02/25/2022
So your horse is lazy/ evades effort/ doesn’t give you “100%” (whatever that means?)? Thank your lucky stars 🌟🌟🌟
At least once a week I hear a rider moaning about a horse not putting the effort in or trying to get out of working properly. And it’s absolutely true, that’s exactly what’s going on but that’s a good thing! And here’s why...
Your job as a rider and trainer of horses is to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard, that’s all. It’s that simple. Every time you interact with a horse you are training him whether you realise it or not.
Be careful of making a moral judgement on the horse’s perceived lack of motivation to do a job you decided he ought to do for you. You are the partner with the bigger, more complex brain in this pairing, don’t add meaning to a situation that’s not really there.
And it’s your responsibility to bring the horse along with you, you are leading the dance. It's why I think of that the FEI objective of the "happy athlete" would be better phrased as the "content athlete".
Your horse’s job is to consistently look for the easiest way out! That’s how a horse is trainable. He is looking for the loophole in your aids. When the horse understands the aids, he knows where the easy way out is. We need the horse to be seeking this place of lower pressure and higher comfort. Horses like feeling safe, being able to rest and having company.
Most of the time when training dressage we are using “negative reinforcement” techniques which sound a whole lot nastier than they actually are. Simply put, we teach an aid or behaviour by marking it as correct to the horse by REMOVING or stopping pressure, that’s why it’s called negative reinforcement. The negative is not a moral judgement on the technique, in fact techniques that rely on punishment are called “Positive Punishment”!
Now back to the effort piece - If your horse was genuinely putting 100% effort in, I can pretty confidently say 99.9% riders wouldn’t be happy riding your horse. The horses that are routinely putting 100% effort in are top racehorses and the best broncs, both on high adrenaline and performing like their lives depend on it. Horses usually give high effort when they are in high anxiety, that's how a prey animal is hardwired.
Most of us want a horse performing in a relaxed, content state of mind, at a certain lower agreed level of effort. Be careful what you wish for and be grateful for the tolerance our equine partners show us every day!
