Today I want to discuss some basic elements of training that I don’t hear talked about much. I want to talk about the release of pressure.

The way pressure works is that when a horse does what we want and we remove the pressure. Most people know this principle. Apply pressure to elicit a change and remove pressure when the horse makes a change.

While this is what most people do, it is not the best way to use. It misses a vital step that would make it easier for a horse to learn and feel okay about the application of pressure. This missing step is why so many people turn horses into slaves. It is why many horse people don’t like using -R as a training principle.

In my view, pressure should be removed when the horse’s thought becomes available to a new idea. Not wait until the horse has a new idea. 

In simple terms, if you are sitting in a chair and I ask you to stand most people believe I should reward you when you think about standing. However, I would reward you when you stop thinking that sitting in a chair is the best idea. It’s a subtle but very important distinction. When I see you consider letting go of the idea of remaining seated, I should remove the pressure. It is that moment in the decision-making process that makes your mind ready to accept the idea to stand. If you maintained the notion to remain seated I would either wait longer or increase the pressure (depending on the situation). However, when you let go of the idea to remain seated your thoughts are available to consider the idea of standing without argument, without resistance, and without stress. You may not be thinking of standing, but I am no longer fighting the idea to remain seated. Now I can apply a fraction of the pressure to ask you to stand.

To summarise, I apply pressure to block the thought you are holding onto. I release the pressure when you release the thought. I then apply a small amount of feel to direct you to the new thought.

I want to mention that the removal of pressure does not have to be an all-or-nothing. A release of pressure can be no pressure or it can be a reduction in pressure. Both are rewarding and both are important teaching aids because both can bring clarity to the meaning of pressure.

Let me give you a real-life example. Let’s assume pressure ranges from P0 (no pressure) to P10 (maximum pressure).

Many years ago I was riding a newly started horse on its second expedition on a trail. We came to a fork in the trail. The left fork led home. The right fork led down a trail that my horse did not know and had been told by other herd members that no horse had ever returned from.

As we approached the fork in the trail Dewey veered towards the left fork. I applied P1 to block Dewey looking left. Dewey’s interest in the left trail increased so I applied P4. He stopped his feet and glanced to the right trail. I dropped the feel in the right rein to P0. Dewey stood quietly for a few seconds. I applied P1 to ask him to think to the right trail. Dewey looked strongly to the left. I applied P3 to block that idea. Dewey looked even stronger to the left. I applied P5. Dewey stopped thinking left and stopped moving. I released and gave Dewey a feel of P0 with the right rein. I waited until I felt him relax under me. I picked up the right rein using P1 and Dewey started tentatively along the right trail checking out the new scenery and looking for the bodies of horses that had not come home.

The headline from this post is that the release or reduction in pressure/feel should not be only about getting a horse to think or do something we want. It should be about getting them to stop thinking of doing something I don’t want. Blocking an old thought always precedes creating a new thought, so rewarding the ‘letting go’ of an old thought must always be seen as rewarding to a horse.

I want to clarify that what I have been describing is a vitally important approach to working with young or green horses. But as progress is made the need to use pressure to block a thought becomes superfluous and generally unnecessary because now the horse is asking the rider which direction to go. This is different from a horse deciding which direction to go and we having to change that idea.

Back to Dewey. When I rode Dewey down the trail on his second ride we came to the fork and Dewey made the decision going left was the better option. This meant I had to block this idea before I could direct him to take the right fork. But if Dewey was much further along in his education, when we came to the fork he would have asked me which fork to take and he would have waited until I gave him an answer by applying P1. Dewey and I would be in a relaxed conversation, not an argument where I would have ramped the pressure to something bigger.

Once a horse lets go of the idea it already has it is available for a new idea we might present. There is no argument or fight or strife to be had.

Finally, I want to add that we can only have a good relationship if we are directing a horse’s thoughts. If we are driving its feet to create a response, we are in conflict with our horse. This means we can only be conflict-free when a horse lets go of its idea of what to do and is ready to consider doing what we would like it to do.

As I said at the start, the distinction between using pressure to get a horse to do something and getting it to let go of doing something is subtle. I don’t know some people who understand this and fewer people who teach it. Letting go of a thought must come before we try to create a new thought, otherwise we are in an argument with our horse.