How do you help a horse not rush at the canter? How do you help a horse that bolt out of a trailer? How do you help a horse that spooks on a trail ride? How do you help a horse that is crooked through turns and circles? How do you help a horse that fights the reins? How do you help a horse that struggles to balance during canter lead changes?
This is the “Unifying Theory Of Everything In Horsemanship” (according to Dr R.A. Jacobs BSc PhD and an all-around nice guy )
FOCUS
Working with a horse requires we are in constant conversation with our horse. Participation in a conversation requires both parties to focus on one another with calm and interest. This is what I call ‘soft focus’. On the other hand, some horses exhibit ‘hard focus’. This is when we have a horse’s attention but it is accompanied by worry.
A horse’s hard focus is almost always accompanied by tension and the need to flee the source of the hard focus. An example of hard focus might be the first time a horse is blanketed.
Soft focus is often accompanied by interest and readiness to explore options. For instance, when a horse returns to his paddock mates after a trail ride.
Soft focus is necessary for a two-way conversation with a horse. Soft focus is necessary for clarity when we ask our horse a question. Without soft focus there can only be resistance and argument. There can be no clarity without soft focus because the response we get to a question will not be thoughtful and calm. It will be reactive and it will block the ability of our horse to learn to go with us.
In short, soft focus prevents a high degree of clarity. While hard focus inhibits clarity, and no focus blocks clarity
CLARITY
As I wrote recently on this page (November 25, 2024), anxiety is mostly due to a lack of clarity. When we ask a horse a question, if it knows the answer there is almost zero anxiety. The more obvious the answer the more comfort the horse experiences. I used the example of how extreme the response can be to the first experience of an electric fence. But once it is clear to a horse how to avoid getting zapped, it becomes calm and relaxed while sleeping with its nose just a few centimetres from the fence. This is an extreme example, but the principle holds no matter the circumstances.
Almost all anxiety comes from a lack of clarity on how to respond to find comfort and safety. Alternatively, knowing how to find comfort and safety with absolute clarity results in a horse experiencing calmness and a lack of worry.
In essence, clarity determines a horse’s emotions.
SOFTNESS
The level of softness in a horse is determined by the degree of focus and clarity it experiences. Softness is a horse's lack of resistance and quiet emotions. Softness is not lightness.
Lightness is measured by how little pressure we need to create obedience. However, a light horse is not soft because it carries anxiety. Whereas, a soft horse (absent of anxiety) is light because it requires very little pressure to change a thought. We should always be working towards a soft horse.
As I have said, clarity is a determining element of a horse’s emotions and their emotions are deciding factors in the degree of softness. The greater the clarity, the softer the emotions, which then lead to softer responses from our horse.
So here is the unifying theory of good horsemanship in a nutshell:
soft focus + greater clarity = less anxiety
less anxiety = greater softness = GOOD HORSEMANSHIP
Without all these elements in place, our goal of achieving good horsemanship remains elusive.
When you have a problem with your training it is always because focus or clarity or softness or any combination of them is not good enough.
This theory is explained in more depth in my book, The Essence of Good Horsemanship. As you can see, it is essential reading