05/21/2025
Another great article. After gentling 20 mustangs, I'm definitely a lot better at having the ability to observe the difference in toleration and relaxation. For example, standing still while desensitizing, but their jaw is clamped shut and lips as tight as the lid on a new jelly jar. It's our job to be vigilant and empathetic in the training process.
Tolerating is not the same as being fine š“
There is a real lack of understanding of what behaviour actually means in the horse industry. More frustratingly, its not just lack of knowledge, its misinformation being presented as fact, in a very confident manner, which makes it very believable. We often notice āloudā behaviours such as biting, rearing and bucking but there is very little education on recognising subtler signs and what they might mean. We now have so much evidence-based research on behaviour that there is no excuse to go along with dated, unethical horsemanship practices that were cutting-edge 30 years ago.
The elephant in the room for me is that so many of these stress behaviours are actually being caused by the people involved putting the horse into situations they clearly aren't ready for. The behaviour is presented as something the horse would be choosing to do regardless and the trainer is just trying to help. Its not listening to the horse if we only listen after they've had to repeatedly scream at us and display extreme behaviours. If training feels dramatic we've already gone too far, we do not need to try and ride the horse through it before decide to listen. It is not ethical horsemanship to continue putting horses into situations they're finding extremely stressful under the guise of "helping" them.
I used to be so focused on how I could shape behaviour I didnāt really look deeply into why a behaviour was happening. I would do the groundwork on peopleās ātrickyā horses and things would improve, and sometimes the horse would then be okay to ride and sometimes they wouldnāt. I didnāt really understand what was happening. It was very much ādo this or Iāll make life difficult for youā. I got horses to be obedient and react quickly to my cues, I was really good at pressure and release, but I used far too much pressure and there was no real thought of the horseās feelings about it. Physical issues aside, I now realise that getting the horse to do something isnāt enough, what matters is how the horse feels about doing it.
You can see good examples of tolerance being mistaken for being for "being fine" in the many videos of people backing or re-backing horses. The horse may be standing still but they are often extremely tense, showing the whites of their eyes, their necks braced up, chomping anxiously on the bit which is being held with short reins, sometimes even sweating after being worked hard to make them "tired" so they're less likely to react. These signs of high-stress are ignored and people will continue to mount the horse, pat them and praise them. The horse's compliance taken as success and a positive session, not realising they're actually creating a negative association.
You see this frequently come out during the backing process. The amount of videos Iāve seen of a horse being mounted for the first time in a total freeze response, who then explodes as soon as they take a step, the video is often captioned āthat came out of nowhereā or the horse labelled "sensitive", when actually you could see it was about to happen before the rider even touched the saddle. Not only is this dangerous for people, it creates worried, frightened horses and sets them up for a difficult life as they will develop extremely negative associations with being ridden.
I could make 100 posts about this with 100 different scenarios but hereās some food for thought for today. š“
Photo of my old horse Lucy showing a lot of tension at the mounting block. She stood still and was "fine once I was on", just "quirky". I look back now and I know she wasn't fine.
www.lshorsemanship.co.uk
www.patreon.com/lshorsemanship
Gentling, training, and offering BLM/Forestry Mustangs and Burros up for adoption
