Being the "alpha horse"

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

K S SWIGART   katswig@earthlink.net


Having had the opportunity to observe domesticated horses in
a fairly "natural" environment (free to roam on about 100
acres, grazing whenever they feel like it with a water
source that is a bit of a trek) and being the proud owner of
the quintessential "alpha" mare, I feel marginally qualified
to share some of my observations about horse social
behaviour and so called "natural" horsemanship (NH) and one
of the most popular training tools of the NH proponent, the
round pen.

Let's start with my alpha mare, Sonny.  No doubt about it,
she is 'boss hoss.'  But one thing Sonny never does is try
to get the other horses to do what she wants.  Sonny
couldn't care less about what all the other horses in the
pasture are doing.  She is a leader, not because she wants
to lead the herd but because she is not a follower so if the
other horses want to be a part of Sonny's herd, they had
better do what Sonny does and go where Sonny goes.

Sonny just does what Sonny wants to do and nothing stands in
her way--not other horses, not fences, not people, NOTHING. 
Sonny wants a drink of water, Sonny walks to the water
trough; if you are between Sonny and the water trough you
get out of her way or you get walked over or through.  Sonny
doesn't want you to hold her, Sonny walks off and you either
get dragged or you let go of the rope (a guy I was dating
for a while learned that the hard way).  Sonny doesn't want
you to hold her foot, she sets it down and you either let go
of her foot or get pushed onto the ground along with her
foot (farrier learned that the hard way).  Sonny doesn't
want to be tied, Sonny breaks whatever she is tied to or
tied with.  Sonny doesn't want to be in the trailer, Sonny
breaks the back door off the trailer (Sonny is a BIG girl,
1200-1300lbs, and Sonny knows that Sonny is big).  

If you try to reprimand Sonny for doing any of these things,
and Sonny will swiftly punish you the same way alpha horses
punish other horses for not showing due respect and getting
out of their way, she will either bite you or kick you
depending on which end you are closer to--and swiftly
(farrier also learned that the hard way).  She reminds me of
Forego (three time Horse of the Year and the "last of the
great weight carriers") about whom his groom once said, "If
he [Forego] wants to go left and you want to go right, you
go left."

I mention this not only because to attempt to "be alpha" to
my mare Sonny would be the height of foolishness and an
argument that I could never win.  The horse outweighs
me...by a lot, and she knows she outweighs me...by a lot.  But
also because I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to "be
alpha" with any of my other horses the way Sonny is alpha
among my pasture herd.  It is not a very productive
relationship between people and horses and is effective only
for ensuring that you don't get mugged or stepped on when
you go in the pasture gate (important, indeed, but it
doesn't enable you to get brilliant performances from your
horses).  There is no "partnership" at all in the "be alpha"
relationship.  Sonny isn't partners with the other members
of the herd, nor can she get them to "perform" for her.  All
she does is keep them out of her space and keep them out of
her food.

Being an alpha horse may be a useful relationship if you are, a 
breeder who wants your stock to have good
ground manners, not walk all over you, not bite you, not
kick you, and just generally respect your physical space
when you go out in their space to take care of them.  But if
I want my horses to run for me, jump for me, turn on the
haunches, chase a cow...or even go in a trailer when I ask,
then the relationship is going to have to be different from
that of "alpha" horse in the herd.  I am going to have to
"be the human" in the relationship.

Equally as important, in a natural herd environment, it is
NOT the alpha horse that decides when to spook and when not
to spook.  In a natural horse herd ANY horse (even the lowest
in the pecking order, except the babies) can say "RUN" and 
all the horses will run first ask questions later, it is only 
after you teach your horse that you are human and that they no
longer have to engage their natural tendency to flee because you
will take care of them, that they will stop spooking.
 
Sonny and I have a very nice partnership (as I do with all
my other horses; although not the same).  The agreement that I 
have with my horses is that I will do the human things:  like 
grooming, providing carrots, and riding, and they will do the 
horsey things:  like carrying me, jumping the big jumps (Sonny 
is a jumper), letting me steer (to varying degrees, depending
on the horse--Sonny only lets me steer as long as I
acknowledge that she doesn't have to let me steer).  More
importantly, this is an evolving relationship; although I
will always be the one to provide the carrots, the nature
and tenor of which things I do and which things the horse
does change over time and change depending on the
circumstances (e.g.  who does what and takes which decisions
is different in a show jumping arena than it is when riding
out on the trail; who does what and takes which decisions is
different out on the trail in the day time than it is at
night).  And one of the things that I have learned by
working with Sonny is that just who gets to make the
decisions about who is playing which roles is arrived at by
mutual arrangement, not by me being the boss (actually, when
it comes down to brass tacks, it's really Sonny who
decides:) as does your horse decide in your relationship). 
Who decides when to spook is also one of the decisions that
I take up as the "human" in the parnership (if the horse will
let me...most do, because despite their "natural wild tendencies
to run first ask questions later" horses have been bred for 
millenia to be domesticated and will let humans take that decision, 
if they trust the human--what we have to do to "de-spook" our
horses is to teach them to see us and trust us as humans.  If
they think of us as horses, they will run when they see something
scary, no matter what their rank in the pecking order.)
 
One of my priorities in the things that I teach a horse when
I first start working with it (and this includes the foals
born at my place) is that "I am NOT a horse."  With the
foals, I have mom's connivance in teaching this lesson. 
During the first day of a foal's life the mare will keep the
foal away from all the other horses (mostly by using the
body block, but will resort to biting and kicking if the
point is not taken); however, she will let me approach and
work with the baby, AND if the baby tries to run and hide
behind mom, mom will not help the baby hide from me.  So the
very first lesson that the foal gets with people is that horses 
and people are different because mommy said so.  Philip was very
confused at first as to why mom wouldn't protect him from me
and all those scary people the way she did from all the
other horses, and Thor was very confused as to why mom
wouldn't let him go check out all the other horses the way
she would with me and all the other people who came into the
stall.

This, BTW, is what it means for a horse to be domesticated. 
The relationship that a horse has with another horse is very
different from the relationship that a horse has with a
person; the demands, expectations and roles that we ask them
to play are completely different from those that they make
on each other.  My alpha mare doesn't ride the other horses,
she doesn't tie them up, she doesn't put them in a trailer,
she doesn't pick up their feet, . . . . . I could go on
forever about the things that I ask of my horses that my
mare doesn't ask of the others; she doesn't even ask them to
trust her!!  The only thing I have in common with my alpha
mare is that I expect all the horses (including my alpha
mare) to get out of the way when I come through the pasture
gate.  And I can ask my alpha mare to get out of my way when
I go through the pasture gate, and she will do it, not
because I am alpha in her herd, but because I am a person
who has rewarded her for getting out of my way (this is a
fairly simplistic description of how I established a working
relationship with Sonny, but it is pretty much what it boils
down to).

We do "imprint" training with horses in order to be able to
domesticate them and teach them about all the demands that
people will make on them in the future (demands that have
nothing to do with what horses naturally do) before they
have a chance to learn otherwise.  And, I assert, if we
approach teaching adult horses about domestication in the
same way that we approach teaching newborn foals about
domestication (i.e.  "People make 'unnatural' demands, but
don't be afraid, trust me," and "You're not a wild horse,
you are a domestic horse"), this approach will be much more
successful than if we try to pretend that we are just
another horse in their herd.

And, I assert, that even people who say that they are
mimicking "boss horse" behavior and are "joining" the
horse's herd when they are teaching a horse to trust
them...are doing no such thing.  They are teaching them
domestic horse behavior by teaching them how to interact
with humans.  And they use human tools to do this such as
round pens, rope halters with lead ropes braided on them and
poppers on the end, whips with bags tied to the end of them,
voice, and praise (when did you ever see a horse praise
another horse for doing the right thing?).
 
I have found that if I accept that when working with horses
what I am doing is teaching them to interact with humans
rather than pretending that I am behaving like a horse, that
my horses are much more willing to put aside their wild
horse behavior (which includes such unpleasant actions as
biting and kicking at each other and fleeing at the drop of
a hat) and give magnificent performances for me (which
includes carrying me for thousands of miles, jumping over
drop jumps without knowing what is on the other side, and
NOT fleeing from every little thing that they consider
scary).  But to do so I have to accept that there is nothing
inherent or instinctive about this relationship (although it has
been bred in) and yep, it's gonna take us (both me and the horse)
time to learn it--not only because we are starting from 
completely different world understandings, but because it also 
takes time to develop the timing and the physical condition 
(of both horse and rider) to accomplish these things.

I could no more learn to communicate with and understand a
horse (and teach a horse to communicate with and understand
me) in half an hour than I could learn to speak Russian and
understand the mind set of a Russian in half an hour.  And
come to think of it, the same could be said of my next door
neighbor.  "Human nature" only goes so far in describing how
I interact with my next door neighbor, the rest of it is
best described as "learned behavior."

Additionally, not even horses, in a natural herd environment
can "work out their relationships" in a half an hour.  I have
a couple of rules about keeping horses in my pasture (i.e.
introducing them to my herd).  The first is, if the horse isn't
going to be there for at least four months, they don't get to
join the herd.  Any time I introduce a horse to or remove a horse 
from my herd, it upsets the herd dynamics, and the horses bite 
and kick at each other to "work things out" with the attendant risk
of injury to any of the horses.  It just isn't worth it to me
to take those risks if the horse isn't going to be there for a 
while.  

The other rule I have is NO MORE GELDINGS.  I will have
one gelding at a time, because I have found that if I have more
than that, they get up to all kinds of mischief (and if anybody 
wants to know my observations about why geldings are different
from mares in a herd environment and require different management
to the extent that I cannot accommodate them in my herd, they can
ask me privately).  The only geldings that have not caused me 
problems in my herd are the very young and the very old.  But this
does bring up a very real issue about the differences between
"alpha male" and "alpha female" which could be a whole book in
itself; but realize that if you are going to try to go the "be
a horsey" route, if you are a man, you cannot be an alpha mare,
and if you are a woman, you cannot be an alpha male...the horses
just won't find you convincing in the role.  And I hope that 
there isn't anybody out there who is naive enough to think that 
there is no difference between herd behaviour of male horses and
female horses (and geldings which are a very "unnatural" man-made
creation, and if castration did not significantly alter male 
behaviour, we wouldn't geld horses).

Perhaps one of the reasons that I have found the "be the
herd leader" approach to be limiting in working with horses
is because I spend a great deal of my time working with
Thoroughbreds.  Thoroughbreds, as a breed, generally have no
inclination to be led.  They have, for centuries, been
selectively and exclusively bred for the sole trait of
having the ability and desire to get there first.  Race
horses that are content to be followers are not going to be
very successful race horses, and the truly great ones will
die before they will give in (and some of them have, Ruffian and
Go For Wand immediately come to mind).

kat
Orange County, Calif.
 
p.s.  As for Marv challenge that an audience could watch a
horse spook at scary objects, then he could take the horse
in a round pen for half an hour and "bond" with it, and then
five out of six of them (that's what his $50/$300 bet means)
the audience would agree are "less spooky;" all I can say is
this:  I could achieve the same thing in half an hour while
just holding the horse with a halter and lead rope,
scratching it on the neck and feeding it a bucket of
carrots.

And if anybody is interested in why I think that the way I
have observed most "natural horsemen" to use the round pen
as an instrument of mental torture which has nothing to do
with how horses treat each other in a herd environment, they
can ask me privately.  

And don't make the mistake of thinking that your horse is
your captive and has no choice but to eventually comply just
because it is in a round pen.  Sabrina (Sonny's daughter)
when being worked in a round pen by her owner (not me)
decided that she had had enough of being polite in her
refusals to do as she was asked, charged across the middle
of the pen straight at her owner, cow kicked out at her
owner as she dodged out of the way and nailed her right in
the knee (yes, it included a trip to the emergency room). 
Thor (Sonny's son) when being worked in a round pen by his
owner's husband (not mine) decided that he had had enough of
being polite in his refusals to dow as he was asked and
jumped out of the pen, looking over his shoulder as he  went
over with a look on his face that said, "Up yours." This at
the age of 2 1/2 (so, yes, he is slated to become a jumper
too). Realize, your horse does have other choices.