Horse Skills, Equine Behavior, and the Problems with Patterns

 

Patterns

What's your pattern? 

 As folks beginning the new year, it is a great time to revisit assessing one's self-awareness to recognize where perhaps unintentional interactions negatively contribute to the horse's behavior and responses. 

To help discover root causes or contributors that may have not previously been considered, start to think about any current interactions with the horse. 

Seasonal or weather factors, time limitations, or perhaps specific instruction contribute to creating a pattern of familiarity for the horse to appear compliant or willing. 

Something as simple as when you walk up to approach the horse, do you offer the same vocal greeting or physical behavior? Do you walk to the same spot outside the pen or pasture? Do you open the stall door or gate in the same manner? Do you halter in the same location? Do you put the halter in the same manner? Do you walk out the gate in the same way and turn in the same direction when you go to close it? Does the path you walk from the stall or pasture to wherever you groom, tack up, or do your groundwork never change? Do you groom in the same order, saddle from the same side, or have a pattern in your groundwork? Do you mount in the same location, in the same manner, from the same side? Do you have a routine before getting on? Do you ride off in the same direction or send your horse off in the round pen in the same direction when you start? Do you "always" ______________ after a session?

These are just a few of the many ways in which people unintentionally create patterns and routines that can often give the false illusion that everything is fine with the horse... until the day something out of their control influences that routine, creating a change that then triggers the horse. 

Countless times I have been told by an owner they have never seen their horse react in a dramatic, defensive, or chaotic manner like when something changed in their world. It does not have to be something big or scary, it could be as simple as putting on the halter and then taking it off and walking away, and seeing the horse completely melt down. 

The problem with having such unintentionally ingrained patterns and routines in the interaction is it often leaves the human on autopilot (mentally elsewhere) and not checking in to observe the horse's feedback. It also can create quiet, continuous anticipation in the horse where he physically complies and obediently contains concerns, learning to tolerate initially triggering aspects of human interaction. 

The day something changes in the pattern is when the horse's honest feedback comes pouring out because the horse has never learned the skills to think, be mentally directable, search, or try. 

The negative effects of these patterns usually are not noticed until something changes in their horse's world, such as hauling to a new facility or having someone else handle the equine. The typically "angelic" horse suddenly becomes a fire-breathing dragon.

Intentionally using every interaction, however insignificant it may be to the human, is an opportunity for checking in with the horse. It allows for assessing his mentally directability, tension, and defensive behavioral patterns. Experimenting with changing up the how, what, where, and when things are asked of him can offer insight as to if and what educational holes or triggers are to address them, creating an adaptable and willing equine.