Horse Training Success Comes From Pressure
There are lots of aspects of humans that are similar to horses. Among the more outstanding similarities: we both need friendship and fellowship to survive. Horses are herd animals, humans are political animals. The center of both natures is that an individual horse or human will always need another of his kind to go on. Another important parallelism between the 2 species is that when in a required type of fellowship, an individual horse or human is the subject of pressure. When a few minds mingle and share identical space, pressure is inescapable.
Extend this parallelism a bit further, and you can see how pressure, though typically having negative connotations, can become a positive driving force also. Some people excel under pressure—using the sometimes unattractive force to compel them to perform at increased standards. This is also applicable to horses. Implement some form of pressure in your coaching and your mare would better and quicker understand her lessons. Though there are limits to using pressure as a coaching tool.
What does someone do when he consistently experiences pressure at work? He quits his job—or his health becomes weakened. He either escapes the pressure or loses to it. Again, this human condition parallels horses. Apply too much pressure, and your mare would start to go looking for avenues of escape. The flight reaction comes to mind. Well, you’re lucky if your mare selects the flight reaction over the fight reaction, in fact. But occasionally a coach would unconsciously force his steed to the last resort of fighting back to flee the pressure. Horses trained under regimens of constant punishment, cruel pressures, and those based on fear and force are not fit for horse riding or other higher equestrian sport. They can only be a potential danger to themselves and their riders.
A mare only becomes truly fit for riding if she creates a relationship of mutual trust and confidence with her rider. This relationship must be deeply set in her training.
Do not be deceived though; as discussed earlier, pressure is integral in coaching and lessons. Dressage and likewise all high level equestrian sports require strict coaching and motivating pressures. The key is in always knowing the resistance brink of your mare—just how much pressure she can take before she goes searching for a way to be rid of the source of pressure.
As such, it is clear that lessons that may benefit from using pressure positively are most advisable. And pressure is best employed in acceptable levels. This implies that lessons should be broken down to smaller parts in such a way the pressure asked for in each part serves to compel the pony to learn faster rather than causing her to flee the situation. Of course, the release from the pressure and the corresponding rewards for correct or proper responses build on this idea and help improve a lesson in which these are incorporated. These serve as the little vacation getaways from the small pressures horses are the subject of in coaching.
Horses are Heather Toms’ passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100’s of articles with other horse lovers… like all things about horse rugs.