Ep 148: Helping Your Horse Understand the “Why”
Some horses will challenge you. Some will change you. And, some will shift your perspectives on horsemanship for the better. While I have always placed a value on ‘training through understanding,’ it wasn’t until recently that I fully understood the value in helping my horse not only understand the responses I’m asking for, but to also understand why I’m asking for them.
I have a horse in training right now named “Boon.” Boon is one of our personal horses by Streakin Boondox and out of our best mare, “Annie.” Boon is bred to be incredibly talented and athletic, and his potential definitely shines through. However, Boon is one of those horses that challenges you. He challenges me to rethink my approach to training and how I present my requests to him.
For most of my training career, I have leaned on the perspective of ‘training through understanding,’ which means training from the mindset of, “how can I help my horse learn, recognize and understand the responses I’m asking for?” It wasn’t until recently that I realized that my philosophy could be taken a step further, and Boon helped me recognize that. Boon is a horse that not only needs to understand the “how,” but he also needs to understand the “why.”
Why do we ask our horses to perform certain tasks? For me, it’s because I am trying to optimize the athletic potential of that animal. Horses are naturally very athletic beings; however, their anatomy doesn’t naturally lend itself to being in the most athletic stance at all times. Especially in the performance events, helping a horse engage its hind end, round its back, and control the movement of its ribcage are skills that have to be taught and reinforced so they become a habit. When a horse has their body positioned properly, the responses that follow become much easier to perform. My goal is to help my horse not only understand that their body should be in that position, but also the benefits of their body being in that position.
The idea of ‘teaching the release’ is another philosophy that I lean on heavily. Teaching the release means training through understanding by establishing a system of rewards. When training, I’m always seeking a way to reward my horse’s effort. When a horse understands that there will be a release on the other side of their effort, they begin to understand the purpose behind their actions. When a horse begins to recognize that their job becomes easier when performing the tasks I’m asking, that’s when they tap into that next level of potential.
With a horse like Boon, the concepts of ‘training through understanding’ and ‘teaching the release’ have to come hand in hand. This means, I have to do my job to not only put the buttons on this horse, but to also teach him that his efforts are rewarded.
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