Understanding your Horse’s Association, Habits, and Responses

Your Horse is a Herd Animal

Your horse must learn to perform away from a group. Your horse will not do this on his own, he must be taught. Your horse’s instincts will tell him that safety is in numbers. This is one good reason that you should not ride alone, or get separated from other horse riding buddies on the trail. Your horse’s instincts will tell him that the lone horse gets eaten.

You want your quiet, calm horse leading other horses on the trail. The lead horse on the trail is the most likely horse to get startled first, so you want your most calm horse up front. But with any case, horses can be unpredictable at times and will spook at what we consider the littlest things, like a fly landing on him, or a piece of tall grass touching his belly. Be prepared at all times and never let your guard down. At the same time you need to be able to trust your horse and have a safe and enjoyable ride.

Horses do not reason. Horses learn conditioned response through habitual behavior. Horses probably cannot connect the two events more than a few seconds apart unless the two events themselves are connected in some way. For example, your horse bites and gets a scolding. If your horse gets his scolding several minutes later after he bites, he won’t know why he received the scolding. All your horse knows is that you scolded him for no reason, and this is where you lose your horse’s trust.

Your horse can make associations. For example, you ride your horse down the road and your horse spooks at a bicycle, you scold him. The next time that your horse sees a bicycle, he may spook because he fears a scolding from you. This is association.

Your horse may spook due to anticipation. If you ride your horse down that road, whether or not a bicycle is present, your horse may act up in anticipation of a scolding. You need to let your horse look around and reassure him instead of always punishing him for being afraid. This will gain trust with your horse.

You must understand your horse’s response to habits, association, and his anticipation of prior events so that you may enjoy your horse in a positive and safe manner.

We welcome your comments on this article.

Have a great day with your horse.

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