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The last thing you do, is what sticks. Or even better, the last thing your horse did and how he felt doing it when you quit with what you were doing … is what sticks. And that is what they will learn that session. The horses don’t always learn what we think (or hope) they will. It is very important to observe the smallest change in their mood, attitude and the good tries they did. You must remember what you observed and then you can reward the small improvements. Horseman Ray Hunt says it like this: “observe, remember and compare”. For years I did not really understand what it meant, but now I do. It is described above.
A little more detail. When you “train” your horse, hopefully the training time exists of several short sessions. If not, there is a chance that the only thing your horse remembers from the whole session is what he was feeling and thinking the moment you dropped your reins at the end. Then you get off, which is the reward, which in turn confirms to the horse, aha, doing that gives me comfort.
This does not mean that you can’t ride a few (or even many) transitions after each other. For, doing this well, puts your horse in the right ‘state of mind’. By then giving your horse comfort when he is at his best (take away all the pressure, long reins, relaxed seat, stroking him on his neck), then it is that state of mind he will remember. Including also how he was responding to your aids at the time. This is directly related to his state of mind – what he was feeling and thinking. In a series of exercises you can get your horse to the preferred state of mind and a preferred energy.
A specific example. Say you ask your horse to go sideways (on the ground or riding). Before you begin, you have in mind what it is that you want – a picture in your mind, including how you want it to feel. You start the exercise, by giving the aids with appropriate phases and appropriate pressure. Next you adjust your phases, position, focus and aids to clarify to the horse what you want. In this process you travel a certain distance and let’s say after 10 steps, your horse does what you want. Now it is important to give comfort straight away – you stop, rest, stroke him, do nothing. Give them time to think about it (this is what happens when they start licking and chewing). What you did the first 9 steps of the way, the horse does not remember, he was not given time there to really think about it. It was just leading up to the moment where you got the result you were looking for. If you were not to reward this then, how could your horse know he did it right? Of course you want to be able to ask your horse to repeat more good steps. But when your horse took one really good step and mentally understood that was what you wanted … and knows he gets comfort for it, then you can start to build on this success. Horses are incredible animals that want to please. They don’t want to work, but they want to please.
The influence of fear with ‘learning’
Being a prey animal Your horse wants to feel safe. They even do not learn anything when their fear is too strong. Can you remember your first days in school? You had to do something in front of the class while you were very nervous. You keep many (unconscious) memories about that moment, but you probably did not learn what your teacher wanted you to learn.
The worst thing you can do, the moment your horse tried to do something better, is to add more pressure. Another saying from Ray Hunt: “allow them to learn, don’t make them learn”. A horse that is scared, has to gather quite a lot of courage or motivation to decide to take a step in the right direction. You can completely destroy this by adding more pressure in that specific moment.
How does this apply to trailer loading your horse?
If you can’t train your horse to load in the trailer in one session, that’s ok. Just make sure that the moment you quit is at a very positive moment, where the horse has a positive attitude towards you and the trailer. The next session you will be able to get to this stage very quickly and go from there to improve. “Observe, remember and compare”. Learn more about this concept and see me trailer loading different difficult horses in my Online Video Course Trailer Loading with Eddy Modde.
Good luck
Related posts:
- (Re)connecting with the Power of Now
- Teaching your horse to be tied – preparation for trailer loading
- Focus on the positive
- Tie your horse on the trailer or not – what halter to use.
- Closing the butt bar – How and When.
