity – is required to have a happy horse.
I'm using all my tools to present clarity and comfort through feel.