I remember watching a video where a horse was being ridden in an arena and would drift towards the arena gate. It preferred to be close to the gate and resisted a little when ridden away from the gate. The trainer’s solution was to allow the horse to rest away from the arena gate, but work it quite hard when it drifted back to the gate. After a while, it worked pretty well at preventing the horse from drifting towards the gate. It was an adaptation of the adage “make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard”. Work near the gate, rest away from the gate.
Years ago I watched a demonstration of a trainer loading a reluctant horse into a trailer. When the horse looked into the trailer it was allowed to rest. But when the horse resisted it was asked to circle one-way and then the other way for several minutes. When the horse took an interest in the inside of the trailer, it was allowed to rest again. It took a while, but eventually, the horse loaded into the trailer without too much fuss. Again, it was making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard.
A very recent video demonstrated stopping a horse from pawing the ground when it was tied. When the horse pawed, it was made to work. When it stopped pawing it was allowed to rest. In time, the horse started to make the sort of changes the trainer was wanting. It worked. And again, the trainer was making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard.
In each case, the horses made the type of changes in their behaviour the trainers were looking for. But here is the problem as I see it.
The success of each of those scenarios relied on the horse dreading the working part of it. Asking a horse to do stuff was used as a punishment. It was the ‘hard’ part of the adage of “making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard”. It relied on the horse viewing the work as hard in order to make the resting seem easy. If the horses saw the working part as easy and as comfortable as the resting part there would be no incentive for the horses to stop pawing or stop drifting to the gate or resist loading into the trailer. The exercising had to be something the horse did not like for the thing the trainer did want to appear easy.
I spend most of my time with horses trying to help them to view work with me as easy. I strive to make it something that causes them no more bother than to be standing in the paddock on a warm day. That’s my goal and what I work on every moment.
But in the scenarios I outlined, the trainers (each well-known and respected with very big followings) were weaponizing the work as punishment for not doing the right thing. I see that as a problem.
I believe a better approach would be to try to emphasize making the right thing easy and less emphasis on making the wrong thing hard.
For example, in the case of the horse wanting to drift to the arena gate. I would try to connect my horse’s mind to be with me and not thinking about the gate by directing it to tasks and rewarding when the thoughts checked in with me. If the horse took an interest in the gate, I might interrupt that thought with a job that required it to check in with me (such as backup or a change of gait or a change in direction) and only release when the horse’s mind came back to me with a question. Bit by bit the arena gate would lose its importance because the horse’s focus would be with me and not on the gate.
If my horse had a chronic pawing issue when it was tied, I would help it quieten its mind by asking it to soften and relax before tying it up. If he started to get frustrated or agitated again, I might untie it and quiet its mind again before tying it up a second time. Each time I would try to improve on the degree of okay-ness inside my horse before tying it again. If I did my job well I would expect to gradually see that my horse became more settled and could stay quiet longer and longer with each session. One day I would forget it ever had a problem being tied up.
The trailer loading problem could be addressed by training my horse to lead better and follow my feel in directing its thoughts into the trailer. Most trailer loading problems are simple leading problems.
I guess my point is that I don’t understand why we would ever want to make work something a horse dreads? It seems counterproductive to most people’s goals. I want my horse to feel good enough about being with me that it sees the tasks I set as a comfort in its life. I don’t want to punish it for seeing the tasks I set as a discomfort. That’s on me. If that’s how my horse feels that’s my fault. That’s my failure. I won’t make it worse by weaponizing the one thing I want it to feel good about - work.
