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Re: [RC] Getting in the trailer-now training philosophies - mcalex> But, with training under saddle....you can teach and reward forever > with good results, however, there will come a time where the young horse > will test you and be asked to do something it does not want to do. The > horse will may try to buck, rear, bolt, etc. if it does not get it's way. > You WILL have to be assertive, and dominate this horse under > saddle.....and have some really bad repercussions for this type of > behavior under SADDLE!!! You cannot convince me there is a young horse > alive that will not test a rider, even with the best of training......
There will always come a time where a person or animal tests his choices, if only to see if the "rules" work in "real life" like they do in formal training sessions. And there will be times when we ask our animals (and other people) to do things they don't want to do.
(By the way, I've had horses in the past, including a youngster I trained myself, and I've never had one who bolted, reared, or otherwise behaved in such a dangreous manner. I've had horses who didn't want to leave the barn or wanted to run home and stuff like that.)
Those times are largely predictable, however, and as such, we should be able to come up with strategies to deal with them that don't require physical force. Two common, and highly effective techniques, are negative punishment and cueing an incompatible behavior.
For example, say your horse wants to bolt for the barn when you reach a certain part of the trail. You walk him toward that spot. As soon as his gait increases, you turn him around and go the other way. That's negative punishment. Going faster causes him to lose the opportunity to go home. React at the first faster step -- not when he's in a full-fledged and dangerous bolt.
A common "incompatible" behavior is "head down." Putting a head down has a calming effect. So as a horse starts to get ancy -- long before it bucks or rears -- the rider uses repeated head down cues to put it back into a calm state. Don't let him get revved up. Idenitfy the pre-cursor behaviors and act early.
If the horse bucks or rears, you have no choice but to *react*, and that's poor training. The animal already accomplished the undesired behavior. Be proactive, and deal with the problem before it's a problem.
I absolutely do not have all the answers, and yes, there are serious problems. But if you have such serious problems with a horse, why are you on its back at all? Why aren't you on the ground filling the holes in the training?
And from your other post, I agree that the rider should be making most of the decisions, especially in an unusual situation. I also think that respect has to be earned, and using force on a horse isn't the way to earn it (and frankly, isn't very respectful of the rider to the horse). Showing the horse that you are trustworthy and that you make consistently good decisions -- decisions that make him feel secure -- are what earns respect.
I don't let animals walk all over me, especially animals like horses that can kill me without meaning any harm. If I don't trust a horse (or dog), I'll work it from a safe location, and I'll emphasize control behaviors that will make me feel safe when I work in closer contact.
My strategy is to keep my animals busy. If your horse is doing lateral work, gait transitions, changes of direction, and so forth, when does he have TIME to think about bolting and rearing and those other things? If he's performing nicely, let him rest -- and if he chooses to get ancy, put his mind and body back to work.
Melissa Alexander
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