Boundaries VERSUS punishment

I'm not sure why we chose to pick on this particular individual today...

I get that, all facts considered, the ad does sound suspicious. Why buy horses if you have to sell your herd of yaks for financial reasons, and why buy said horses in a different state??! However, since I am not standing in Jennifer's shoes, I do not really feel I am in a position to judge. Sure the ad might be a little odd, but really, is it worth publicly humiliating someone over?? Criticizing them, judging them, and sending your dogs after them??


And, surprise surprise, yes boundaries do actually exist in Natural Horsemanship. Just. As. Any. Method....it depends on the person.

"The horse simply doesn’t ever get a clear, concise signal that something he did was wrong."
Yea. I don't punish my horses when they 'do something wrong'. You know why? Because they are living, breathing beings who are simply responding to their situation and who are communicating the best way they know how. I do not subscribe to the belief that my horse should be punished anytime he steps a toe out of line, whenever he does something I deem 'misbehavior'. However punishment does not equate to boundaries...or lack thereof of either.

Had I punished our Paint when he kicked, because I pushed him past his limits, I would have only further proved his point - that humans are not to be trusted. In his case, he has an abusive past and does not trust people to pick up his hind feet. Pick up his hind feet and you have now effectively removed his means of flight - his first survival mechanism - should the need arise. So if he does not trust you, the last thing he is going to do is let you lift up his hinds. I certainly do not feel it appropriate to discipline a fearful horse for responding defensively. Instead, I work on his trust between him and I and he picks up his feet nicely for me. In the mean time, I am careful to read him so as not to push him too far for his current emotional state and level of trust or training.

Same follows for my Thoroughbred gelding, Link. He lashed out defensively on the ground at times as well as under-saddle. It was a fear-based reaction, a I'll-get-you-before-you-get-me reaction and punishing him to 'clearly and concisely let him know what he did was wrong' would have only further compounded his fear issues and lack of emotional collection. Instead, I did what no one yet had done with him - nothing. And soon he started to relax, realizing I was not going to hurt him, that he could trust me to be predictable and fair. Today, he never lashes out defensively. It just doesn't happen, because there is no need to.

One last example: punishing my warmblood gelding only elicited escalated behavior from him. Escalated behavior that was uncontrollable. Instead, establishing boundaries created control and eventually created a respectful horse.

The same has followed for any like horses I have ever worked with. Solving the root of the issue just works so much better - for both you and the horse, than responding to the symptom of the disease.

In short, you punish a disrespectful horse and it may work but it will ultimately create resentment and distrust; punishing the distrustful and fearful horse is only going to create a horse who is even more fearful and distrusting of you. It might not necessarily be all that noticeable, it might simply prevent the partnership between you and your horse from being all it can be. Boundaries, limitations, rules - all ways of earning respect, are vital. However respect cannot be forced and giving a 'clear and concise signal the horse did wrong' might not be the best answer.

"Therefore, being a horse, he starts to expand the range of his behavior. He says, hey, if I barged into him and that was okay, maybe I can smack him with my head the next time."
To get a little technical here, I really do not believe that horses smack your head on purpose. They just don't care or respect you enough to stay out of your space and thus not smack your head. The difference is huge. I don't tell my horses directly that 'smacking my head' (or any like rude behavior) is not ok, but my horses do not escalate their behavior, because they can't barge into my space in the first place. Boundaries. You don't have to smack a horse or otherwise punish it to prevent it from escalating rude behavior. Don't want him to bite or push past you? Keep him out of your space in the first place, unless invited (when he is polite). He can't push you or bite you if he is nowhere within your personal space. Don't want him to kick? Earn his respect. Have him move his feet more than yours and respect your space. Pretty simple.

"And there was that day when I was fidgety and she didn’t ride me because Pat says it’s ok not to ride on a day when they don’t feel like being ridden, so maybe this time I will strike at her in the cross-ties."
Let's get real. A horse is not going to strike at you one day because you didn't ride it when you felt it best not to ride last time. There is never any harm in dismounting. Let me repeat that: there is never any harm in dismounting. You might dismount because either your horse is too dangerous or posing a threat to your safety - in which case it is SAFETY FIRST or because you just do not posses the knowledge to handle the current situation. Continuing when you do not have the appropriate knowledge and skillset is a disaster in the making: you are either going to frustrate you and/or your horse (frustration in the rider leads to aggression versus assertiveness and frustration in your horse does not create an optimal learning environment), create mistrust in your horse (particularly if you are frustrated and thus your responses are aggressive) and/or create a situation where your horse does not learn and maybe even create damage you will later have to undo. If you are unconfident on your horse and feel the need to dismount, it usually is best, regardless of what the horse is or is not doing. By staying in the saddle and projecting your lack of confidence, you likely are not going to offer the type of leadership your horse requires and thus handle the matter in an effective matter where the horse is asked to respond respectfully or where the horse can trust your leadership and do as you request confidently.

To be honest, I have gotten off of horses many a time and it never ever set us back. Not even one step. Should the horse be disrespectful and misbehaving under-saddle (and you cannot handle it effectively), you simply walk away and approach it another day. On another day you might be in a better frame of mind, have researched the issue and be able to approach it from another (hopefully successful) angle with new ideas, or you might bring a professional along to help you. In this way, you have a relatively fresh start - as opposed to having continued on your horse last session when you really should not have, and having failed (ie. horse learns it can walk all over you or mistrusts you - digging yourself a deeper hole that endangers your partnership with your horse). If the horse is just not in the right frame of mind and is jittery, staying on may only compound that (if you do not handle it correctly), whereas dismounting represents not potentially pushing the horse excessively past its comfort level. Doing so allows the individual to backtrack and establish more foundation, build the horse up to the point where that comfort level may later be pushed safely or that comfort level is raised in the first place. Continuing when you should not have may only escalate a situation and create excessive and unproductive emotional distress, resistance, and tension in the horse (as opposed to relaxation) when there was another way.

Dismounting does not necessarily mean having to work the horse on the ground or remount after groundwork. Of course that would be optimal however if your horse is acting up and you are just not in a position to deal with it, there is no harm in dismounting, untacking your horse, and throwing it out to pasture for another day. Doing so will actually progress your training with the horse in question by allowing yourself a fresh start with said horse the next session and no work to undo. That said, if you have to do this say more than 3 times it is definitely time to find a trainer to help you because you are now establishing a pattern of behaviour the horse will attempt to continue.

Striking, for the record, is often an act of disrespect. What can you do about it? Keep the horse out of your space and stay away from his front end until you have sufficiently earned said horse's respect. My warmblood gelding learned to strike as a youngster however though I never directly addressed the issue, I addressed the root - disrespect. By earning his respect, he naturally had no reason to strike anymore.

Personally, I would much rather an individual constantly be putting away a horse they can't handle (and never going anywhere with said horse) than continuing on session after session, frustrated and lacking the appropriate knowledge and skillset (and frame of mind) to actually teach the horse anything correctly. The latter is going to create a frustrated horse who is an emotional wreck, whereas the former only creates, at worst (ie. the horse being turned out repeatedly and never being taught anything but that misbehavior results in no work), a horse who simply walks all over a person - which is so much easier to undo and less harmful to the horse. Dismounting excessively is not going to create damage that is impossible to undo, whereas failing to dismount when one should could create a wreck of a horse that could take years to undo (if ever possible).

"For example, if a horse is trying to barge along, I don’t just run alongside like a kite on a string. I take the time to stop, growl, back the horse up a few steps and then ask him to proceed at the speed I was wanting to walk."
Because growling really does the trick. Actually seriously, there are a number of ways to deal with this. My own rule with horses is that they can do 'anything' they want while being led, provided they remain out of my space and keep up. When I allow them to do a little of what they want, they usually opt to do a little of what I want ;) 99 percent of the the time leading my horses as such automatically results in them leading quietly behind me and to the side (for the record, if they jump at something, no, they do not jump on top of me - say hello to respect - ask me how I know). 1 percent of the time they might choose to grab a couple mouthfuls of grass (without stopping or holding me up) or might be initially (prior to sufficient emotional collection) too hyped up or disrespectful to walk quietly. Personally I find there is little to be gained by forcing a horse to walk quietly at my side. Instead, I set up a situation where they can make the choice to walk quietly with me. Forcing a horse to physically 'collect' when they are not 'emotionally collected' creates a horse who is stifling their emotions and who could possibly blow. In contrast, when they are permitted the choice to move their feet, more often than not they choose not to, simply because they know they can, should they absolutely have to.

When the fearful or reactive horse dances around, I simply continue walking along my original line and ask them to disengage their hind. Besides the obvious - halting forward movement, doing so causes them to cross their hind legs, which encourages thinking over reacting, and allows them pause to re-think and relax. When the disrespectful horse dances around in an attempt to have me move my feet, I continue on my original path and ask them to disengage, move their feet, move out of my space, etc - ask them to do more work than they would have had to do had they simply walked politely at my side. This puts me in the dominant position and thus in control. I have created boundaries (stay out of my space), limitations (no holding me up), and rules but allowed them the choice (you can move here and here, but not so much here). Allowing them the choice, they figure out pretty quickly that it's just less effort to walk quietly as opposed to dance around - they choose the right answer (particularly if they were dancing around disrespectfully). Furthermore, as you develop a balanced partnership with and further develop your horse, they choose the right answer more often than not anyways because they can (because they are sufficiently emotionally collected and respectful) and because they want to.

Juuuust sayin'.

In short, punishment just does not equate to discipline, which encompasses rules, limitations, and boundaries and just because a method (ie. NH, clicker training, etc) does not include punishment, does not mean it also does not include boundaries. When the ultimate result is a respectful, willing, and happy horse who is beginner-safe and/or well-rounded and well developed, boundaries obviously were involved.

Rearing

Rearing can occur for a number of primary reasons:

1. The horse feels trapped or restricted
2. As an evasion

Reason number one is the most common and is borne of fearfulness or reactiveness on the part of the horse. This can be the horse who is being held back by its rider and who thinks the only answer is 'up', or the horse who simply becomes right-brain on his own and explodes upwards.

Reason number two can be a result of number one (the horse feeling trapped) as well, or can simply be the result of a horse who doesn't want to try and figures rearing might be a successful method of evasion. In my experiences however, most horses do not rear as a result of evasion, yet rearing is often misinterpreted as such.

In either situation, the answer is both to develop a stronger partnership between horse and rider and to develop the horse to think as opposed to react - to be calmer, braver, smarter. Safety first, which means working the horse from the ground rather than under-saddle, if necessary. It is okay to dismount!! With the horse who is reactive and fearful, the ultimate goal is to develop greater confidence in the horse himself as well as his confidence in your leadership. As prey animals, horses are very claustrophobic animals whose primary instinct is to flee and so if they are restricted up front by the bit, they might perceive their only option to be 'up'. Often a rear is preceded by head tossing - the horse's attempt at gaining control of the front end. Keeping this in mind can enable us to possibly avoid causing the horse to feel trapped. What, specifically, can you do?

- if your horse is flighty, develop relaxation and suppleness in your horse on the ground first
- remain calm and ensure your own body is relaxed
- allow your horse some slack in the rein - if you must correct your horse (ie. slow forward movement), you can either correct by squeezing the reins gently, as if you had a baby bird or a sponge in your hand (half halts) whilst simultaneously relaxing your seat, or gently (gently!) bump the outside rein to slow your horse or close your hand on the outside rein (using one rein rather than two prevents 'trapping' your horse)
- encourage your horse to be left-brain and thinking, rather than right-brain and reactive, by having him think - use patterns and have him disengage his hindquarters often


What about the horse who is simply evading your pressure and perceives the right answer to be 'up'?

Spend undemanding time with your horse - grazing, grooming, just hanging out. Try to change his perspective from one of resistance, to one of willingness. Prey animals will naturally resist and do the opposite of what a predator tells them, so it is your job to act more prey and less predator, and to ask in such a way that your horse can, and wants to, answer 'yes'. Sometimes this means earning further respect under-saddle (check out the 'point to point' exercise) and on the ground, and other times it means not offering a force the horse can oppose against (for example, don't micro-manage - constant nagging with, say for example, your legs, offers pressure your horse can and will eventually resist against; instead, allow the horse to make the mistake then correct, and make the right answer easy and the wrong one hard). Use phases of 'ask' so that your horse has the chance to respond to a lower phase of pressure, and reward with rest (etc - whatever motivates your horse) when your horse chooses the right answer. 'In the moment', you may correct your horse via a bump with ONE REIN to set him off balance and force him to drop back to all fours. This is best done in a bitless or a plain rope hackamore, so you are not bumping the horse's sensitive mouth via a bit.


What not to do in the rear:
- do not push a rearing horse forward until he is back on all fours or unless he is yet only a couple inches off the ground - you run the risk of fueling the reactive horse's response and having him flip himself
- do not whip a rearing horse - you will more likely only add fuel to the fire
- do not pull back on the rearing horse or you could pull him off balance and flip him
- breaking objects (eggs, boards, glass) over the horse's head - it might 'work' but it did not solve the root cause of the rearing and carries the major risk of causing head trauma and killing the horse (I've heard too many stories of horses being accidentally killed this way!!)
- put a tie-down or martingale on the horse - it is a band-aid solution that only further restricts the horse and can incite further claustrophobia and panic in the horse. Futhermore, if a restricted horse rears too high, he runs the risk of losing his balance and being unable to regain it due to being tied down by the tie-down or (standing) martingale. If you fear the horse might smash its head against your jaw, get off and work it out on the ground - whatever the issue, it can be solved on the ground! Safety is paramount. A running martingale can help in some circumstances, but it can also limit your use of the rein. Such equipment should ONLY be used to re-teach a (extreme) rearing horse in a professional's hands, and will be accompanied by training methods that address the ROOT issue while keeping the trainer safe.

Above all, in either scenario, it is never fair to punish the horse for being a horse. The rearing horse is simply the horse who is resorting to an escalated level of communication - 'shouting'. Figure out the root cause of the behaviour and solve that root cause, whether it be ill-fitting tack, misalignment chiropractically or muscle problems, other health or physical issues, or rider problems. Develop the horse, develop the rider, and the miscommunications disappear. If you are not sufficiently experienced or you find yourself becoming frustrated, walk away and seek out a professional. Rearing issues can be serious so if in doubt, consult a professional.

Punishment - why not to use it

Now I am all for discipline (not to be confused with frustration, aggression, or punishment – for a very accurate depiction of “proper” discipline, check out Cesar Milan’s first book Cesar's Way; I feel he describes it more accurately than I could ever attempt here), however I have to say that after years of working with horses the “traditional” (for lack of a better word) way, I have found punishment to be much less effective than boundaries (discipline) and earning a horse’s respect.

Another two inter-related factors that play a decisive role in my refusal to punish a horse are the following:
Dignity – horses are “beings” too, much like us, with their own thoughts, feelings, and desires. Who are we to impose ourselves – our wants, needs, feelings, desires, and thoughts upon another being, what gives us the right? I honestly believe that it is very integral to a horse’s training/development/well-being to preserve their dignity. Rather than “making” a horse do what we want, we can “ask” them to do what we’d like to. We can take what they give us and mould it until we have what we want. In this fashion, we proceed at the horse’s pace (which, if you treat the horse with respect and earn the horse's partnership, occurs at a rather rapid pace) and according to their needs and desires as well. By “earning” a horse’s respect and trust and by preserving their dignity, we also create a partner who then wants to do as we ask, rather than forcing it upon them. For example, rather than stripping a horse of its dignity as we strap it down with all sorts of gimmicks and training devices to teach it collection (which, if done in this fashion, will likely be “false” collection anyways), we can instead encourage the horse to work from behind and eventually collect, through exercises and gentle guidance. In this fashion, the horse will also try harder. As prey animals, a horse will naturally want to do the opposite of what a predator (us) demands; if we earn a horse's partnership however and learn to work with the horse, the horse will offer up much less opposition.
Respect – I think to have utmost respect for a horse is to allow them to be a partner rather than a prisoner. It is to understand what motivates a horse, what they want, what they need, and to cater to them as they also cater to us. In a partnership, either partner should be permitted to offer up a suggestion or ask a question, and have the other partner listen and respond appropriately. An example: perhaps if I do a little liberty work with my horse (this does not mean every session, but at least every once in awhile) and allow him to move about freely and make the decision himself of whether to be with me or not rather than forcing him to be with me through ropes, perhaps he will instead choose to be with me. Maybe if we do a little of what my horse wants to do one day, he will do a little of what I want later, or the next day. In a partnership, I can give my horse the respect of having a say in what or how we do things – in doing so, he is therefore more likely to want to do things I ask. In a partnership, I give so that he can give.

On the other hand, it is also our responsibility to develop a horse to the extent that it can be a better horse and a better partner – respectful, trustworthy, “obedient”, calm, brave, smart, polite, and “centered” (“balanced” emotionally and mentally). In doing so, we have to set boundaries but also give the horse a fair chance to react. One has to possess assertiveness but also act in a trustworthy manner. When we allow emotions to get the better of us, we lose all respect and represent unstable leadership to our horses. This is the problem with punishment – it is usually accompanied by emotion (anger). While the actual kick or slap to the horse might not hurt the horse (this IS a 1,200 lb animal, after all) the actual action is what can ruin the trust and respect of a partnership.

Punishment, by contrast, can bring about one of two things in a horse: retaliation and resentment, or fearfulness. It can bring about the aforementioned in an extreme fashion, or, with a very tolerant and balanced horse, it might not be overly visible. However take all the ropes off that horse and you will see what you truly have – if you can still do all the things on the ground and under-saddle at liberty that you could do with ropes on the horse (and not because the horse is a push-button, shut-down robot, but because the horse is truly interacting with you), you’ve got a partnership. This is not to say that punishment does not always work, just that it is often not the best way of going about things and that it usually does not work or last, because the root of the behavior that invoked the punishment is not addressed (ie. why the horse did what it did) and it does not serve to earn respect or trust (in fact, it can remove either). You might have a good partnership and bond with your horse that includes punishment even, but it could be better without it (in my experiences). In the horse who tends to be RB, the horse will simply view you as the predator you are, and an unpredictable, untrustworthy one at that! The LB horse will tend to start some behaviors as a means of establishing dominance – your punishment is a retaliation that can possibly continue a game the horse has just started or it can lead to further retaliation and escalation. Our LBI is the one who taught me the ineffectiveness of punishment – I had finally met the horse who, when punished, would simply escalate the situation. Punish him and he would have either one of two reactions: he would physically attack you (kick, strike out, bite, buck, etc) or he would shut down and ignore you completely, refusing to move a single step unless it was in the direction of his pasture. Instead, I had to work my ass off at earning his respect, preserving his dignity along the way. When I did so, he finally started coming around, to the point where now, years later, he will do anything I ask of him without question, and happily.

This is not to say that horses do not need assertive, strong leadership, and boundaries – they certainly do. However everything needs to be done fairly and mimic the behaviors of a herd. For example, a herd member will never be standing dozing peacefully then suddenly explode and lash out at the nearest horse near him. Instead, if a horse is disrespectful towards him, he will lay his ears back, swish his tail, bare his teeth as he moves in to bite, then finally he will position his body and bite or kick – there are phases (even if they are done rapidly). So for example if I ask a horse to move, he knows that I am going to first point my finger or arm in the direction in which I would like him to move, then I will pick up my stick, I will wiggle my stick (making the movements bigger and bigger), then I will touch the ground where he is standing. If he is still there, he is going to hit the string that is coming down towards him, but if he moves off, the string is simply going to touch the ground – I am focusing on the spot rather than the horse. Pretty soon, he is simply going to move out when I point. At first, my phases will be slow and take a long time to go through, so that the horse has a lot of time to think and figure out what he should do, but as he understands what I am asking, I am going to request more and more respect, to the point where my phases come quickly. However I am not going to ask the horse to move out by pointing, then slap him with the whip (in punishment) if he doesn’t. While I will not punish a horse for biting me, I will definitely flap my arms or otherwise command respect and establish my space – the horse cannot bite me if it is not in my space. Then I can move on to earning the horse’s respect or trust – the root cause for the bite. For the most part, if you ignore the undesirable behaviors and reward the desired responses (through rest or another motivation), in combination with earning a horse’s respect and trust, you can gently mould your horse’s behaviors to create a balanced partner – without the use of force and punishment.

I find a great deal of owners use punishment because “it works” for them. It achieves what they desire. While I do not feel that it (punishment) allows for an optimal partnership, perhaps they feel what they have is good enough – and with the average horse, punishment “works” (to an extent, on the surface). However the problem then arises when you meet the horse one day on whom punishment does not work and only creates problems. Some extreme cases:


Our LBI, which I have already previously discussed: punishing him meant a massive war on your hands and no matter how forceful you got, he could (and would) get more forceful, eventually to the point where it was a 1,200lb horse pitted against a mere 130lb human. Punishment, with him, only increased his resentment and thus retaliation.


We acquired an abused RBI this year – a 6yo Paint gelding. While punishment was obviously taken to the extreme in his case, he remains a prime example of what punishment does, just at a higher and more visible level. He is extremely distrustful of humans; I was given him when his owner could no longer deal with his fear of everything and his turning his hind end towards her so that he could not be caught. The confidence and thus curiosity has been literally beaten out of him and it has been a process to bring that back. Obviously he was punished for whatever the original owner deemed “undesirable”, amounting to an extremely fearful and suspicious horse.

My Thoroughbred is a very high energy LBE who was never developed into a well rounded horse. The result was that at the track, he was anxious and easily stressed out. Of course being conditioned into a prime athlete and then cooped up all day, especially without teaching him how to “deal with his emotions” and be calm, created a horse who was wound up like a spring, ready to blow at any moment (especially in a LBE, who wants to move his feet)…which of course he did…often. His behaviors ranged from bucking at the canter because he was being held back, to jumping around on the ground because he had no idea what to do with himself. Of course he was then punished. First it was a chain over his nose, which soon progressed to a chain over his gums – in the interest of “control”. Being an LBE, he is also a dominant horse so in him, the punishment not only created a great deal of distrust I am still working hard to undo, but it also created rebelliousness and retaliation. On the track, he then learned to kick out at other riders passing by – not the horses, but aiming directly for the riders. On the ground, he kicked at people if they walked past him on the walker, and he would double-barrel kick constantly as he was walked around the shedrow. He was a real sweetheart in his stall but was ultimately very distrustful of, and disrespectful towards, humans. The result, when I got him, was bucking at the canter under-saddle, kicking at me if he felt trapped, and explosions under-saddle. If he exploded, there was no stopping him – he would blow up but then continue blowing up in an attempt to get the predator on his back off. I have worked uber hard at earning his respect and trust, and it is paying off – the only “vice” that remains is his explosions under-saddle, but even those are occurring less and less frequently, and only under extenuating circumstances; even now, if he does explode under-saddle, it is usually very small and contained – he “comes back to me” very easily and goes straight back to work…eventually they will disappear completely as well. On the other hand, I also “listen” to him though as well – if he is not yet sufficiently ready to do something, we work harder at better preparing him for it before re-attempting it. If I can read that he is over-excited about something, I don’t push it, and eventually we get it. He has learned that I won’t push him and that he can not only trust me (that I will not punish him), but that he can trust my leadership.

Although these are extreme examples, there are many more just like them out there. If these are extreme examples of “extreme” horses operating under “normal” rules of punishment, think of how it could possibly be affecting the “normal” horse. Good, better, best - never let it rest. Maybe it "works" for you, but maybe it could be better?