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| | The scene of regular working with the horse can look very boring for outside observers. It seems that nothing is happening and the rider is simply enjoying his ride. Much more entertaining is the sight to watch when a man tames an obstinate horse, while beating it with the blows of a whip.
However, the physical superiority of man over the horse does not mean that the horse is completely under your control. So as to teach the horse something, one must apply brains, rather than use the whip.
First of all, the training of a horse begins with the understanding of how the horse thinks. You should precisely imagine how their logic works. Communication between the thoughts in the mind of a horse and their reaction to them is not similar to human logic.
At times it seems to us, that the horse is too obstinate and does not want to execute our orders, but in reality it can be simply frightened. As a result, it simply goes into a shell and it becomes much more difficult to take the horse out from this situation, rather than initially listen to the horse.
The fact of the matter is that the psychology of a horse is the psychology of an animal victim. Sight is the first and main indicator of imminent danger, and only then they realize about the incident. Here I will try to explain: when we come nearer to a horse, for example, we simply wish to pat it; - it does not understand our intentions. It only observes our actions and movements and starts to think whether it is safe for it to remain unmoved or whether it must run away to a safer place.
So, your first objective should be to make the horse perceive you as a “simple leopard” instead of a “hunting leopard”. You should not appear to be an attacking predator to the horse. The next objective after the horse has accepted you in its “herd” should be to win the position of leader. As it is known, the herd follows the leader, who controls the entire flock and makes the decisions. It gives all the arbitrary signals by its body language which is understandable to others. In the same way, in the first place you must use body language so as to draw the attention of the horse towards you. For example, try to play with the horse, that is, use the same actions which it is used to in the herd. For example, the combing of the withers etc.
Here is the obvious example of misunderstanding, when the horse rider tries to interpret the actions of a horse from the point of view of humans. All know that if the horse is frightened or offended, its head is extended upwards and all its muscles are strained. From the point of view of the horse rider, it is necessary to strike the horse on the isolators or work on the hollow martingale so that the head is always lowered, until the horse does not understand the required position of its head. However, if the horse is strained because of the actions of the rider which it does not understand or which frighten it, the problem only gets aggravated. From the point of view of the horse, the isolators or martingale are the immediate threat or attack from the man. If the actions of the rider are clear to the horses from the very beginning, then, after having relaxed, it hangs its head, obeying to just the mechanical influence of snaffling.
People, who try to put some task before the horse at once, and then punish the animal if it does not carry it out, are wrong. They think that they are teaching the horse a lesson as in school. However, the horse does not understand their remarks and D grades, and perceives the punishment as a threat. Actually in this way, no training is taking place. Using such techniques, you only show to the horse that the one who is more quick and strong will win. Therefore, you prevent the horse from relaxing and step by step and logically master the unfamiliar elements.
Also for trainers it is necessary to realize that horses are not able to distinguish or understand human emotions and feelings. Namely, our emotions also frequently create conflicting situations between the horse and the rider. If we do not expect in advance and control our actions, we appear to be under the control of our instincts.
As people, in the first place the men, are predators by nature with a corresponding instinct for struggle, therefore the first reaction to any threat is the attack. The more dangerous the threat, the stronger is the protective reaction i.e., the attack is more aggressive. It has been observed that the equestrians, who swiftly fight with their horses, are absolutely not capable to control their own horse.
In training, you should move ahead step by step methodically, making the actions, capable to draw all the attention of the horse towards you and control this attention, without frightening and attacking the horse. Training a horse means to dominate it mentally and not physically.
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