PRESSURE VERSUS FEEL
I believe there are a lot of conflicted ideas about pressure and feel in the horse training business. It’s easy to see why. Many trainers and gurus use pressure in different ways with different degrees of feel, but talk about pressure and feel as if they are the same thing. Maybe they are on your mind. But in my mind, there are subtle differences. Pressure and feel can be the same thing when applied well and with clarity, but they do not have to be the same.
To me, pressure is simply energy. Any energy. Everyone uses energy when working horses. Even folks who work with the principles of positive reinforcement use energy in their work with horses.
However, feel is a little different. Feel is pressure with clarity. Pressure is just energy. But feel is energy that helps a horse discern how to respond to the energy. Pressure without feel is confusing and stressful. Pressure with feel gives a horse an understanding of the purpose of the pressure. Pressure with feel is a comfort to a horse. Pressure without feel is troubling to a horse.
I was prompted to write about pressure versus feel because I recently watched a few videos by some esteemed and famous horse trainers. I was shocked at how little feel they incorporated into the pressure they used. I was even more shocked at how unaware of the trouble they created in their horses by their lack of feel.
Many think that feel is related to how big a pressure or how little a pressure we apply. This is not true. Feel is only measured by how clear or muddled the intent of our energy is to a horse. The factors that makeup feel are complicated to master and very few people achieve good feel without a lot of work and sweat.
* Amount of Energy
If we use too little energy a horse may not detect that a question is being asked or if it should respond or not respond. Using too much energy verges on punishment and creates fear with no clarity.
* Speed of Applying Energy
We can apply our energy gradually or abruptly. Abrupt use of pressure can limit a horse’s ability to respond to the pressure because it happens faster than a horse can process what is being asked. But abrupt use of pressure can also be useful to help a ‘tuned out’ horse be attentive and focused.
* Speed of Releasing Energy
Not only should we consider how abruptly or smoothly we apply pressure, but we should also consider how fast we release the pressure. Removal of pressure is the signal to a horse it is on the right track. If we release too slowly the horse may not detect the moment of release clearly and it misses the moment it made the change we were seeking. If we release too quickly we can compromise the clarity because while a horse is searching for the answer our release is too abrupt to be comfortable and can add to the worry. I equate this to how it feels when in mid-conversation we suddenly hang up the telephone on somebody.
* Releasing the Energy
Sometimes we need to release all of the energy at the right moment to indicate to the horse it did the right thing. Other times we should give a slow and partial release to tell the horse it is on the right track, but to keep searching. Again, back to the telephone analogy, giving a complete release of energy can end the conversation when you want to keep the conversation open.
* Keeping the Energy Alive
The use of pressure is a way we can talk to a horse. To keep the conversation alive we need to adjust our energy constantly in a moment-to-moment manner. When we talk to another person we use voice. But our voice changes dynamically. We gauge the response of the other person to what we say and we constantly change our words, our tone, our volume, etc. We may tell a joke to ease tension, whisper to indicate this is a serious conversation and use hand gestures to indicate some important meaning to our words. Our conversation is constantly changing. This is no less true with using pressure in our conversation with a horse.
How can we know if a person has a good feel or a poor feel?
The way I judge feel is pretty simple, but not always easy. I don’t look for what a trainer can teach or has taught a horse. I don’t look for how quickly a horse has learned a movement or how accurately it performs. Horses are good at learning how to avoid pressure and it often doesn’t require a lot of feel to do this. So the tricks we teach them are not the best indicator of a trainer’s feel. For me, I look for how emotionally quiet and mentally engaged a horse is when pressure is used to ask a horse a question. If pressure encourages a horse to search with a minimum of trouble I know a good level of feel is being applied. If a horse has a comfortable interest in the work rather than a robotic “going through the motions” approach, then I know a good level of feel is being used.
Feel needs to be learned. Students don’t learn feel from a trainer. They learn feel from a horse. A trainer can help you learn what to look for in a horse that is responding to good or poor feel. But it is the horse that is the teacher. All horses need a different feel for different tasks at different moments. There is no defined level of feel that works for every horse at every moment in every situation. Our feel should be adjusted moment to moment with every new thought that a horse has. This is why we learn it from horses and not horse trainers.
Laura Dickerson using feel to engage with Taz when she was starting the horse.