Replacing Fear Cycles in our Horsemanship

 The fear of "getting it wrong" can overwhelm people into doing nothing. Avoidance is a common "tactic" in both insecure people and horses. 

Mental anticipation in the human interferes with their ability to be present for their horse, having thoughts such as:

"Last time I tried to ___________ with my horse, and __________ happened. I want to avoid that from occurring again."

"What if my horse does _______, then we won't be able to _______, so I better not ________ to avoid causing a potential problem."

"Information" can be a wonderful tool for advancing and improving your relationship with the horse. Eliminating "good" or "bad"- "right or wrong" - in how you classify horse behavior, allows you to see the value in the animal's feedback as another source of information. This leads to making better informed decisions in how you approach working with the equine.

Here's the problem- despite horses offering the most honest "feedback" humans will ever encounter, more often than not, what the animal is conveying, isn't convenient or doesn't align with accomplishing the goals that most people have "planned."

The unwanted responses are seen as "ornery, snotty, misbehaving, stubborn, or dumb," which reflects the human's ignorance and one's assignment of traits that do not scientifically occur in the equine.

Horses are operating on survival instinct- though often this is "taken" out of the equine by human "training," leaving too many animals in a dysfunctional state. The black and whiteness of the safe/unsafe state they function in, is a stark contrast to how most humans live in the gray area.

The indecisiveness of human nature, combined with a lack of understanding of the horse's behaviors, causes people to offer unclear, delayed communication, leaving the equine in a chaos- mental and/or physical- and him resorting to "take over," to protect himself. But humans frequently take it as a personal conflict. It isn't.

Part of the overwhelmed experiences, is a result of unrealistic demands stemming from a lack of awareness, understanding, and skill. One might try to imitate what they see "everyone else" doing. Many are influenced by horse friends giving good intention-ed but irrelevant advice. Fearful folks will of try to "bluff" their way through the interaction, copying something they saw on "horse training" video, despite being unclear on the mechanics of what they are asking of the equine.

As a side note, much of westernized civilization's education process occurs in a "standardized" form of "teaching"- with a majority of students only learning how to memorize or imitate what they've been taught, without developing the skills of independent thinking or adaptability.

This influences one's "horse learning process" by leaving them unaware of the continuous assessment, changes, and experimentation needed to better address the equine's real-time feedback.

The equine is continually communicating their mental and emotional state based on their physical feedback- their ear direction and rigidity, eye focus and the worry lines above or below, wrinkles in their muzzle, rate/frequency/depth of breath, muscle tension, step movement or balance, tail movement/position/carriage, to name a few indicators.

Recognizing and then removing self-induced pressure or unrealistic expectations of defining if a session was "successful" or not based on if the accomplishment of the original "plan," eliminates coercing oneself into asking things of the horse that are inappropriate.

Learning to find flexibility in the balance of having specificity while remaining adaptable in the presentation of a scenario toward the horse, is a skill. It takes time, awareness, intention, and removing judgement.

Additionally, learning to offer pro-active, relevant communication helps to break down previously overwhelming scenarios, into smaller, attainable ones for you and the horse. The more you see value in taking time to experiment, changing habitual patterns, and learning to check in with the horse, such as awareness of- personal space, how you hold/pick up/put on the halter, spatially moving in different places as you present familiar scenarios, touching your horse in different areas or at various times, etc. will give you feedback that help to recognize holes in his education reflected by his mental or physical triggers by seemingly insignificant changes.

Notice:

Is he always leaning/looking away from you, even if his feet aren't moving?

Does his skin continually twitch when you, flies, or tack touch him?

Does he "dive" into/ "drag" out of the halter or bridle?

If you pause or interrupt him from walking out the gate or stall, what is his response?

Does his breathing change into short, anxious breaths as the session progresses?

Is he continuously pushing/bracing/leaning/drifting/dragging with his head, neck, shoulder, ribcage, or hindquarters?

As a short cut "solution" folks have been taught to fixate on the behavioral symptom- rather than understanding its connection to the root causes. Trying to ignore, criticize, or block, the subtle, honest behaviors displaying concern, insecurity, anticipation, avoidance, etc. leave the human "wondering" what the horse will do next...

Learning to recognize the horse's initial or "manageable" feedback eliminates guessing. Ignoring it, the more defensive he'll be, and his behaviors will escalate, causing you to become increasingly concerned as the interaction continues.

Learning the biomechanics, timing, and adaptability in your aids to ANSWER his "questions," tries, unwanted behavior, avoidant thoughts, etc. can help you learn how to support him learning how to work through, and let go of, defensive responses. This in turn helps build both of your confidence levels.

The two questions I'll leave you with are-

How much of the time in regards to the horse's behavior do you focus on what you "don't want him doing," versus have clarity of the pieces required to "get" the ideal response?

Are you aware of how, what, why, and when you communicate something, and is the horse defensive toward it or does it have value to him?