The Warrior Horse
Have you ever had a horse that consistently pushes into your space – barges through you? And like me, were you taught to get hard on them, to get that disrespectful horse to stand back politely?
Pushy, barging horses are what I call the Warrior Horses – that were bred over thousands of years to keep going forward no matter what, to push through anything in their way no matter whether they were afraid or confused.
Thousands of years of battle horses pushing forwards in the melee of war, the smoke, the cannon fire, the screaming and yelling and still doing the right thing – still pushing, still carrying their riders forwards. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of years of breeding carriage horses who would push forwards even when they were afraid or confused too.
The result is these very misunderstood horses that are considered “bargers” that will push through us at the drop of a hat – when in fact they are simply doing what they were bred to do, even when they are afraid or confused – SPECIALLY when they are afraid or confused.
So what happens when they get punished for barging?
So what happens when they get punished by jerking on the lead rope and making them “stand back” when they are already afraid or confused?
Then we’ve ADDED more fear and confusion to the fear and confusion that already exists. We’ve ESCALATED their fear and confusion. We’ve put them into the “oh shit I’m dead” zone of horse training, where the horse cannot learn anything, can only react – even if the reaction isn’t useful to us or them, even if that reaction when they repeat it is going to get them punished again.
If this is your first time here, then it’s really worth reading that last paragraph again. Vast amounts of horse training takes place in what we call the “Oh shit I’m dead” zone of horse training – where no learning can take place. The horse can only react in whatever way they reacted when they established the brain pathways in their early training.
The Comfort Zone Model in brief.
The Comfort Zone shown in the center of the circle is where new experiences and learning takes place easily and even joyfully.
Just outside of the Comfort Zone is the Not Too Sure Zone – although there’s some small stresses and tensions, learning can still take place. Longer than two minutes in the Not Too Sure Zone and there’s a risk that the stress and tension becomes chronic. Chronic stress and tension is always reflected in their movement, their reactions to us and in their health.
No learning whatsoever takes place in the Oh Shit I’m Dead Zone – our horse only has reactions that establish brain pathways that mean whatever reaction they had, will be repeated. And when those Oh Shit I’m Dead reactions aren’t useful, even if that reaction got them hurt – then people think the horse is stupid or dumb or a bad horse.
Until someone with a big heart and the knowhow comes along and helps them change it. And I guess that’s why you’re here – intrigued to know how you can change it. <3
Back to the pushy horses…
Orion in the photos had been given vast amounts of very expensive training from some very talented riders, to start him under saddle and fix this very serious problem. But because he’d been punished and forcefully stood back in his “Oh shit I’m dead” zone, he’d never actually learned anything, he’d only learned to react. So this warrior horse kept pushing and barging through the person whenever the pressure was on or when anything went wrong.
And he kept getting punished.
Thanks to Angela’s love for this glorious being, she kept trying to find a solution and they ended up with us.
Fix pushiness and barging easily
And thanks to EVERYone’s ability to “listen” to their horse (yours too!) and because of Angela’s desire for a gentler, more effective way and, we ended up solving the barging problem easily.
It turned out that when he wasn’t afraid or confused, Orion could think his way through to what we wanted easily, WITHOUT pushing or barging. Within DAYS, Orion became the horse that Angela had always dreamed of – incredible gentle and co-operative, looking after her so carefully, as she looked after him with this new way of being together.
The key to success
The key to success was listening to her internal early warning signal that something was Not Quite Right – her internal early warning signal that Orion was coming out of his Comfort Zone. So she could attend to and fix the very beginning of his fear and confusion before it escalated into pushing through her.
On a practical level, that meant paying attention to her INTERNAL guidance system to know exactly when to take the pressure off BEFORE he went so far into fear or confusion that he defaulted into pushing through her. We call this your Feel, your ability to Feel for your horse and it’s unique to each and every one of us. It can’t be taught in the traditional way of copying something that someone else is doing or being told what you should do, but it can be taught EXPERIENTIALLY and that’s how we teach it here. I don’t know anywhere else in the world you can routinely learn the Feel that the great horse people all have.
I’ve never met anyone I couldn’t teach this to
Our ability to listen to / feel this internal warning signal, plus an even clearer communication from our horse is the basis of everything that we do here. It’s what makes gentle communication between horse and person possible, it’s what makes our work here so effective. It produces horses that enjoy co-operating with their people – even figuring out how they can actively contribute to achieving what you want.
If the idea of horses actively contributing to us achieving what we want is foreign to you, one of my most gorgeous memories of Orion is working with him in a clinic some time later and showing Angela in MY body what Spanish Walk looked like and despite him never having been taught Spanish Walk, Orion mirrored me and so proudly lifted his front legs in a Spanish Walk beside me. I can still feel his pride and amusement now.
If you want to get started on helping your barging horse RIGHT NOW, then check out our training programs – there’s something there for every size wallet.
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Hi Jenny, in your very interesting article above you mention fear and confusion as triggers for your horse to get pushy. My mare gets pushy without fear and confusion. In a subtle manner she walks into my space when online because it’s drier or nicer there for her to walk. I know the places she prefers to walk and usually change lead side for her then. Still … recently, she was not so subtle when I approached her with the halter. She waited for her piece of carrot, then walked away. If I persisted she showed very aggressive behaviour using teeth and feet. I kept following her at a safe distance, after half an hour or less I had her. Once I lost patience and threw my halter at her. She looked surprised, then ran off a bit. During all these times she could have run away to the other end of the paddock, but never did. Is this a leadership problem? Have been told I’m too soft, and that horses need a lot of discipline. Haven’t ridden in more than a week now due to weather. She likes her outings and needs the exercise to be mentally balanced I believe. Too long for a comment, apologies for stealing your time.
No need to apologize! <3 The first part of your comment sounds like it's just that she isn't clear on what's expected. I remember when Oliver arrived, he had no idea at all what was expected and the smoothness and peacefulness that was possible when he was rugged or feet trimmed or anything else that required him standing still. I'm pretty sure he'd mostly been cross tied, i.e. two lead ropes making him stand in one place. You might remember that there's a Fast Track lesson on teaching him how to stand still with a two way enjoyment of that. If you're not sure the one I mean, email me and I'll send you the link. Hmm to the carrot at haltering time - it may be covering up that there's some old tensions there that haven't been released yet, with the Release, re-learn and Re-Program. Do a Quiet Mind about it and see what comes up. And ahh to the leadership thing. There's many different kinds of leacdership and I find mine can even change in the same day depending on what I'm doing. I've had some big examples of that this week, when Oliver needed to do some stuff that he wouldn't have volunteered to do, but they were important to his health. There's still gentle and effective ways to achieve that without mucking up our relationship. Go back and have a look at those very gentle Fast Track lessons about food - that's a very gentle and effective way to increase our leadership and our horses ability and desire to co-operate with us. It's funny, I find myself recommending that little series of lessons for vast amounts of "problems" that don't seem to have anything to do with food. It's because those simple little tasks increase our leadership. Again, if you're not sure which ones I mean, email me. <3