Horse Information - Meurer Horsemanship

When you are thinking about horsemanship and all the awesome things you can dowith your horse, you need to get one thing achieved first! You need to get your horse tochill out and relax!

If you want to go and teach your horses all the things you enjoy, such as, jumping, dressageor games it’s going to be a lot easier and heaps more fun if you’re teaching a relaxedhorse. A horse that is nervous or full of adrenaline is in no frame of mind to listen andlearn. So how do we do this?

In the wild, horses have herd leaders. The herd leader is usually a mare and she will takethe herd to the safe places, good pastures and fresh water and, if necessary, she will leadthe herd out of danger. The herd leader has the big job of keeping the herd safe and,because of this, she is an animal that the herd respects and feels safe around. And becausethe rest of the herd respects this leader, they will also listen to the leader and relax intheir presence.

Whether in the wild or in a paddock horses will always look for leadership. They will forma hierarchy, with the most dominant horse at the top of the ladder. Then they will respectand listen to the horse or horses above them in the hierarchy, and when this is formed thewhole herd can relax. A good example of how this works is when you see some horses in apaddock together and you watch one of them being picked on, that’s the one at the bottom ofthe ladder. Thinking you are doing that poor horse a favour you decide to take him away fromthe bullies who have been pushing him around, that way he can enjoy some peace and quiet andbe able to relax for a while. Then what does he do? He does not stop running aroundcalling out for the others! Horses want the hierarchy of a herd, it keeps them safe andallows them to relax and enjoy life.

Now that we understand that they love leadership we can cause our horse to relax in ourpresence. To do this we need to earn our horse’s respect and trust. To earn their trust andrespect we have to speak our horse’s language and understand their psychology. A horse’slanguage is non-verbal and is based on body language and gestures, to put it simply, horsescommunicate by moving each other around.

So whether it is on the ground or in the saddle we need to understand how to move our horsearound in all directions; forwards, backwards, side to side etc. This shows your horse thatyou understand their language and that you are a very important person to listen to and thatwill help them develop respect for you. It’s a bit like having a conversation with a person,if you understand what they are saying and you are interested in what they are saying to youthen you will respect them enough to listen to what they are saying. Simple, huh?

Another important part of causing your horse to relax is having an understanding of theirpsychology. We need to know when to add pressure and when to release pressure. Horses aremotivated not only by safety but they also thrive on comfort, so we need to give themcomfort when they have done something well.

Just imagine you had a teacher who never rewarded your efforts. You hand in an excellentassignment but instead of giving you some praise and a gold star your teacher just gives youmore work, another project, another test and never any reward! After a while you wouldprobably stop trying to please her, right?

Horses and people are quite similar in this way although they aren’t too fussed about goldstars. For a horse the reward is getting to stop and do nothing for a while. For example,when you are asking your horse to go backwards you need to release and stop asking when theydo it well. If they are going backwards well and you say, “Good, now let’s keep going,” yourhorse is not finding the comfort they want. When there is no comfort there is no reward,and if there is no reward you can bet they won’t want to keep doing it for long! If they dofind the comfort they desire, which is you releasing the pressure at the right time, youwill increase that desire to perform the task because you have motivated them by giving thenwhat they want. This will also cause your horse to relax as you cause them to think aboutsearching for comfort, again putting their mind on the task at hand and what you are askingfor as their leader.

These are a just couple of points to keep in mind when you are working with your horse. Ifyour horse is relaxed he will learn and perform much better. Remember if your horse respectsand trusts you they will listen to you and try hard for you. However, as we are enteringtheir herd we need to make sure we have learnt their language and understand how to motivatethem by giving them what they want. When you do these things well it will really help yourhorse to relax and then he’ll be in a great frame of mind to learn and have a lot of funwith.

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