The key to successful training is depenant upon a working knowledge of why your horse behaves the way it does. Although a horse's actions might be interpreted as a misbehavior, they can often be just it's instincts. Unfortunately, for human purposes, the horse's inherent behavior has to be modified, but if these modifications are based on its exhisting reflexes, the result will be long lasting results, and a stress free training session.
Horses are constantly learning from their environment and from their handling. Because of this, you as the trainer must realize that the training session begins as soon as you are with in eyeshot/earshot of your horse, or any horse for that matter. Their contextual behavior is one of their strongest. This behavior was developed as a necessary survival tool (ie. the horse that stays in tune with its surroundings at all times does not become food for the cat!). Even though the domesticated modern horse is fairly safe from its predators, it's historically long struggle for survival has resulted in an immediate suspicion of the unfamiliar. These charactaristics are what can send your horse into the blue ribbons, but at the same time, can send it panic stricken into a wire fence. If you understand the nature of your horse, a horse's highly developed reflexes can be used to your advantage.
Horses are gregarious by nature. When given the choice, they are rarely seen alone. This is because there is comfort and safty found in numbers. This behavior can be ruinous in a horse that is "barn sour" or "herd bound", but can also be the edge to making your horse trust you, and make you a team with a winning partnership.
Horses perform in daily routines that responds to their needs. The desire to participate in rituals is often intensified for a horse in confinement. The horse likes to be fed, ridden, groomed, and turned out at the same time every day. All horse owners know how cranky their horse can get if they're five minutes late for feeding, or how confused the horse gets if they're a half hour early. For a show horse, this can be mortifying, but if you understand this principle, your horse can become much less stressed to changes in its routine.
There is a social rank or hierarchy found in every band of horses. A pecking order occurs in every herd. For horses this is a matter of survival. Humans occupy a rung on this ladder as well, and will be tested to see just where they stand. You must convince the horse that you work with that you are higher on the rung than it, or else it can not only be dangerous, but disasterous. This is most often seen at feeding time, where the horse may come toward you aggressively, often with its ears back. The WORST thing that you can do in this situation is reward it by feeding it and going on. Instead, make the horse back off until you see clear sign that the horse has "given in" (ie. the ears come up), then allow the horse to return to its feeder.
Behavior in the horse is a subject that can be discussed at length. Next month, this series will continue in the hopes that all horseman will learn to listen to their horse's body language, and learn to respond in a manner that will help, not hurt their relationship.
