When training a task, we try to direct a horse towards a behaviour we want. The first step is to motivate a horse to search to try something. This is where we ask our horse a question. Our question should be as specific and as clear as we can make. And the answer to our question needs to be close to what we have previously taught our horse. We should not ask a horse for a flying canter lead change if we have not first taught it to perform a simple canter change. We don’t just randomly apply pressure with our reins, seat, and leg and hope our horse will figure out how to perform a flying lead change. We ask our question by using reins, seat, and legs in a very specific fashion that will encourage our horse to try something close to a lead change.
But asking the right question in the right way is just part of training a response. The other part utilizes a combination of allowing our horse to do what we want and blocking it from doing what we don’t want. The ‘allowing’ part tells the horse YES and the ‘blocking’ part tells it NO and it should try something else.
It seems simple enough. But in reality, there is so much nuance to ‘allowing’ and ‘blocking’ that it could fill a long book. Instead, I am going to superficially talk about ‘blocking’ a thought in the hope it will get you thinking and exploring these important concepts with your horse(s).
The blocking of a thought/response should generally not be a firm NO. Its role is not to make a horse’s choice impossible, just more difficult than an alternative response. The blocking of a response is meant to act as an encouragement to try something else and not a discouragement to try anything.
For example, if I have a horse that I want to teach to tie up, the first thing I will do is teach it to lead well and learn to give to the feel of the rope in our groundwork. When it comes to tying to a post the first few times, I won’t tie the horse hard with a strong halter and a short lead rope and let it discover that any movement or attempt to free itself is met with a hard NO. Instead, I will apply 2 or 3 wraps of a long rope around the post That allows the rope to slide if the horse pulls away. The horse figures out it can move if it wants, but life is okay if it stands quietly.
With the fixed tying up, the horse is discouraged from exploring its options. However, with the long rope that can slide around the post, the horse has the choice to move if it needs. The first option discourages a horse and teaches it that resistance is futile. The second encourages a horse to explore its option and choose the better.
The tricky part of blocking a horse’s thought is to not discourage the try. If we block what we don’t want, how do we not kill a horse’s willingness to try something else?
There is a difference between blocking a horse’s idea in a critical way and blocking it in a supportive way. For example, I see people constantly nagging their horse not to sniff the ground, then not to look over at the other horses, then not to eat the grass, then not to take a step back, then not to crowd them. Pick, pick, pick. Don’t do that, don’t do this. But they don’t let a horse know what it can do. People say to a horse they can’t sniff the ground, then because they don’t indicate what it can do the horse is left directionless and does something else the trainer doesn’t want.
A better alternative might be to block the horse sniffing the ground by asking it to follow a feel to go through the gate or over a poll - and reward for the change in thought from sniffing the ground to being with you going through the gate.
When we block a thought in a discouraging way we build a sense of futility in a horse. Nothing it does leads to comfort. At the very minimum, we can kill a ‘try’ in a horse, and at worse, we can create deep anxiety. I’ve seen great horses transform into horses that bolted or reared. Other horses shut down over time and only extreme pressure inspired them to put out an effort. I’ve seen horses exhibit bridle lameness. I even suspect a case of colic was triggered by feelings of stress from being overly criticized in its daily work.
Blocking the thoughts we don’t want a horse to have is an important part of all training. But when it is done in a way that is constant criticism, it leads to more problems than it solves. Blocking a horse’s thoughts should be done in a way that encourages a horse to search for a better alternative answer to our question. Instead of telling my horse it screwed up and it must not do that, I want to use my correction to guide it to think that maybe there were better answers if it tried something else.
Teaching a horse to tie up using a long rope that can slide around a post helps to block the horse’s thought to escape without discouraging it to search its choices.