Part 2

    The manager calls it productivity, the horse trainer speaks of performance, and they both mean the same thing. They want to reach a goal and need the cooperation of another person or a horse to achieve it. The quality of this cooperation depends to a great extent on the motivation of these helpers. That is why businesses are highly interested in keeping their workforce happy. It has long been recognized that the best way to motivate an employee to help the manager to reach his goal, is for the business to create a work environment that will also help the employee fulfill his needs.

    We discussed in the last article how the trainer must make sure the horse’s needs for food, water and a social life are well taken care of. Other factors that determine the level of quality in the horse’s performance are the work environment, the horse’s health, the talent of horse and rider and the training the horse has received. Genetic factors also affect the motivation of a horse but it serves no purpose to discuss these in this article since you cannot change them. If you find that your horse is just simply not suited for your purpose, either lower your expectations or allow your horse to go to somebody who is looking for a horse just like him and find one for yourself whose talents are in your area of the sport. I find this the much kinder solution for both you and your horse. Some health problems are also the result of an unfortunate genetic makeup. You have no control over that and, therefore, we will ignore that performance reducer and assume that your horse does not have any such problems.

    This leaves us with the work environment and the quality of training your horse receives. By work environment, I mean the conditions under which the horse has to work. Let us start off with the tack. I have often heard a rider justifying a rough hand to those watching by saying to the horse, “Those reins are mine.” Let us think about that for a minute. Do you agree with that rider? I will admit to you that the reins are a shared property if you will allow that the bit belongs to the horse. After all, it is the horse’s sensitivity to the bit that determines what kind you use. If the horse leans on the reins, it is probably not because it wants your reins but because it is off balance, and you fix that problem through half halts. A rough hand and the demand for the reins are not going to change your horse’s balance. So please make sure that the bridle and the bit fit the horse and are appropriate for your horse and its level of training.

    The saddle unquestionably belongs to the horse. The horse must carry the saddle and if the contour of the panel does not match the contour of the horse’s back, it will create a pressure point somewhere as soon as you put weight on the saddle. If the saddle does not fit the rider, you will hear her complain. It hurts here or there or it puts her too far forward or back, etc. Horses on the other hand are quiet sufferers. They cannot verbalize their pain and so every time you show up with a saddle your horse feels the pain coming and is not looking forward to the workout. Such a horse is unmotivated and the rider is to blame. If you think I am too rough for you, get the “Pepto” out for it is going to become worse. If there is too much tail ringing or antsy behavior of another kind while you are tacking up, your horse is dreading something and he is not motivated for work. One of the dreads might be ill-fitting tack.

    Then there is the job the farrier does for you. Is he competent? Most horses should not go longer than five weeks because after that time the pressure on the navicular area of the hoof begins to increase.

    How about his mouth? You want him to be comfortable there because an irritated mouth makes for an unsteady connection. The horse must trust the bit and stretch into it for a good ride. Without this trust, training is impossible. The importance of a healthy mouth has created a new specialty in the veterinary world, the equine dentist. A check-up every six months and a rasping of the rough edges will help to keep your horse from developing connection problems due to a sore mouth.

    You do most of the training in the arena so the quality of the footing is of great importance. If the surface is too hard, it is damaging to the joints. In case it is too soft, the tendons and ligaments suffer. A slick surface causes the horse to lose confidence about its balance and it will hold back in the gaits. The lungs are affected when the footing is too dry and dusty. Now we move to my pet peeves, ruts and holes. In a busy training facility the arenas take quite a beating in the course of a day. It usually shows up in a dressage ring in the form of ruts and in a jump arena as holes before, after, and in between jumps. If you do not level these holes on a regular basis, the horses have to jump three jumps for each obstacle: first into a hole, then out of the hole over the fence and back into a hole, and then out of that hole onto the way to the next jump.

    Look at a dressage arena after a few days of riding without leveling. The ruts at the ends have taken on the shape of a half-circle. The centerline has three holes in it, two where the circles meet and another at X. The training pyramid tells us that rhythm is the first condition we have to establish in training a horse. Imagine you are riding at a trot on the left hand between P and B. As you come to B your horse steps down into a slight depression, just to rise out of it again at the next stride. A little before M he must step up out of the rut to move into the corner. At C you encounter a slight depression again, into it and immediately out of it, to reach the corner. A bit past H your horse must drop down into the rut again. Except for a depression at E, the rut is level. The next climb out of the rut is about three meters before K. A proves to be problematic. Horses have dug quite a hole here. They circled, halted, entered and left the arena all at the same spot. You have stumbled past A and find the going quite smooth until past F where your horse falls into the rut again. Soon you are past P back on your way to B for the next trip around (no pun intended). Would you like to know what a shoulder-in looks like with one front leg in the rut and one out?

    You think it is about time to start riding, and I agree. Ride at a walk for the first fifteen minutes please. There is a good reason for that. Horses at rest allow the joint cartilage to dry out and shrink, thus the joint is not properly lubricated and the cartilage has lost its cushioning effect. A bad step at such a moment can damage the joint without you ever noticing it. There are no nerve endings in cartilage and so there is no pain and your horse will continue to work sound. The lameness occurs later, sometimes years later, when the body, in order to protect the damaged area, has deposited calcium there and the x-ray shows a bone spur.

    Horses are a roaming species. They walk, they rest, and then they walk again to graze. Next, they walk to the waterhole, they walk while they graze some more and rest again. If you were to time their activities, walking would occupy most of the day. For that reason their joints stay prepared for the sudden runs in case of danger or friendly play. Without a rider the stress on the joints is a great deal less also because maintaining the balance is so much easier. You may have noticed that the guiding principle to keeping your horse content and healthy is to stay as close to mother nature as you possibly can in your care and work with the horse. The fifteen minute joint warm-up walk is, of course, not necessary if your horse came straight out of the paddock. Then again it may be a good way to loosen his back. Depending on his temperament, you will want to ride the relaxed horse on a long rein while taking the nervous horse on a shorter contact, with the goal to relax him to where he too will enjoy a walk on the long rein.

    This is also a good time to bond with your horse, especially if you have the opportunity to go on a trail where the two of you are alone and you can talk to him without receiving funny looks from other riders. Ask all the top riders in the world and they will tell you that you have to have a special bond with your horse if you expect him to work for you on a consistent basis. There will be times when your horse does not feel at the top of his game. It may not be his day, he may be in an environment he does not like, he may be sore from yesterday or he may just simply be worried. It will take a great deal of desire to please, a high degree of self confidence and a strong trust in his rider to ignore his feelings and go out and give his best for you. You should seek opportunities like your time on the trail or other activities to bond with your horse on a regular basis. Your horse will pay you back with loyalty and a greater motivation to cooperate.

    No two horses are alike, no two riders are alike, and you cannot find two situations that are exactly alike. It is, therefore, impossible to describe what to do at all times, but there is one thing you must do always, and that is to think. Your horse is a highly complicated creature with both physical and psychological aspects that you must consider. When you ride your horse, you are training it whether you are a trainer or not. That means that you must either be a competent rider or ride under the supervision of a competent person. The experienced rider has developed correct habits that help her make good decisions when working her equine pupil. Riders that do not have these good habits need help to avoid developing bad habits that will hurt their horse’s progress.

    All habits do make blind, the good ones as well as the bad ones. What do the Germans mean with this saying? They declare that when we act out of habit, we do not question what we are doing. My suggestion is that in riding you should only turn the actual act of communicating to habit while your mind should always be actively thinking about what the best information for the horse is. This requires a great deal of concentration. That is tiring, and that is good. The horse also must concentrate to listen to you and then he must turn the information into action. That is doubly tiring. It is amazing how much more willing we are to give our partner a well deserved break when we are a little winded ourselves.

    I believe that all three-year-old horses, before we start working with them, are motivated. It is through the mistakes made by trainers, grooms, barn personnel, farriers or veterinarians that the horse gradually loses interest in its desire to please. Following this thought to its logical conclusion means that all we need to do is to avoid mistakes and we have a motivated horse. I believe I am right about that. Do you remember way back when we talked about motivation and frustration? We said that the difference between what should be and what is motivates us to move the is into what should be. Any action of ours is motivated that way. When you scratch your nose, you do it because it itches. The itch is the reality (is). Your nose should not itch (should be). You scratch and the itch is gone. You are a happy camper. Now that nose itches again. You scratch again but this time the itch does not stop. That is frustrating but you conclude it must be allergies, you drive to the store, buy a drug, take it and the itch is gone. Happy again.

    Horses behave just like we do. They eat when they feel hungry, they drink when they feel thirsty, they rest when tired and they scratch when they itch. Now we start working with the horse and he no longer knows what to do because he has no clue what the “should be” is. Here is where you come in. You must create in him such an itch that when he scratches it, he will have done what you wanted him to do. All horses are different, so the purpose of the art of riding is to strive to know the horse and to make it obedient. The art of the rider is to make this obedience as easy as possible for the horse. She must make sure that the horse understands what is expected of him (how to scratch the itch). Needless to say, the horse also must be capable of doing the scratching.

    Now to you, the owner, rider, trainer or whatever other responsibility you have in the care of this horse. Develop the habit of asking yourself, “Why,” before you do anything with the horse. I believe any thinking person will consider that a reasonable request. Yet doing that will test your character. It will force you to be patient. It will not allow you to blame the horse when things just do not go right. You will have to teach him instead of forcing him. Try it and your rewards will be great because you will truly begin to understand your horse. This understanding in turn will increase your enjoyment of your horse and your work with him.

    Let us return one more time to the most basic motivators of horses, safety and comfort. Does your horse feel safe in a cave hidden from everything? Is he comfortable there? He will say no to both questions. The place where he wants to be is right in the middle of the herd. There he feels comfortable. He knows exactly what is expected of him. He is accepted for what he is and all he has to do is to keep an eye on the alpha mare and do as she indicates to be safe. You and your horse constitute the herd. You are the alpha mare. All you have to do is treat him like the mare would. She would be firm but fair, consistent in her demands and in her expectations and she would fight for him if he needed protection. That sounds easy but try to be like her at all times and you will soon find out how difficult that is.

    Many of us entered the horse world with a dream in mind. We saw it as the perfect job for us or we wanted a horse because of a picture of the dream horse we had in mind. That is your “should be.” What is standing in the barn is your “is”. If you attempt to turn your horse into that dream horse, you will join the many frustrated horse owners of this planet, for it cannot be done. Instead, get to know your horse, discover his personality and treat him with the respect he deserves. He will repay you through consistent motivated performance.

    I would also like to express my special “Thank You” to April Collins (Gaby’s owner) for her hard work in editing the article. Spelling and punctuation are not my strong suit. April is also very knowledgeable about horses and has on occasion questioned the way I explained a point to further ensure correct understanding.

Thank you April,
Paul.

                                        End of Part 2