Hurried horse behavior problems

 

A lot of humans anticipate "what will happen" when with their horse.

There is a fine line between being aware of your surroundings and things that are occurring at the moment, but also not fixating on potential unwanted outcomes.

I suggest that folks notice their own thought patterns. Whether it is occurring before they are with their horse or in a moment with the equine, to learn to notice when their mind gets "stuck on a thought."

The first question is, "Why are they fixated?" I find this happens because people tend to be anticipating, reacting, or waiting to “see” how the horse will respond- rather than offering proactive communication.

Let's use the common scenario of a horse that has a history of rushing out of the gate. This can cause stress and human anxiety if they are concerned about their safety, concerned with how the horse may move as he passes through the gate, and the behavior afterward, such as diving for the grass on the other side.

The more mental anticipation a person has, the more passive and contained they tend to behave around their horse. When one is unsure if the manner they communicate will “trigger” the horse, they avoid interfering with what the horse is offering, in hopes of not creating a big (defensive) reaction in the horse. So many people will “sneak” around the horse, offering increasingly “quiet” communication with less specificity in conveying what they do want the horse to focus on or how they want him to move. This quickly creates an unwanted vicious cycle of defensiveness between the human and the equine.

The mindset shift... Instead of thinking of the gate (or any other scenario) as the "task", change the focus to assessing if there is a separation between directing his focus from his movement. Learning the difference in how, when, and with what energy you can influence the mind apart from the body will build your confidence and increase the efficiency of your aid.

Taking the time to practice redirecting the horse’s thought, experimenting with changes in his energy, asing him to mentally “check in” with you in the MIDDLE of a “task” and breaking down “big” agendas into smaller pieces, can help you recognize where, when you “lose” the horse mentally- this indicates when his movement is no longer influenced by your communication. Prioritizing in a variety of locations, having the ability to ask for a left, straight, right, back, or forward thought requires an intentional commitment to specificity that most people don’t have.

Think of it as if you were asking for directions, and you were trying to understand how far away something was. If someone kept answering you with things like, “It is a ways down...” or, “It isn’t too far...” or “Keep going for a bit...” you would probably get frustrated with the lack of specificity. This may create tension or anxiety in you while you are trying to “find” where you were going. This is how most horses I meet are operating during the human interaction- whether the person is on the ground or in the saddle.

How many times would you ask someone for directions and receive an unclear response before you quit asking and try to “find” the place on your own? This is no different than the horse who feels like he is “controlling” the interaction... it is a RESULT reflecting the previous lack of clarity.

Learning to have a real-time assessment of where the horse's brain is, how his energy is, and his willingness to adapt what he is offering can help you slow down and break down communication to help versus challenge the horse, such as during the gate Conversation. Experiment with asking the horse to pause while opening the gate, then looking away from the opening, moving away softly, then looking towards the open gate. If there is a concern, help redirect his focus on something opposite the gate until he no longer anticipates it.

Then perhaps ask him to take a step or two towards it, and notice if there is a rush in the horse's movement or an assumption that he will go out of it, then drawing the thought away from the gate, offering a pause until he mentally digests and perhaps sighs, chews, blows his nose, and physically softens. Assess if there are tension hocks, or a braced stance, heavy breathing, blinking, rigidity in the ears, etc. If there is physical tightness, learn how to help the horse let go in his head, neck, shoulders, ribcage, and hindquarters...

Then heading back towards the gate and notice if the horse’s energy and posture is "asking" rather than "telling" with them getting heavy on the lead rope, pulling, pushing at you or towards the gate.

None of this is actually about the gate itself. The scenario just happens to be an opportunity for assessment and feedback from the horse, a place to refine the tools in communication with the horse, and can be a great Conversation starter for whatever else may be asked of the horse further along in the session.

This is not to create a "pattern" of going out the gate either. If the horse is thoughtful and available from the start, then there is no need to "practice" not going out. I find many "regular" interactions with the horse have unclear communication because there is not enough value put on having a quality interaction when presenting a familiar, seemingly basic scenario with the horse.

By prioritizing engaging his mind before going out the gate, it affects the quality of his directability, which influences the communication during the leading to the grooming area, the quietness of tacking, etc. It has a positive trickle-down effect.

It also eliminates hopeful humans, by being able to recognize where the horse's brain and emotions are, ask for a change in them if necessary so that the horse is directable and willing, and then by the time the gate or anything else is presented, the person feels like they are in the "driver's seat" rather than being a "passenger" to whatever the horse offers.

This increases one’s confidence that they can proactively influence what is about to happen, rather than defensively react and attempt to contain the horse. And this is what allows the person to not fixate or worry about the "What if scenarios..." with the horse.