When we give our horse a voice, we might not always like what they say
One of the flow on affects that comes up as a result of working with me is that it becomes very difficult for us to work with a horse if it gives us anything other than an enthusiastic yes.
What I mean by difficult is that we become uncomfortable forcing or pushing them to do anything unless we know they are definitely challenging us and don’t have any underlying reason for that no.
Along with our leadership exercises, one of our first training tools is a cue that our horse can use to consent our asking something of them. We do this so that our horse can tell us no if they want to. '
Giving our horse the opportunity to say no:
Lets us address any legitimate reason they have for saying no. ie pain, discomfort, tack not fitting, not understanding or not being able to do what we ask.
Lets them have a say in what happens to them. Gives them some control over what we do to them and therefore can deescalate naughty or dangerous behaviour.
Help us decide if they are directly challenging us and need to be “worked through” or if there is something we are missing that they are trying to communicate to us.
For most of the horses we’ve worked with they have had a very “because I say so” approach to their training, which can work to a point but isn’t helpful if the horse is having a problem or if the rider can’t actually follow through on their “because I say so” and gets nervous or scared.
What we do is give them the opportunity to say no and use our other training tools to encourage a yes.
When we first give these horses the option to say no, they say no - A LOT!!!! To everything!!!
And this is why they haven’t been given the option to say no before. Because most riders don’t know what to do with a no and are told their horse is just taking the piss or being naughty, even when the horse legitimately isn’t coping with its' training.
It doesn’t mean that we let our horse walk all over us and get away with everything.
We have a couple of very simple exercises that we use with our horse as a way of establishing manners and discipline. We then work with our horses on establishing consent for each ask. And then we try to making learning and the training environment positive and enjoyable to the horse.
And then - TA DA - we have true willingness and not just submission and forced yeses.