We all know horses come in all shapes, sizes, personalities, and temperaments. We accept that when it comes to training what works for one horse may not work for the next horse. I have proven many times over that just when I think I have figured out an important principle or approach to working with horses, along comes a horse that forces me to face the fact that I am a total schmuck. There is always another horse in my future that will humble me. Some might call this a learning opportunity, but I sometimes think of it as an opportunity to beat myself up and avoid sleep.
Horses are a mix of their genetics and their experiences. How they react to training or life experiences is determined by these two factors. The range of the types of horses we might come across in a lifetime can be huge. I have worked with horses so easy-going and compliant that a total beginner could start them and produce a wonderful horse to work with. But there are other horses whose nature meant they were never meant to be ridden no matter who started them or how they were started. They just didn’t have the genetics to make them a safe and reliable horse to work with. Fortunately, most horses are somewhere in between being super easy and too hard.
I want to share a couple of examples that got me thinking about how different horses can be. These are not examples of how horses might respond to different training methods. These are just examples that indicate how different horses can.
Example 1
The first is something many of you may have experienced yourselves. I’m talking about the first time a horse sees their reflection in a mirror.
I have noticed a large variation in reactions when a horse sees their reflection for the very first time.
One horse may view the reflection as a near-death experience. They see something moving in the mirror that looks like a horse. But what is it? Fear overtakes them.
Another horse may hardly notice the mirror or the reflection. In my experience, this is a least common reaction. But it does happen. Seeing themselves in a mirror can be a non-event. Are these horses made differently from the reactive horses or has their training caused them to shut down?
Other horses may have a little fear that is quickly warped into curiosity. They want to investigate the strange sight moving on the wall. Do they recognize it? Is it another horse? It doesn’t smell quite like a horse. If it goes to touch the mirror, it doesn’t feel like a horse. Is it something to fear or is it just a harmless wall hanging? Why does the horse on the wall look so worried?
The range of reactions when a horse experiences its reflection in a mirror for the first time can be huge. But why? What is different about each horse that makes their reaction different from that of the other?
Is the reaction going to be different if the mirror is in a familiar arena versus an unfamiliar setting? Is the response different if there are other horses in the reflection? Is the reaction different if rider-less or not? The list goes on.
Example 2
I like music. I like music enormously. I once decided to set up a speaker in the arena at home and play some of my favourite music while riding my horses. The results surprised me enormously.
By accident, I discovered that different horses reacted differently to different types of music. I could understand if one piece of music caused the horses to react a certain way. But what I discovered was that there was no consistency in which music had a calming effect and what music stimulated an adrenaline overload. Some horses were calmed by Chopin's Prelude in E minor and others were hyped-up by it. Some horses seemed energised by loud jazz and others were calmed by it.
This fascinated me so much that I tried to figure out if there was a pattern. I thought perhaps it was feedback from my reaction to the different music that triggered the reactions of the horses. But again, there was no discernible pattern to it. Then I tested if the volume of the music made a difference. But I soon discarded that explanation. I tried testing other causes for the different reactions, but I kept coming back to the idea that horses have different tastes in music.
I would like to have tested the effect of music more thoroughly, but I have never had the resources for a serious study. Nevertheless, even my own small experience suggests that horses are different from each other in ways we don’t think about.
This post is not about training or what horses think about mirrors or music. I don’t need to tell you that no two horses are identical. If you have ever had experience with more than one horse, you already know that. But I mean this post to highlight that horses are different in ways we may not even appreciate or think about. Maybe something about your horse that has you puzzled is not related to your riding or your training. Maybe it has something to do with what causes your horse to calm down when it hears Chopin or be frightened when it sees its reflection in a mirror.
Mr Ed seems unbothered by his reflection.