Horse Training Sayings and What They Mean?

Posted by Rick Gore
Category: General

If you read about horse training, articles, books or talk with people about horses, they will commonly say things that may sound like double talk, cute sayings or fancy horse talk, some will say.  There are many old horse sayings about horses and training and they are used frequently, but not really understood.  If you don’t know what they mean, you probably don’t know the importance of their meaning.  I have listed a few here, some of them you may have heard, some maybe not.  But if you hear them in the future, you will have a better understanding of what they mean, hopefully understand their importance and will be able to apply them better to help you and your horse.  If you learn to understand these, you will understand horses better and can apply these to make yourself better.  You will understand why it is so important for you to get better by the end of this article.

 

All of these sayings are interconnected and all affect each other. If you can imagine a spider web and piece of the web is one of these sayings, then you see how each one makes the other ones stronger and more effective.

 

So let’s take a look at some old horse training sayings and try and apply some deeper meaning to them besides just the words. 

 

“The Slow Way is the Fast Way with horses”:  This is critical in any horse handling.  If you rush something, if you get in a hurry, you increase the chance of a wreck, you set the horse up to fail and since you did not take the time it takes, it will take more time.  If you teach the horse small steps, allow small successes, give release for those successes, always rewarding (release) for the smallest try.  By doing this you help the horse know what to expect and the horse will know what is going to happen before it happens.  Knowing this makes the horse feel safe and establishes a routine and trust.  By going slow you limit confusion, you give the horse time to understand what you want, what you are asking for and you help the horse find the right answer.  If you don’t rush training, the horse will learn faster.  Horses find comfort in knowing what to expect, they don’t like surprises and they like routine.  Going slow makes us better and when we get better our horses get better.

 

"If you get better, your horse gets better":    Work on yourself more and not the horse.  If you get better communicating and understanding horse, your horse will reflect that. When you are giving good direction and leadership your horse will do better, a horse is a reflection of you, if you do it right, your horse does right.  If you ask the question right, the horse will give you the right answer.  When you work on yourself, you accept responsibility for what you cause the horse to do, you get better and your horse will get better, since a horse is never wrong and it is never the horse’s fault.

 

"It is never the horse's fault" or “The horse is never wrong”:   A horse is a reflection of the person handling him, if the horse fails you failed, if the horse does something wrong, you did something wrong, when you stop blaming the horse, looking for excuses, you look to yourself for the problem, therefore you will work on yourself, you will get better and your horse will get better.  If you accept wrong or bad results as your fault, you will be more willing to change what you are doing and if you want change in a horse, you must first change.

“In order for your horse to change, you must first change”:  Since a horse is only a reflection of you, if you do good, your horse will do good and if you do bad, your horse will do bad.  You must be able to recognize and accept this so you will change what you do, when something is not working. If you blame the horse when things go wrong, you will never change what you do and your horse will never change what it does.  Then the cycle continues and the horse suffers.  Admitting that you cause all actions from a horse you handle, gives you the ability to know that you must change in order to get your horse to change.  If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.

 

“If you take the time is takes, it will take less time”:  By going slow, since the slow way is the fast way, you take more time by slowing down, doing it right and the end result will come faster than if you get in a hurry and confuse the horse.  Confusion will cause a wreck and that will create fear and destroy trust.  When you lose trust it will take twice as long to get results, since you will have to undo all the wrong you did when you tried to do it in a hurry.  So, when you do better your horse does better.  And since the horse is never wrong, you set the horse up to fail when you get in a hurry and it takes more time since you end up doing over and over again.

 

“Set the horse up to succeed and don’t lead him down a path to fail”:  This means don’t just try things and see if they work since most of the time they will not work. If you don’t know what you want or what the right answer is, how can help the horse find the right answer? When you try, the horse will fail since you did not take the time it takes and do slow proper steps so the horse can learn the right answer.  If you plan, think like a horse, then you will break the training down into small steps, small successes, so you can teach the horse what to expect, lead the horse right where you want him to go, so he can find the right answer.  By giving good direction you help the horse find the right answer and avoid correction. That is why direction is always better than correction.  When we help our horse succeed, we get better and when that happens our horse gets better.

 

“Listen to the horse or The horse is the best teacher of the horse”:  Everyone wants to train a horse, everyone wants to make their horse better, everyone is always so busy trying to make their horse learn or do something and they rarely take time to listen to the horse.  A horse will tell you if you do something right or wrong.  They will tell you if something works or does not work.  They will scream this with confusion and wrong responses and all too often no one hears them and no one listens. An example of this is reaching too fast to pet a horse and the horse moves away. People that don’t know will the horse is head shy, people that know will change what they do, move slower and will help the horse not move away, so the horse can learn the right answer. When a horse tells you something and you ignore him, he will not trust you, he will know that you don’t understand him, he will know that he can’t trust you since you do not speak his language.  Watch and listen to the horse, the horse is never wrong and they always tell you what works and what does not work.  The horse is the best teacher of the horse.

 

“A horse has to get scared so it knows it does not have to be scared”:  If you think like a horse, this one is easy.  A plastic bag blows by, a horse snorts, jumps and prepares to run or runs off.  We know it is only a bag and will not hurt a horse, but a horse has to get scared, this fear is what has kept them alive for thousands of years.  You can’t take that out of them.  So understanding this, we know that all horses get scared, we get scared, and we need to help horse deal with their fear a different way.  We need to teach them that is OK to be scared, but they can’t react like a wild flight animal when scared.  We need to help them see that fear is normal and not all fear will kill them and they don’t have to run when scared.  We can’t do this if we try and avoid scary things, if we beat them, or we scare them more and cause pain when they get scared.  We have to let the horse get scared and show them that it will not be hurt, show them trust and we will help them deal with their fear, by being a strong and confident leader who gives good direction and not correction.

 

“Direction is better than correction”:  If you pay attention, if you give continuous feedback to the horse and if you make sure the horse knows what to expect, he will be less likely to make a mistake.  By giving good consistent direction you help the horse find the right answer and prevent if from making a mistake, which means you prevent having to correct mistakes.  When your horse fails you fail, if you do not pay attention and you allow your horse to get into trouble or make mistakes, then you have to correct those mistakes. However, if you are active, paying attention and giving good direction, you avoid corrections.  This is better for the horse and better for your relationship with your horse.  So when someone is constantly correcting their horse, they are not giving good direction.  Which means they do not know what they are doing and they are not giving good direction or getting better or paying attention to what the horse is telling them?  Which is why when you get better, your horse gets better.

 

“Trust your horse and your horse will trust you”:  This is a big one that is far too common.  Horses are big, strong, fast and reactionary animals.  It is easy and reasonable to have some concern when you don’t understand them.  Fear is crippling to having your horse trust you.  Horses know they are food for others, they are hyper alert and extremely sensitive, they have to be alert to stay alive, so they do not miss anything and they know what is going to happen before it happens.  So when you think you fool a horse, when you think you can act not scared and the horse will not know it, you are wrong.  Your fear only increases their fear.  Your fear shows you as not confident, your fear says you are not a good leader and not someone a horse wants to put his trust/life in.  You see it all the time, someone is scared of horses and they try and act tough, they try and cover their fear, they try and fool the horse and they really only fool themselves.  These are the most dangerous people to be around and work with.  They do not listen, they do not think, they do not learn, they are paralyzed by their fear, which comes from a lack of confidence, lack of knowledge and lack of trust and then they expect their horse to trust them and believe in them, when all the time they are lying to themselves, others and the horse.  A horse will not trust you if he fears you and you scream loud and clear that you do not trust a horse since you fear them.  Fear gets more people and horses hurt than just about any other thing.  Yet a majority of older horse owners are scared to death of getting hurt and in all their wisdom they pick horse ownership thinking it will get them over their fear, when in reality all it really does is set the horse up to fail.  When your horse fails, you failed.  You cannot succeed with horses if you fear them. You will never see a good horseman scared or nervous of horses.

 

“Most horse problems are really people problems”:  Since a horse does fine in the wild where no people are around and since horses only have problems when people are involved, it only goes to reason that horse problems are caused by people.  There is no wrong or right in the wild, there is only survival.  So when we put horses in domesticated environments, nail metal to their feet, box them up, isolate them, ride them in pain bits and keep them in unnatural environments, they develop problems, none of which they had before we (people) got involved. Everything a horse does, every situation a horse is put in, every time a horse gets hurt, panics and runs or does some other natural horse thing, people want to blame the horse and not accept that they caused or set up what happened.  With that mindset, people never change what they do, since they blame the horse and don’t understand that they cause every thing that happens with a horse, which why a horse is only a reflection of what you do and if you want your horse to change you must first change.  Once you accept this, you change and you get better and so your horse gets better.

 

“It will always get worst right before it gets better”:  When pushing horses past their limit, when trying to un-teach bad learned behavior, some horses can be very resistant, some will have learned this so well that they are unwilling or unable to change.  They have been made stubborn, resistant, stiff or dangerous, and they have learned the lesson well. Bad horses are not born they are made.  So these horses can have the toughest problems to fix (help the horse).  It is still never the horse’s fault, but since a horse will fight some things, if they were pushed too fast or abused in the past or are more fear driven because of bad handling, or some studs or stallions are very strong willed and all of this can be tough to overcome.  So this saying, it will always get worst right before it gets better means some horses will fight their hardest, resist their most, right before they give in. It is like a last ditch effort to survive, resist or get freedom.  So it will appear to get worse and then after that final effort, a lot of horses will submit right after their last strong fight.  This can happen in many training areas and we should not be fighting with horses, but I think that is where this got started and it has continued over time.  The key is, stay focused, don’t give up, insist on only one right answer and continue pressure until you get it, no matter how bad it gets.  And just when you think it is getting worse it suddenly gets better.  If it doesn’t, it is never the horse’s fault.

 

“A horse is only a refection of the rider”:  This is more of the same, if you do good your horse will do good, if you do bad, or go too fast, or don’t listen to your horse, your horse will get confused, do bad or fail (not find the right answer).  Since it is never the horse’s fault, you make a horse do all bad or all good.  If you change what you do, the horse will change what it does.  Listen to your horse, it will always tell you if you are doing something right or wrong, simply look at his response.  If I raise my hand and my horse runs off, I caused my horse to run off, depending on what I wanted I will assign right or wrong.  If I point and ask my horse to move and the horse moves, then I did it right, since my horse did it right. All things come back to what you do and what the horse does.  Since a horse is only a reflection of the rider, when you hear someone call their horse stupid, look at them and say look in the mirror.  If they call their horse crazy, tell them to look in the mirror.  If they have a good horse, they are good.  If they have a scared horse, then they are scared, if they have a horse that fights, then they fight.  All horses do what they do because of what is done to them.  Bad horses are not born, they are made.

 

“Bad horses are never born, they are made”:  All horses are born a horse, knowing nothing but instincts, survival and they are just horses.  From that moment on all interactions with humans will either teach good or bad.  Depending on the handling, all horses can be either good or bad.  But there are many bad horses that were made and now they are labeled.  Which is why so many horses have a past (bad handling) and no future.

 

“Release teaches or A horse learns on the release”:  Horse hate pressure, they are comfort seeking animals; they avoid stress, danger and threats (pressure).  A horse will always choose easy over hard, it will walk rather than run, it will avoid conflict and seek comfort.  A horse looks for release from pressure or release from being uncomfortable.  So by making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard, we use the horse’s natural instinct to seek comfort and avoid pressure and this helps the horse find the right answer.  So stopping or releasing the pressure or discomfort, we tell the horse what the right answer is.  Release with bad timing does not work and only teaches the wrong thing, but understanding how important release is and what it teaches enables us to better communicate with our horses in a language they can understand.  If you don’t understand how release teaches, you can’t talk horse and the horse will know it before it happens.  Rearing horses are a great example, when people don’t understand release and a horse rears, most people will stop what they are doing and move away from the horse so they don’t get hurt. So by giving release (move away and stopping) the horse thinks and learns, by rearing I get release, therefore rearing is the right answer, to stop pressure. Soon he knows that when he rears, you will stop pressure and then he knows what is going to happen, before it happens.

 

"A horse knows what is going to happen before it happens":  Horses are “Kings” of observation and they miss nothing and see everything.  You cannot fool them or fake them, they know if you know and they know if you don’t know.  They are exceptional observers.  They know because their lives depend on it.  If they miss something, they know they will be dead, that is powerful motivation and that is why they are so good at it.  Horses keep you honest, since they know if you are lying or trying to fool them.  They know if you are scared and don’t trust them and they will not trust you.  They read and see the slightest change in your stance, you mood, your intentions, your thoughts, where you look and if you think you can fool them, they will set you straight ever time.  So be aware, a horse knows what is going to happen before it happens.  If you listen to the horse they will tell you they know and they will keep you honest, by not allowing you lie or fool them.

 

“Horses never lie or Horses keep you honest”:  Horses don’t know how to lie, they do what they do from instincts and because of what happens around them.  They are reactionary animals and have to be taught how to respond with control.  When a horse kicks another horse, it is not from meanness, it is not from planning, it is from truth.  A kick is pure with no malice or ill intent.  When a horse kicks it does so to teach or to protect or from fear.  So punishing a horse does not work, they don’t understand it.  Since a horse knows what is going to happen before it happens, they cannot be fooled or tricked and when you try they know it.  When they see that you are being sneaky and not honest, they will not trust you.  When you are honest your horse finds comfort and responds with trust.  When you try and fool them they will tell you that you did it wrong.

 

“Your horse will tell you when you do it right”:  This goes back to listening to your horse.  If you do something wrong, too fast or too aggressive the horse will tell you, if you listen and watch.  Pay more attention to what your horse does after you do something.  Then you will know what works and what does not work.  You will see when you go too fast or when you make a mistake, the horse will tell you, if you listen and watch.  Then you can change what you do so the horse will change what it does.  If you do the same thing you will get the same results.  If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.  If you get success, keep doing what you do.  If you get failure, change what you do.  This makes you better so your horse will get better.

 

“Predicting a horse’s response is better than reacting to his response”:  This comes with knowledge and understanding of horses.  If you take the time it takes, do small steps and set the horse up for success, you will be able to predict what the horse will do.  Prediction is better than reaction. This forces you to know the right answer and forces you to give specific direction to get that right answer. Then you can teach the horse with less stress and confusion and you give good direction and not correction.  The horse learns faster when you go slower.  The slow way is the fast way. By knowing what you do and what the horse will do helps you predict behavior (good and bad).  That way you can change what you do so your horse will change what it does.

 

“If you fail, your horse fails”:  When we do something wrong, our horse does something wrong.  If you don’t pay attention and you allow your horse to get into trouble you will have to correct the horse.  If you do good, your horse does good.  If you allow your horse to fail, then you fail.  If you do bad, your horse does bad.  Since a horse is only a reflection of the person handling it, if you succeed, your horse succeeds and if you fail, your horse fails.  It is never the horse’s fault.  When you get better your horse gets better.

"If you get the wrong answer, you asked the question wrong":  Look to yourself for the problem, help the horse find the right answer by eliminating the wrong options.  If I want a horse to trot and he walks, I have not been clear, I must have given the wrong direction, the horse is telling me he is confused or does not know what I want and now I have to change what I do or give correction.  Since direction is better than correction, I failed so I made my horse failed.  If I ask right, if I am clear and consistent, if I set the horse up to succeed, the horse will answer right.  It is never the horse’s fault and if I do good the horse will do good and if I fail the horse fails, so if I get the wrong answer, I asked the question wrong.

"Make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy":   Horse are comfort seeking animals, they avoid stress, danger and pressure.  A horse will avoid conflict and seek comfort.  A horse searches for the easy way (we have to make right thing easy).  So by making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard, we use the horse’s natural instinct to seek comfort and avoid pressure to help the horse find the right answer. A horse only gets release of pressure or comfort when he gives the right answer.  By keeping the pressure up, making it hard and making the horse uncomfortable, the horse will keep looking for comfort or release (the right answer) and when he finds it, you release pressure and the horse now knows that is right answer.  Which is why you have to know what the right answer is, and you must know that you only release pressure when you get that right answer.

 

“Green on Green equals Black and Blue”:  A truer saying was never said.  This means that when a green rider gets a green horse they will make mistakes, be thrown or hurt and will have many bruises.  The term “Green” means young and inexperience.  Now this term is relative since many older riders think they are not green since they rode a horse as a kid.  A lot people get back into horses later in life and think they can jump right back in the saddle after 15 or 30 years off.  They are wrong and they soon realize the bruises come much easier later in life.  A partner of this saying is:  Young troopers need old horses.  This means inexperience riders need an older horse that has lots of experience and has learned many lessons so it will be less likely to hurt an inexperienced rider and less likely to be confused by the inexperienced.  Young horses need experienced good riders to the horse can learn the right answers. You would not have a third grader teach other third graders math. If you did, neither would learn, both would make mistakes that neither one would know were mistakes and both would learn wrong things thinking they are right, while all the time neither would know the difference.  That is green on green in a nut shell.

 

“A horse does what it does, because you do what you do”:  A horse is only a reflection of you and what you do.  That is why it can never be the horse’s fault.  If you do it right, the horse will do it right. If you get the wrong answer you asked the wrong way.  If you get better your horse gets better and the horse will do right since you do right.  You cause every thing when you handle a horse.  You either cause what you want (right) or what you don’t want (wrong).  Which is why, it is never the horse’s fault.

And last but not least and my personal favorite;

 

“Think like a Horse”:  In order to think like a horse, you have to understand how a horse thinks and lives.  You have to be able to see the world as a horse sees it, through a horse’s eyes, with all their instincts, fear, flight response, their vision, the placement of their eyes for surround vision, what it is like to live as food for others, knowing that their best defense is their speed to flee, understanding their language, their herd behavior and actually being able to know how a horse learns, feels and lives.  Only then can you approach things as if you were a horse and only then will you know how not to confuse them, not to judge or blame them and realize that they are nothing more than a reflection of you and what you do.  Then you can understand why it is never their fault, why they know what is going to happen before it happens, why the slow way is the fast way, why when you get better your horse gets better and why the more you think like a horse, the more the horse will trust you, see you as a leader and will know that you know.

 

So if you read, live and breathe these saying, if you understand these sayings, you can apply them to most situations when dealing with horses.  You will see crashes, wrecks, horses get hurt and people get hurt all the time and if you critically evaluate the situation and analyze what happened, you can probably apply one or more of these sayings that were not followed.  You will see that had people applied these saying and understood them, the wreck could have been avoided.

 

You will notice that a lot of these sayings connect to each other like a web and all have a common theme.  A lot of the sayings are used to describe other sayings.  They are all connected and they all put us closer to thinking like a horse.   And the more we do that, the more we will understand a horse and be able to listen to the horse.  The more we understand a horse, the more we will communicate with them from their perspective and not ours, the more we will understand why they do what they do and how we can help them.  The better we get we can learn from them and we can help them deal with their fears and instincts through mutual understanding and respect.  And our journey to higher learning with horses are improved and advanced.  So then we get better and when that happens… well you know the rest.

 

Happy Trials,

 

Rick Gore Horsemanship

www.thinklikeahorse.org