The Foundational Key To Training Success For Any Discipline

Some of you may remember the discussion we had during the Fall Series when I brought up the above topic. I believe this is a powerful statement that renders very powerful results. It is the foundation in everything I do with the horse (the pressure is on when they are wrong and off when they are right). I would love for all of you to understand this concept on a deeper level and to consciously implement it into your own training program. So in this article, I am going to break these concepts down to try and explain them a little further. I’m going to start with the goal of “trust and respect” and work my way backward to how we can reach that goal by “teaching where we release” through “stress and recovery.”

Balance of trust and respect

Getting trust and respect from our horses is a continual balancing act on our part. The horse is a prey animal, which can make him afraid, but also he has an instinct for survival that encourages him to challenge his pecking order. This unique combination of traits in a horse is where, we as trainers, have to learn to read the horse and adjust accordingly. Learning to read horses and knowing your own horse takes a lot of time. But it is such a fundamental requirement for all of us to be able to move our horses forward in their training. People are always reluctant, but I keep encouraging them (more like nagging them) to spend more hours on the ground to try to establish this balance of trust and respect. I use exercises such as round pen training, lunging, and leading exercises to establish this balance in the horses that I train. If we are having trouble with either trust or respect from the ground, it surely will get worse when we step onto the horses back. We also need to have this foundation on the ground so we will always have a place to go back to when our horse gets out of balance.

Stress and recovery

The way we can gain trust and respect is by giving our horses stress and recovery. Just like physically, a weight lifter needs to stress his muscles and give them recovery time to get stronger, our horses need to be stressed physically, mentally, and emotionally and given recovery time to get stronger. Our society is geared so much toward the thinking that the more we do and the more we push forward, the further we get ahead. But an interesting and important point to remember is that during the recovery time is where muscles grow and also where horses will learn—not when we are stressing them to learn. Therefore, we get further ahead in our training when we give our horses recovery time.

The hard part with the stress and recovery method is to know when, how intense and how long to stress and when and how long to allow them recovery. If they are not being appropriately stressed, the recovery time will mean nothing to the horse. To help us with this issue, we can continually ask ourselves the questions, “is he trying?”, “is he scared?”, or “is he being disrespectful?” The answer to these three questions will help us know how much stress we should apply and how much recovery time we should give. A good rule of thumb is to balance the amount of stress the horse is feeling to the amount of recovery given. If he is scared (this means he already has a lot of stress) we will stress the horse less and recover more. If he is disrespectful (this means he does not have enough stress), we will stress more and recover less. And if he is willing and trying (balance of trust and respect), we will stress and recover with equal amounts. The key is to read our horses and let them tell us the optimal degree of stress and recovery.

We teach where we release

The concept of “teaching where we release” goes hand in hand with the concept of “stress and recovery.” We have to remember to never give recovery time when our horses are not giving us the appropriate behavior. We will teach them to further the bad behavior because we will have given them a reward of recovery time at the wrong time. When horses are taught with the stress/recovery method, they soon look for the release from the stress/pressure. They begin to try harder because they know there is always hope for them to choose the appropriate response and to get the release from the stress/pressure, whether it be from our hands, our legs, our seat, or our body language. This method builds confidence in our horses because they learn that they have control over the consequences of their behavior.

In conclusion, knowing when to get into a horse and when to get out of a horse is very important for furthering one’s horsemanship skills. Please keep in mind that if we are understressing our horses…their training will never move forward. But if we are overstressing them… our training will go backwards. Continually gage your horse’s performance to find that point of optimal stress and always balance that time with recovery. And also remember to be very conscious of where you are releasing the stress/pressure. If you are not releasing it at the appropriate time…it may breed frustration, fear, disrespect, or lack of try in your horse.

Pick any maneuver or a behavior you feel your horse needs work on and try to implement these three concepts into your training program. I didn’t cover shaping (baby goals) because of limited space, so make sure you break your goal down. Give recovery (reward) for the try your horse makes with each step in the correct direction. Please let me know your results, email me at mmoore_training@hotmail.com.