David Attenborough's fantastic programme about Africa highlights yet again how little we really know and understand about the life and motivations of animals. The camera men and women were amazed to see the normally solitary rhinos meeting at night to share the water hole and each other's breath. People were shocked to see the brutal fight between the two giraffes which left one of them unconscious, seemingly dead on the floor, until he rose, gracefully capitulated and moved away.
I think we don't know the half of it with horses either and we seem to be constantly surprised when they want to engage in what is natural horse behaviour. The 'into-pressure' response is innate in horses - if you press them, their instinct is to squash you and they have to be taught to do otherwise. In some horses this is much stronger than others, especially colts - whether through nature or reinforcement - and it can be stronger on one side of the body than the other.
Yesterday I went out to a young horse who reacts by wanting to squash whenever anyone pushes against him even lightly and for him it has been working beautifully - postponing what the owner wants to do, controlling the situation he is in and getting the attention he demands. When pulled to come forward, to stop or to back up, his instinctive reaction is to stand up on his hind legs and waft his feet at people and he means it. Inconvenient behaviour, even dangerous behaviour but all completely natural and instinctive. He doesn't even think before he does it.
His natural behaviour has been reinforced because it works and because it has created a cycle of more pressure and therefore a greater reaction. In time it has escalated more and more. The thin Parelli halter that he wears hasn't helped in these circumstances because it has added a greater degree of discomfort at the poll which activates that upward into-pressure response.
I had to be pretty cautious about where I began, and I certainly wasn't going to go straight for the main goal of leading him past his lady friend and down to the stables. The most incremental step I could think of was to work him in his own field, where his own field mate was happy to leave us alone, and then to ask very small questions in the most subtle way that I could. At first he would rear if I even put the tiniest pressure on the halter or even looked at his bottom to ask him to turn his hindquarters away. I answered that by staying well away from his body so that he couldn't strike me or come at me with his left shoulder - this is the biggest advert for a 12' rope that I know of! In this position I used strong body language and swished the rope against my own jacket so that he wouldn't be tempted to come into this no man's land between us and might feel that it was better to have his feet on the floor. Neither the body language or the rope was aimed at him, it was simply keeping that space between us free. As soon as he was down and committed to staying down, I would go up to him to give him a lovely rub and ask the question lightly again. This worked within three goes and slowly but surely he began to listen, to think and to make a choice between the big behaviour which led to me going ballistic, albeit at a distance, and the small behaviour which led to me giving him the nicest rub he had ever had. It's a wonderful Mark Rashid phrase - "if in doubt, halve the pressure". By showing him that I was going to be utterly fair, utterly polite and yet very clear, I was able to get him to start listening rather than metaphorically shoving his hooves in his ears and singing "La,la,la,la, la!"
The owner took over from me and we were able to extend the work by moving into an area just outside the field where he was nearer to his lady friend but still ask for his attention and co-operation. The owner is going to continue to practice over the next few days to see what the overall result will be.
Domination is a rude word these days and I am told that leadership is simply a euphemism for domination, no matter what a trainer's intention may be. For me leadership is about trying to establish co-operation between a horse and a handler but with the handler making the decisions about where to go and how to get there.
"S was much better last night. I went back to put his rug on, used the Dually (fitted perfectly) to hold him, and he stood like a little angel, didn't try to bite me, or the rug etc, didn't try to walk off, just stood nice and quietly. He got a bit too close to K as I was putting hers on, so I just tapped on my jacket a couple of times and he gave up and stood there and watched! Was very impressed! I feel much happier now that I have some tips for the rearing. I am going to do some work with him tomorrow..." KM
