Horse Skills : Position Alternative vs Critical Communication

 Positive Alternatives vs. Critical Commentary 

Most riders focus on what they don't want their horse to do and attempt to "block," drive, or reprimand the horse in what they consider is the moment of unwanted behavior (more often they are responding to symptoms vs root causes.)

If they are reacting to only the big and obvious physical movements of the horse, they are missing all the initial Opportunities to check-in with the horse's mental availability and directability which influences his behaviors. 

Often these more obvious unwanted equine responses trigger a slurry of emotions and critical mental dialog in the human. The trickle down effect causes late, rigid, gray area critical communication towards the horse in an attempt to contain unwanted behaviors.

Multiple things are occurring between the human's mind getting lost in their story of "I wants" or "Why is the horse..." without recognizing how much physical tension (even if not trying to be aggressive) they are projecting along with dumping a chaos of emotions on the horse.

So does this communication help the horse, offer support to the horse, create a safe space for the horse to learn, think, and try in? No.

Does the human critique or attempt of physical containment of the horse change his thoughts and emotions creating positive changes in the behaviors? No. So the undesired behavior continues, irrelevant of the critique, and the equine's defensiveness towards people is reinforced, and the Human is overwhelmed by their emotions often causing them to shutdown.

Instead, riders need to recognize the unwanted behavior is the end result. They need to backtrack and "play detective" in their mind as to all the events that led up to the final outcome. 

Starting with assessing their thoughts (learning to become and stay mentally present) and remain emotionally neutral, riders need to be clear on breaking down the "end goal" into small, specific segments. Then noticing when/if their thoughts as they think through the mechanics of how they will present each segment to the horse contain things like:

Hopefully he will...

I wonder if...

We will see...

Maybe the horse will...

I want...

He already knows how...

He'll be fine if I...

We've already done this...

Why can't the horse just...

If so, all of the above statements trigger unwanted emotions leading to tension in the human. How much quality and adaptability will their communication have if they're carrying tension?

I remind equine enthusiasts the excessive, unwanted, defensive, resistant, avoidant behaviors in the horse reflect holes in his education and that his feedback has been ignored or reprimanded.

If we ignore the horse's reasonable communication without addressing him, then we don't have Quality "tools" in how we communicate with the horse. It would be like yelling at someone in German who only speaks Spanish. It wouldn't matter how loud the words we said were, the other person still wouldn't understand. Same goes for most human and horse relationships.

Practice taking each of the above hopeful and critical thoughts (and any others you might have found yourself thinking) and practice replacing with Positive Alternatives- something that gives YOU and the HORSE to do.

Example:

"I hope my horse doesn't..." 

Vs

"I'm going to pick a specific spot for the horse to look at. (Checking in for mental directability) My horse can look left but he is braced to the right. Let me help him unlock the physical brace in his jaw, neck, shoulders, ribcage, hindquarters. Oh, he was stuck on his right hind leg. Let's experiment with having him follow the feel of the lead and move just the right hind. I'll address his counteroffer to help him let go of pushing his head into my hand, give him a boundary from swinging his hindquarters... Ah, he just offered to softened his right hind hock. I'll give him time to Pause. I'll offer him time to mentally process, chew, blow his nose, deflate physical tension. Okay, now that he's mentally present and physically soft, let's look at the original object to the right. He's willing and seeing (literally) , we're ready to step forward."

I'm very aware that for most people the above dialogue would never occur in this seemingly most basic of interactions with the horse. The reality is when we talk about "supporting" the horse, most humans are unable to recognize the constant ongoing feedback the equine is offering, and the continuous communication from a person that the animal needs in order to navigate the human world in a manner that builds his confidence and trust instead of diminishing it.

Learning how early timing and specificity of communication are needed is crucial in offering Positive Alternatives to proactively convey and help the horse "find without fear" what the human is requesting.  

Learning to prioritize directing the horse's thoughts in order to influence the horse's movement takes practice. It involves assessing oneself and the horse, experimenting, adapting, and making decisions in "real time." 

It is a fundamental part of the Conversation neccessary to build a solid foundation and quality partnership leading to rewarding rides.

By doing so, the rider diminishes and diffuses many unwanted scenarios by how quickly they give their horse instruction as to what they do want, offering something the horse CAN do, while addressing the equine's feedback in a manner that has value to him.