- Pet
- Partner
- Couch Potato
- Athlete
- Nonresponsive
- Responsive
- Reactive
Let me explain. This is a diagram I sometimes use at clinics. A REACTIVE horse is one that is scared and worried about it’s surroundings or people or one person in particular. They are unconfident about our requests or the way we ask. Their movements are usually quick and they do more or go faster than asked. A RESPONSIVE horse is one that responds to our requests not more or less than we’ve asked. NONRESPONSIVE is a horse that doesn’t respond or react, very dull and unmotivated. You would like to do something but they are busy eating grass or smelling poop.
Is Your Horse a Pet?
A PET is like the dog that blocks the door when you try to come or go, or when you call them it appears like they didn’t hear so you yell louder but he still keeps chasing the horses or barking all night. He might come if there is the promise of food but not if he has ate recently.
Is Your Horse a Partner?
A PARTNER is like the dog that tears off the deck after some deer in the yard and when you call “quietly”, he slides to a stop and comes running back. When you are riding on your horse and your dog is laying patiently in the corral waiting for you to be finished and as you ride by you again “quietly” say their name and point to the outside of the corral. They jump up wag their tail and lay down right where you pointed.
Is Your Horse a Athlete?
An ATHLETE is the horse that has lots of life and stamina, is fit, and enjoys moving.
Is Your Horse a Couch Potato?
A COUCH POTATO is unfit, probably over weight, if it was asked to move fast it might just pull a muscle. Probably hasn’t moved quickly for any reason for years. Everything is done at a snails pace.
How to decide
Now for interest sake, chose the two you think would be the least desirable qualities to have in a horse. Then, pick any of the two qualities that you would most desire. Finally, pick the two that best describe what you have with your horse now. Once you have picked the combination that best suits your situation, circle whether it is nonresponsive, responsive, or reactive.
The combination of two qualities I would least want in a horse is a pet/ athlete. The reason is, I then would be riding a horse that wants to move his feet and I would have no say in where they are going. He does what he wants, when he wants, and I would be like a frog on a rocket. At least with a couch potato/pet we would be going slowly where they wanted to go or just standing still. The two that I would most desire is an athlete/partner.
Now, I can do and go where I want as fast or slow as I want and I’m on a horse that is able and willing to do it. Which in short, would also be a responsive horse. For some people they only want a couch potato/partner. So he does what they want just slowly with no chance of there being a mix up and suddenly receiving unintentional speed or quickness.
The good and bad news is a person can take any horse and turn them into a couch potato, pet, partner, responsive, reactive or nonresponsive. All horses are born fairly athletic, some much more than others but kept fit and healthy most are capable of more than enough for most situations.
When you play with your horse what are you trying to create. What are you working towards? The horse or horses we have at the moment do not need to stay the way they are unless we like the behaviors they have. They can always become more and improve with the right kind of help. There are three things we can look at and question how these behaviors or traits in ourselves might effect what kind of horse we create. If we were to draw three lines on a paper, parallel to each other and equally spaced and call the first line “passive”, the middle line “assertive” and the last line “aggressive”.
- Passive
- Assertive
- Aggressive
Somewhere on this graph our personality fits. What experience has shown to date is that the closer I can stay to assertive with my horses, the better our relationship is, and the closer to having a partner I will get.
The more passive we are towards our horses the more they act like pets and sooner or later become nonresponsive for us, do what they want, when and how they want, depending on whether they are athletes or couch potatoes.
Horse’s Perspective
If from the horse’s perspective we are aggressive, meaning that we get mean or mad then we will get nervous horses. They won’t be a partner because they are too busy worrying about their self-preservation, which causes brace and reactiveness. When phases are not used, coupled with a poor attitude and pressure that is higher than required or longer than necessary, that would be considered aggressive by the horse. There is some confusion about what assertive might or could look like. Being assertive means having an attitude of fairness, it has no room for anger or being a doormat. Sometimes being assertive means we may have to bring our life or energy up, a lot, to match that of the horses’. Some people are uncomfortable bringing up their life, and if they do, their emotions come up as well. The emotions need to be left out of it. Separate life or energy from emotions, as they are two different things.
We have to lead and not give the role of leadership to the horse. We need to make the decisions and the horse will gain great respect and confidence from your leadership. It removes confusion and arguments between the human and horse.
Are you assertive?
Having said all this, being assertive is great but we can never forget about the amount of feel, timing and understanding we have, which plays equally as much to the outcome we have with our horses. If our feel, timing or understanding in any given situation is off, our horse very easily could perceive us as something other than what we wanted. Focus and the ability to stick to the job at hand cannot be over looked as well. If we didn’t have the focus to stick with it until there was improvement in some small way the horse does not understand what it was all about or that we were even looking for a change. Then the next time out, the horse thinks: “Here we go again, we are going to do stuff and finally they will put me away.” They zone out and wait for their shift to be over, instead of trying to figure out what it is you are looking for. A person can teach their horse to be present and learning or just enduring another session or ride. Horses can only be as good as the handler. Frustration when working with a horse on occasion is inevitable, but we can work on ourselves and keep the frustrating sessions fewer and farther between.
How we handle the frustration is what is the most important. Keep it fun, and after each session ask yourself from the horses’ perspective “How did I do?”
Have fun, and enjoy the time you spend with horses.
Glenn
Ready to dive deeper into understanding and improving your horse’s behavior? Join Glenn Stewart’s Online Mentorship Stages Program at glennstewartacademy.com/mentorship to continue your horsemanship journey.