I want to say from the start that all behaviour is a combination of nature and nurture. Every horse on the planet is born with a genetic predisposition for certain behaviours and temperament. The genetic nature of a horse is the foundation of what a horse is. It can’t be changed - at least not yet. We don’t have the technology to alter genetic makeup outside of selective breeding and even that is a lottery most of the time.
But equally, those genetically programmed behaviours are influenced tremendously by a horse’s experiences in life. I don’t just mean their experience with humans, but their experience by all aspects of their life from the herd they grow up in, to the time they had to run from a bush fire. All experiences shape the behaviour they are inclined towards by their genes.
While humans can’t affect behaviour by changing their genetic nature, we can influence behaviour through the experiences we give horses. It could be through training, riding, handling, how we accommodate them, the health care we provide, the diet we provide, the environment they live in. All these influences sit above the foundation of their genetic predisposition.
The genetic nature of a horse is often a determinant of the training we impose on a horse’s life. We train sensitive horses a little differently than stoic horses. We feed and accommodate tall lanky horses differently than we do stout little ponies. We use heavy draft types for different sorts of jobs than we do lean, mean speed machines.
Now that I have covered the background information, let me explain a problem I see a lot.
Very often people confuse behaviour with nature. They give blame or credit of the behaviour of their horse with the nature of their horse. They observe a behaviour and based on that behaviour they categorize a horse as being a particular type. But what a horse does is not a reliable predictor of what a horse is.
The most common example of this that I see is with horses that appear unmotivated. When it takes a lot of pressure to motivate a horse to move or react in some way we often assume it is a naturally dull horse.
I’ve heard it a lot. “I kick and kick and tap with the whip, but he is just so dull. He doesn’t care about pressure. How do I wake him up?”
Likewise, I sometimes hear the opposite (though not as often). “My horse is so sensitive and reactive. I can’t slow him up and he can be really spooky.”
What is missing from these claims of a horse being dull or sensitive is an acknowledgment of what role experience/training has played. They confuse behaviour with genetic makeup.
A horse that you have to “kick and kick” to get him to trot, may not be dull at all. It could be a very sensitive horse that expresses its confusion or troubling emotions by shutting down. Its behaviour is exhibited by internalizing its emotions and appears to be un-reactive on the surface. But that does not mean it does not have those emotions.
In contrast, a highly sensitive horse could be triggered to internalize its emotions by very small levels of stress while appearing to be easy-going or even stoic.
It’s possible that a horse that is has a genetic tendency towards being dull can be made to appear sensitive and highly reactive by a life of confusion and troubled feelings during training. I have trained enough horses to know that some people can turn even the most naturally calm and confident horse into a basket case through their lack of clarity.
It is for these reasons that we have to not blame the nature of a horse for our training problems. Their genetic nature of a horse should influence the way we teach our horses to do anything. Different approaches for different natures. But behavioural problems in training often stem from our misreading of a horse’s nature and our ability to compensate and adjust our training. It begins by appreciating the true nature of our horses and understanding how that should influence the way we work with them.
