LEADERSHIP through Trust & respect

 

Dominance and Herd Hierarchy  
Horses don’t just prefer a strong leader and a herd dynamic; they crave and need them. Without them, they are frightened and lost. Imagine a herd of horses out in the wild. If you take one away from the others to a different side of the mountain, that horse doesn’t remark on the tall green grass and the nice “alone time.” Instead, he uses his first set of basic survival instincts every horse is born with to get back to his herd.  The horse is a herd animal, subject to a dominance hierarchy and because it is a flight animal, the horse needs leadership to know when and where to run. Wild and domesticated horses need leadership and readily accept it. Even naturally dominant individual horses (which are the exception in all animals that live in groups) will accept us as its leader and rather quickly once we establish trust, respect and confidence we can gain leadership if we know how. Keep in mind that it is instinctive for horses to impose, bully, and fight for position on a daily basis. If you do not have position above the horse, your ability to earn controlled responses is about the same as a yearling trying to tell the dominant mare what to do.  The way to true enjoyment and be safe with horses is leadership.  

 

How does this instinctive behavior affect you and your relationship with your horse? 
If a horse finds itself without a leader some can become extremely difficult to handle and ride.  Let’s start by examining what happens when you take a horse away from his herd and his buddy.

 

1.    If you take a high ranking, confident horse that has natural leadership tendencies away from its herd, it may not become overly anxious, but it may step into a leadership role and start making choices for itself. It may not trust or have confidence in the handler/rider so it will ignore her/him. After all, it’s thinking in a herd mentality and since its herd leader isn’t present, it may decide to take charge of the situation.  As the leader, the horse’s behavior will change and s/he:

 
    May start pulling against you when you lead it. 
    It may feel unsafe and feel it needs to protect itself by becoming tense and keeping its head elevated and nostrils flared to sense what’s going on around it.  
    May be restless when contained, and may have trouble standing still when tied. 
    May refuse to pick up her/his feet, unwilling to move forward because it is watching out for any perceived danger. 
    The horse may be reluctant to focus on what is being asked of it, May stop going forward, changing gaits even refuse backing up
    It may even get distracted to the point of tripping as it moves, since it isn’t watching where it is going. 
    May become spooky about things that don’t normally affect her/him.
    May refuse to load in a trailer
    May buck, rear and even bolt

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2.    If you have a horse that is lower in rank, when removed from the herd, will develop even more anxiety and difficult behavior. 

    Without the confidence in the handler/rider, its main concern will be to find a herd, any herd, as long as it means it doesn’t have to make choices for itself. 
    In some cases when separated from other horses, it may break ties, and weave, paw, buck or kick in its stall. 
    May whinny loudly calling for help, knocking into you with his head as he frantically looks from one direction to another. 
    When ridden, the horse may refuse to leave his herd-mates, or the barn area, and may rear, spin or buck to avoid doing so. 

 

Horse owners often don't realize that they create their own leadership problems
Even though a horse has strong herd tendencies and fight or flight instincts, he can be conditioned and trained to behave in a controlled manner. But, for the horse to overcome these instinctive responses, he well need to feel secure in his relationship with you, and will need to learn to trust and respect you as his leader. And, just like the equine herd leader needs to earn his right to leadership, you too will have to earn the right to become your horse’s leader. To be recognized as your horses leader you will need to: 

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   Establish & Enforce healthy boundaries and rules of behavior - Gain a horse’s respect and trust by first using a proper Foundation of Ground training plan that prepares your horse Emotionally, Mentally and Physically to meet your goals.  
    Ensure the learning situations are well within the horse’s capability to learn quickly.  
    Consistency is very important – Use a progressive step by step horse specific training plan
    Give your horse the benefit of the doubt – don’t accuse, blame or ridicule because confidence and trust will easily tumble.
    Allow the horse to make a mistake – Allow the horse to have some degree of choice in the situation.   Redirect mistakes, don’t punish them.  Redirection can not only improve your horse’s trust but also shorten the learning curve as you minimally disrupt his ability to concentrate
    Less is more - Set up learning situations that benefit the horse as well as the trainer by ensuring that every action, every cue or aid you give your horse is given with a purpose and has a value.  For example if your horse does 5 or 6 lunging circles or riding circles in one direction we don’t need 20 
    Communicate expectations clearly - If a horse fails to do something properly that is because he was not asked or trained properly and/or the rider was not trained properly!”
    Educate patiently on the ground and train or at least continue to work the same way in the saddle
    Build a positive relationship
    Offer praise, rewards and incentive
    Confidence is very important and is a two Way Street - The owner needs self confidence, the horse needs self confidence and you both need confidence in one another!  A horse ridden by a skilled and confident rider may seem confident and calm, but when ridden by a fearful person, the same horse can lose his confidence and seems to forget his training.

 

Where do we start?
It is very important we understand Who our horse is?  What it knows?  What it offers willingly? And What it needs?   We do this by doing an Evaluation and assessment. With this information we can identify our goals and then consider what training steps our horse will have to do to accomplish those goals.  Will he have to learn to stop when you say whoa or will he have to learn to respect our personal space?  In the perfect world some horses have a clean slate but some horses have bad habits caused by improper handling and/or training so we may need to deconstruct those habits first.  Other horses have physical or mental barriers to overcome.  Each horse has different desirable and undesirable traits; so work with each horse and his individual traits or problems, one at a time.  There isn’t one recipe you can use for every horse.  "If a horse fails to do something that is because he was not trained to do it.  If a horse fails to do something properly that is because he was not trained properly and/or the rider was not trained properly!”.

Develop a proper foundation of ground training plan
 A lot of people search for a one-size-fits all training plan, kind of like a recipe for a cake that will guarantee fairly standard results if they just add the right ingredients and follow all the steps.  Each horse has different needs.  One horse may naturally love to lunge but he may be very forward moving and not want to stop but when he does he really stops nicely.  One horse may not want to lunge at all; so work with each horse and his individual issues break it down in individual small goals and fix them one at a time.  There is not one set of drills you using the same method for every horse.  If you are not sure look around you to find a horse with the proper form, compare that horse to your horse, seek help from a professional, watch DVDs and then decide what your horse needs to do.  Training lesson plans get complicated because the horse has to develop simultaneously physically, emotionally and mentally. Each and every day the trainer must decide where the horse is physically, emotionally and mentally. Then he or she can decide how lessons should be taught to keep the horse progressing so his development is balanced.  Once you have developed a generic training plan in order to develop the implementation strategy two important pieces of the puzzle you will need to know is the horse's Personality Behavior Patterns [desirable & undesirable traits], be familiar with a Horse Body Language because no training recipe fits every horse.
  
Respect, Trust and Confidence equal Leadership
The key to any relationship is respect, trust and confidence because they are particularly important when it comes to earning leadership with horses. Respect and Trust are crucial, as a horse that doesn't respect or trust will have no confidence in his owner and in itself therefore it may end up intentionally or inadvertently hurting that person and/or itself.  Like any other relationship, respect, trust and confidence comes from a lot of hard work that includes time spent together.  Learning how to gain your horse's respect and trust can help you; handle, ride with confidence, build a lasting relationship with your animal and earn your leadership.  

Before a horse will respect and trust us as the leader, we will have to offer him proper leadership starting on the ground and transfer it into the saddle. It your leadership is appropriate and strong, the horse will be respectful and controlled. If the leadership offered is weak and confusing, the horse will start filling in for you, and take control. A kind and mannerly horse that has had consistent training and handling may fill in for you in a positive way, but an evasive horse or one that hasn’t had any consistency, may take over in a negative manner becoming dangerous to handle or ride.  Regardless of how much training your horse has had the key to his behavior rests in how you handle him on a routine basis. This puts the burden of the responsibility on you and how you handle your horse! To override your horse’s natural flight or fight instinct and herd-bound tendency, you must become his herd and leader, and earn his trust and respect. And, if you want your horse to behave with consistency, then you will need to be consistent as his leader, enforcing the same rules, the same way, and all the time.

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Horse will challenge our leadership
Keep in mind that horses are hard-wired to challenge their leader and at some point, your horse will challenge you.  He may do it in a small way that would be easy to miss. You must stay aware of every small disobedience and test of authority and act on it immediately.  If not checked, the challenge will increase. Whenever you are challenged, immediately re-assert yourself as the leader. Don’t let these challenges discourage you, and keep in mind that the more consistent you are with correct handling, the less you will be challenged.  The amount of difficulty and challenge the horse will give you in regard to spooking, anxious behavior and being herd-bound will be partly determined by the horse’s previous experiences. A horse that has worked with a variety of people that have consistently offered good leadership and correct handling and training, will be more willing to accepting leadership from anyone. The horse has learned that people are the leaders and are to be trusted and respected. 

 

Will having a well trained horse solve Leadership Issues?
There are many other equine training problems that exist besides anxiety, spookiness, and being herd-bound, and the root of many of them are related to a leadership issues. To be successful and safe around your horse, it is imperative that you learn how to take the lead role. Buying a perfectly trained horse won’t solve the problem either, in the long run; you will need to learn leadership skills to maintain the trained horse’s good behavior. Planning to send your horse to a trainer to be educated and learn respect, trust, and obedience is also not enough. The horse will learn to respect and trust the trainer and follow his lead, but, when you take your horse home, unless you take the same role as the trainer, your horse will feel lost in his relationship with you. The best situation is to participate in the training process and study with a trainer that is willing to work with both you and your horse, teaching you how to be a good leader; to train on the ground/in the saddle and handle your horse correctly yourself.  Keep in mind also that developing good control on the ground will help you have better control when mounted. 

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It is not about what the trainer can do with your horse!  ”It is about what you can do with your horse!”