From Natural to Second Nature

By Paul Kathen
Founder and Head Instructor/Trainer
Tex-Over Farms, Inc.
Conroe, Texas

     Dogs will shake or roll over at the sight of a piece of rawhide. We can teach chickens to play the piano and pigeons to guide missiles. Why is it so difficult to train our horses? The method of teaching in all cases is the same. We apply a stimulus and when we receive the correct response, we reward.
     Horses will also quickly learn to respond to voice commands on a longe line. Like dogs and birds, they will perform tricks in short order in return for treats. When we climb on a horse’s back, two things happen however. First, the horse just may not like the extra weight on its back or gets frightened by the weight and rids itself of it. Due to the horse’s great strength, it has little difficulty in doing so. Like a lion tamer, we deal with an animal that is physically much stronger than we are.
     Second, when the horse decides to tolerate the load, our weight will throw the horse off its natural balance. This graceful horse becomes clumsy, shortens its gaits, stumbles, leans, drifts, and wants to stop. Because of the loss of its natural balance the horse is uncomfortable moving and therefore uncomfortable to ride. This imbalance also often causes the horse to be unable to obey. I like to compare this to the imbalance of a man jumping off a moving vehicle. Momentum keeps this man running and unable to stop unless he would find something to catch his weight on. In the case of the young horse with most of his weight on the forehand, when asked to stop, this youngster will catch himself by leaning in the rider’s hand.
     So, the trainer’s first task is to help the young horse find its balance under the rider. She does this by riding large circles and straight lines, taking care to find the best rhythm for the horse at this time of its training. This is the most effective way to develop the horse’s strength and create the relaxation necessary for learning. Keeping the demands low (large circles, long lines, and a rhythm comfortable for the horse), the trainer also creates in the horse the confidence necessary to tackle the more demanding work still to come.
     As I mentioned earlier, the horse needs to work in a relaxed manner in order to be able to learn. The next step in the training of this horse is for it to become more comfortable accepting the aids of the rider and to correctly respond to them. Outside of learning a language that both horse and rider understand, the animal begins to trust the rider and submits to her. This aspect of training must not be underestimated because the rider’s safety depends on it as well as any success in the show ring. If this willingness to submit is not established in the horse at this point, the alternative is to break its spirit. This, however, means to forfeit one of the objectives of training – to bring out the natural beauty of the horse. I personally also believe that a horse whose obedience is based on fear of punishment, has little self-confidence and may overreact when confronted with external sources of fear and thus endanger its rider.
     Up to this point the trainer has concentrated on helping the horse find its balance under the rider and to move in a rhythmical and relaxed manner in order to gain strength and coordination. The horse has also learned to understand the rider’s aids and the trainer can now begin to