02/05/2023
REASONED BELIEFS
If I said that browbands were a common cause of head shaking in horses, some people would dismiss the claim as rubbish and some people who have horses that shake their heads would think about it. Some people might even test whether their horses worked better without a browband. What if I kept making the claim, and produced some videos demonstrating how much better a horse worked without a browband? What if I rallied my students to tell their friends about how harmful browbands can be? I would do a collaborative study with other trainers or biomechanics and behaviour experts with data supporting my claim. I suspect the claim about the harmful effects of browbands would gain momentum and would get a strong following in time. There might even be petitions for the banning of browbands in competition.
I just made that entire scenario up, but let’s look at a few real-life examples of things said at barns and clinics all around the world.
What if I claimed that chestnut horses tended to have difficult temperaments and chestnut mares were the worst? Some people with chestnut mares would nod in agreement. Those that disagreed with the claim I excuse as being the lucky ones who own horses that are the exception to the rule.
What if I said to a group of horse owners that when a horse licks and chews it indicates it is letting go of tension and starting to relax? Then a little later what if I then claimed to another group of people that licking and chewing is a sign of tension? Which group is going to reject my theory and which is going to agree with it?
What if I told a group of dressage trainers that foam forming around a horse’s mouth is a sign of a soft, relaxed mouth? But a different group of dressage trainers was told foam from the mouth was an indication of stress and tension. Would the first group agree without question? Would the second agree all disagree without question?
There is an old saying, that is largely credited to Johnathan Swift (1667-1745); “You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place.”
These are just some examples and I don’t want this post to become focused on those specific examples. I want to talk about what Johnathan Swift had to tell us about learning to be better horse people.
I’ve done my research on the types of beliefs I mentioned above, and there is nothing to support them as fundamental truths. They are theories. They are not truths. Yet, many accept them as truths. How many of you have heard a professional trainer say “there is a theory that foam from the mouth is a good thing”, or “some people suggest that licking and chewing may indicate relaxation”? They are never spoken about as theories, they are presented as facts.
There is nothing wrong with presenting these ideas as theories. Theories are good - even whacky ones are okay. Theories give us ideas and motives to experiment and become better horse people. However, because they become facts in our minds, a different theory is quickly rejected. Even a different theory with a stronger rationale is rejected because you cannot reason a person out of a position they did not reason themselves into.
I recently wrote an essay about teaching horses to follow the feel of the inside rein during turns and circles. I got an angry email from somebody who send me a quote from Alois Podhajsky in his book The Complete Training of Horse and Rider. Podhajsky wrote, “ It must be remembered that a unilateral action of the rein aid without holding the other rein would only turn the head and neck of the horse to the side….”. In other words, using the inside rein would only teach a horse to flex its head and neck and not follow the turn in a balanced way.
I pointed out that in the quote she used to support her view Podhajsky states he was talking about a horse at an intermediate level. When describing the training of a green horse, Podhajsky said, “Only the unilateral rein aid should be employed at this stage when taking the horse through well-rounded corners or executing turns….”
The woman was furious and did not hold back from telling me how arrogant and ignorant I was. She could not be reasoned out of her opinion because she had not been reasoned into it.
As many long-time followers of this page will know, I have developed a minor reputation for writing on controversial topics and sometimes challenging convention. This is not something I set out to do or is a part of some planned marketing strategy. This is who I am. My family knows this, my friends, my colleagues and anyone who knows me well knows this about me. I couldn’t change it if I tried without swapping a whole lot of DNA around. So when somebody tells me that chestnut mares are crazy I have to look at the evidence for the genetic link between gender, colour, and temperament. If somebody tells me foam produced from the mouth of a horse is a sign of a relaxed mouth, I have to pull it apart from all angles and try to figure out why foam leaks from the mouth. If somebody claims that clicker training is a kinder approach than negative reinforcement, I can’t accept it without testing the theory and checking the validity of the science. Knowing if these claims are fact or theory is important because it affects how we approach working with a horse if we have preconceived ideas.
One last thought is how much better we would be if we were more like our horses. Show a horse a better idea that will result in more comfort and better safety, and it will change its idea. It won’t hold onto something because it is emotionally attached to it. A horse has no ego attached to what it thinks it knows.
I believe it is the duty of every horse person to ask “why”. It doesn’t matter if the concept is an old established principle from Pluvenil’s book published in 1627 or a new idea about hoof trim that somebody discovered yesterday. We should believe what we believe because we have been reasoned into it and not just accepted somebody else’s truth. Being reasoned into believing of our principles means we can be reasoned out of them when we discover they are wrong or some better ideas surface. That’s how we evolve and progress as horse people to the benefit of horses and our relationship with them.
Photos: Alois Podhajsky (1898-1973)
