User:Chrissylizette/sandbox

The Building of the Human-Horse Relationship and Communication The domestication of horses has been a popular practice done internationally and unlike many common sports, its origination dates thousands of years into history. Whether its use for war, transportation, mail delivery or just plain leisure; people have found ways to make horses compliant and useful to them. One may think that geographical location may make methods of equine training variable, but in fact, in order to domesticate these animals, there is a universal mixture of both psychological and physical training methods that have been used by all people for centuries. Regardless of discipline, there are a variety of common rider- horse communication strategies that are important when working with horses. Given that horses and humans cannot use language to communicate, trainers use the combination of physical and psychological approaches to basically reconstruct the mind and nature of an animal that’s instinctually wild. When thinking of the psychology of equine training, it’s important to understand general trainer-horse communication. It's fact that horses always give us clear messages and signs to communicate, which makes it is up to the trainer to understand and respect the messages being given. For example, when horses are relaxed and happy, they will keep their heads low, their ears wiggle and they will lick their lips. When they are nervous, unhappy or scared, they will keep their heads high, ears stiff and usually pinned (Horse Digest). Being said, when wanting to know more about basic psychology of equine training, one must first know how the horse thinks. This requires paying attention to the horses’ body language to recognize how his horse is feeling. It’s important to be able to identify the physical signs horses give to communicate because when one fails to pay attention, problems start (Horse Digest). Ignorance to the horse’s natural behaviors causes a barrier in the training process. Being said, there are particular ways trainers come into closer relation with their horses. By getting to know the horse in these ways and incorporating productive training exercises, humans have made ways to have beneficial relationships with horses. Imprinting and Its Psychological Importance Though originally wild, horses can be tamed to have a spirit of docility. But just as raising a child, training horses is a sensitive task. Knowing where to begin with training, training strategies, training stages by age and common training and behavioral problems are all important factors. But when trying to truly understand these factors, one must delve deeper into the overall psychology of the horse. The way a horse thinks, behaves and develops overall can all be rooted back to the imprinting of the animal. Imprinting, by definition is a rapid learning process where a newborn or very young animal establishes a behavior pattern of recognition and attraction to another animal of its own kind or to a substitute or an object identified as the parent (dictionary). It is a natural psychological training process that exposes the foal to various stimuli during the first few hours after birth to teach it to accept training and handling when it is physically ready (Riding). Being said, imprinting and proper handling of the horse at its young developing stage plays a huge role in the psychological development of the horse. The way the horse thinks is strongly influenced by its long term memory. Both positive and negative past experiences have an effect on the horse's thinking and behavior, which is exploited through both imprinting and the training thereafter (Riding). When it comes to imprinting, there are a few particular goals that become objective. This includes teaching the newborn to be open to human bonding, willing to be submissive to training, and the sensitization and desensitization to certain stimuli. The goal is to make the foal compliant and accepting of human companionship. This makes it easily led and trained. Imprinting is a permanent process and once the foal has been properly introduced to humans, it results in an unafraid foal that is now willing to accept human guidance (Horsetalk). Breaking The term of “breaking” originated years ago, as people used this term to describe the process of breaking a horse’s wild nature to gain the submission of the animal. Throughout time and history, these strategies have been proven very affective as trainers across the world use many of the same training methods to break millions of horses. Though training methods are usually learned and taught through hands-on experience, there are a lot of human- animal psych-related information that are good to obtain when considering or wanting to learn more about horse and general equine training. ­ Incorporating Physical Communication There’s a diversity of riding styles, but as far as training strategies go there are universal methods and tactics that trainers use. The use of physical aids when starting to move towards the chore of breaking the horse to ride is one of them. Aids are physical pressures a rider uses to communicate their wanted commands with the horse. When the horse responds appropriately to the pressure, the pressure then goes away. An example of this would be a rider using his or her legs to cue to horse to move forward. There are a few main types of natural aids the rider uses: leg aids, rein aids, and weight aids. These natural aids are “corridors of aid pressures” used to create the feeling of “shapes” or movement one wants the horse to take (Meredith). With time and patience, after continuously incorporating these aids together, one will subsequently acquire the horse’s understanding. To go along with natural aids, trainers also use artificial aids, which are devices, designed to help reinforce motions of the natural aids. Artificial aids include spurs, whips, and martingales. Schooling is the term used to describe the process in which the trainer exercises the horse for suppleness and obedience using the aids. Natural Horsemanship Natural horsemanship is an art that has spread enormously within the last decades but is in fact an old tradition. It is the study of the nature and body language of horses and the use of equine psychology to teach them (Riding). In natural horsemanship, the focus is the overall care, training, and riding of the horse in harmony with its natural behavior, diet, movement, and physical being (Natural Horse World). In other words, Natural horsemanship is a type of training which primarily focuses on natural physical and psychological aspects of the horse in order to gain its understanding and willingness to be handled and trained. Those who practice natural horsemanship have a goal to form a positive relationship with the horse by using methods that don't include the use of inducing fear to the animal to gain its submission. This particular form of training is based on allowing the horse to learn naturally using methods that gain trust, rather than controlling him (Complete Equine). Methods some trainers use for gaining trust include Natural Horsemanship Games which are particular trainer-horse interactive exercises.