For many horse owners, leading their horse is the simplest thing and very little thought goes into the process. When we think about things we do regularly without horses leading is often near the top of the list and so the way we communicate about leading can have a huge impact on the overall relationship with the horse.
Leading done right
When everything goes well there is very little to comment on, the handler usually uses a form of head control but finds that the horse will willingly maintain a desired position next to the person moving together to match pace and tempo with slack in the rope. Often the rope control could be dispensed with as the horse moves in harmony with their human "leader" and the simple act of loving from point A to point B goes as smoothly as two experienced ball room dancers gliding across the dance floor together. Unfortunately the reality for many is that leading does not work like this.
Leading gone wrong
In the above description the horse is a willing partner that understands its responsibility in the leading scenario and trusts the human not to lead them into an unsafe situation. They view the human as someone worthy of listening to and are calm and connected. Truly great leading is actually quite rare and there are many reasons for this.
The Anxious Horse
Quite often horses are introduced to leading at a young age in a very basic rudimentary way. It is common for foals to receive a crash course in leading in order to be weaned from their dam and for many their first real experience of following a human is connected to this commonly traumatic experience. Even more common is the fact that the young horse is expected to understand to follow and yield to the pressure of a head collar or other device and that aversive pressure and coercion is used until the horse leads "good enough". Many horses learn they have limited choices but those that are more spirited and imaginative in resisting this pressure, as is in their prey animal nature, will often be given strong "corrections" or punishment. I'd go so far as to say that for the average horse their learning experience of being lead was more about learning to submit to a lesser of two evils rather than gaining confidence and understanding about synchronising with a human partner.
Depending on the horses innate character and spirit level, it may develop different coping mechanisms.
Shut down - Many will simply become robots, they shut down and just go where they are lead almost with no thought or care for their surroundings. I discovered an extreme example of this when I was given a riding school horse to do a demonstration at a riding centre for young disabled adults. I had plans to send this horse around a range if obstacles and show how I teach them to interact, for example put a foot on a block and push a ball... this horse was foot perfect at being lead and lunged, but it had zero curiosity, no interest in interacting with me or the obstacles and had no language for being sent or directed in anything other than a lunge circle or standard leading position. In the end the demonstration culminated in me managing to get the group of spectators routing for the horse to show interest in a football on a block... when he finally nudged the ball off the block there was a loud cheer from the stands as if we'd jumped the puisance! I left that demonstration feeling so sad that this beautiful creature was so lived and yet had not felt safe or comfortable to exercise his own independence of thought around humans. He was an organic robot.
Pushy- some horses learn to push and lean on their handler in an effort to keep some sense of control in the leading situation. This is read as dominance and often they receive aversive pressure or punishment to "teach them who's boss". That can work to some extent but hardly makes them willing and can often lead to further undesirable traits such as refusal to be caught/haltered, attempting to nip, bolt or further intimidate, rearing, head tossing and many more. I've worked on a yard where there was a horse that "had to be lead in a chifney bit" because she was liable to take off and when she would get loose she would run at anyone blocking her way. I was relieved to be told that I would not be expected to lead her, not because I was afraid of doing so but because I refused to operate the chifney bit. I then saw her owner arrive after being away for weeks and go to her in the field and bring her to her stable with nothing on at all. This fire breathing dragon that was a quiet lamb in the presence of the one human she trusted and that trusted her in return. It was things like this that made me realise there has to be another way of doing things.
Irreverent
Some horses cope by doing the bare minimum. They don't really understand or want to be going with the human and so they drag behind, they are sluggish to get going, difficult to trot up, and inclined to throw their head down and eat grass (or anything they can reach for that matter). They are often dragged along, and can be a real cause of frustration for their handler. I remember one mare, a haflinger, that had learnt very well to completely ignore whatever was done to her whilst she set her sturdy neck against the rope and dragged her handler to the nearest blade of grass. The blows that she could ignore were astounding and made me see why some people believe horses don't feel pain... it astound me that an animal sensitive enough to shiver at the exact spot a fly lands would not feel pain but they certainly can learn to block out whatever a puny human throws at it when it is confident it's life is not in danger. It is also intriguing that it is often these horses that we get so used to dragging behind us, suddenly take off leaving you with nothing but rope burns in your hands and mud in your face.
How can we develop positive leading?
In the ideal world every horse would be taught to synchronise with people and lead on a loose rope from the start. Synchronising is something horses do very naturally together and there is no better example than that of a mare and her foal... quite literally every horse is taught by its dam to synchronise from birth.
Of course we don't live in an ideal world and often we are working with horses that have long established negative patterns or deep seated mental and/or emotional brace to the concept of leading.
There are a number of games and strategies we can employ to help our horse become more calm, trusting and willing so that they can partner with us so that leading becomes that beautiful dance we described at the start.
Mirror Game
This is particularly good for horses that are used to being pressured and need to experience having a human close but that they get to have the decision making power. Basically the human goes with the horse. The aim is to be able to place your hand on the horses withers/saddle area and if the horse walks you walk with it, if they stop to graze you stop. Few people can keep up with a trot or canter but if the horse takes off it should be free to do so and the human does there best to mirror the horse's body language fro wherever the are. This game is a real relationship builder as the human becomes more tuned in with the horse and the horse's perspective but also the horse learns it will not be trapped or forced. Some horses will even struggle to accept a human walking so close as to be touching them so you may find you need to work from a distance and imitate the horse and you will mark progress by how close you get before the horse's energy begins to shift in response to your presence. If the horse starts to show signs of tension, such as a tightening of the jaw, blinking less, freezing or speeding up their grazing then definitely don't go any closer, a half step away from them can be enough to reassure them that they are not being pressurised yet keep you at the edge of their bubble. A horses bubble is related to its comfort zone so if you push into the bubble without permission then you are stepping over your horses comfort zone and forcing them into an emotional place. There are other many names for this method but ultimately it is about getting the horse comfortable with you, the human and is the first stage in true "taming". The number of trained and ridden horses that do not have this established is actually quite scary! When your horse fully accepts you walking along with them peacefully whilst touching them, you can then try the same with a head collar and loose rope so they learn that they can still trust you even when your equipment is out. Trust me, trust my tools - the confidence building stage.
Touch It/point to point
Horses that are shut down but obedient massively benefit from being taken from object to object. At each object they are invited to "touch it" in return for a reward. Touch can be with the nose and may lead to placing their feet in things. This concept allows a horse to learn to follow our focus as we lick on to an object and to develop curiosity and interest in following our focus as they learn that positive things happen when they do. Often this initially takes a lot of time and patience, depending on how shut down the horse is, for them to even move their nose toward the target. Remember to reward the slightest try (what you class as a try will depend on the horse, a horse that has stood blankly for 10 minutes refusing to look at the object finally turns its head toward your focus point... that's a try! For another horse they are nosey and it comes as no effort at all to nose at what you're looking at!). When the horse is starting to engage and look for rewards when you reach an obstacle, then you can use several as points to move between so that your leading has a purpose and they are able to learn to follow your focus.
Stick to me
When your horse is happy to have you in its space and next to it where you can reach the withers, and knows how to follow your focus, you are ready to start taking a little more leadership. The idea is to have your hand or a stick rest on the horse's wither/saddle region and you walk around. If the horse doesn't keep up you gently send energy behind the horse to cause them to speed up. I do this with a stick with a string attached and imagine it like the tail of a mare, she swishes her tail to signal to her foal to keep up. As soon as the horse starts to speed up release the pressure so that a they catch up to you they find peace and reward. If the horse goes forward past you then you need to signal to them to slow and come back. This is often done by rhythmically shaking the rope or raising the stick in front of you. If your horse has a negative response to this then you may need to work on their understanding of this. Make sure that you have a soft signal for backing up as this will translate to the "slow down and come back to me" signal for your stick to me. Ultimately you want the hose to find that you only create pressure when they fall behind or get ahead and that as soon as they try to be in the "right" position everything is peaceful. Some horses will really test whether they can run through the pressure to find release on the other side, it is important that you maintain whatever level of pressure you applied until they attempt a try toward being with you. Try not to increase pressure during their confusion and feel free to experiment with how soft or strong your horse needs you to be for them to understand. As always we are thinking of doing as little as possible but a much as necessary. Stick to Me is a great exercise in the attitude of justice when you only correct the horse if they fall behind or in front of the desired zone in relation to you. Initially you are just seeking that the horse is next you but as they get the concept you can be more particular that their neck or shoulder or girth groove is in line with you as you prefer. I always start with walk and halt transitions, can the walk with me and stop with me. Once this has been established I personally add backing up, can they walk backward with me. This is best done along a fence so that the horse has some support to stop them swinging their butt out. My reason for doing backup before trot is that back up is related tondownward transitions and so often keep energy down. It is also very powerful for horses that like to test your leadership to know you are capable of holding their feet backwards. Most horses are forward-a-holics by nature and so need lots of backing up to help rebalance and address this. If you add trot too soon then the horse is liable to go too fast and emotions will come up, this needs to be addressed at some point but having them really understand the walk, halt and backup Stick to Me will set you up far more for success. Eventually when your horse is putting effort into staying with you (you can tell because you can vary you pace within a gait form slow walk to fast to slow again and also with trot) and you are not having to correct them, then you can phase out the ropes if you want (drape across their back or neck or remove completely) contest your connection at liberty. It is even possible to begin adding canter transitions and have your horse canter beside you. If my rising 6 year old warmblood can collect himself to canter beside me whilst I'm 9 months pregnant (and therefore skipping along quite slowly) then I am confident anyone can achieve this with enough time and development of the horses connection and physical, mental and emotional balance.
You may come across specific challenges and hurdles I your journey to harmonious leading but remember, it is all just a symptom of the relationship and the horse's current perception of you along with their physical, emotional and mental balance. We can use these techniques to allow them to practice the skills and develop the trust and communication with us that they need but horses are all unique, their characters are individual and how they respond based on previous training methods means you have to work with your horse within their timescale and don't be afraid to experiment with low soft you can be but also how firm you may need to be. As long as you remember that it is the timing of when you quit doing what you're doing that helps the horse learn (release from pressure teaches) you can become as black and white as possible with your communication to support your horse's understanding. Understanding leads to confidence, confidence in themselves as a learner and in you as a leader and this creates mutual trust.
Every horse can be supported to find the harmony to synchronise with their human, just as they were born to do with their herd.
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