Understanding Your Horse

Understanding the reasons why a horse behaves as it does goes a long way to becoming a better horseman and to improving your horse’s ability to perform the actions you ask of him. Behavior patterns convey messages to other horses and to the handlers.

BEHAVIOR PATTERNS

Protective Behavior--This includes all the ways horses react to predators and the environment. Horses naturally respond in flight or running away when threatened. To the horse something on its back is a predator trying to kill him. So he reacts by bucking. The horse also responds to the weather by seeking shelter, turning his tail toward the wind, standing in the sun to warm up, or seeking a breezy hilltop.

Ingestive Behavior

This is how a horse responds to food and water. Because of the horse’s digestive system, he must take in small amounts of food at a time and eat frequently. The horse is naturally a grazing animal, preferring open areas and young tender grasses.

Eliminative Behavior

The horse tends to deposit its urine and feces in certain areas and graze in other areas. He also prefers not to urinate or defecate while walking. Almost all horses will defecate when approaching a trailer or immediately on entering it.

Sexual Behavior

This involves courtship and mating and affects stallions, mares and geldings. The mare’s behavior and personality change during estrus (heat). Geldings may still be possessive of mares as a stallion would. Keep the sexes separate if possible.

Care-Giving/Seeking Behavior

This is usually the behavior between the mare and foal. An example is imprinting, where the foal at birth identifies with its mother. The mother wants to stay close to the foal and whinnies when separated. Another type of Care Behavior occurs among other horses, such as standing head to tail to fight off flies or scratch each other on neck or back.

Combat Behavior (Agonistic)

Associated with fighting, aggression, submission, and attempts to escape. This is also related to the “pecking order” in a group of horses, where one is dominant over others in the group. Some examples are kicking, biting, and striking.

Gregarious Behavior (Mimicry)

Tendency to copy or mimic another member of the herd. Examples are following the herd in the pasture, being hard to catch, learning cribbing or wood chewing from the horse in the next stall.

Investigative Behavior

This involves the way horses inspect their environment, especially new surroundings or objects. They look at, smell, touch, listen, and sometimes run away. These reactions must be considered when training or when riding in new areas.

MAJOR SENSES

Hearing. The eyes and ears almost always work together and therefore provide an excellent indicator of where a horse is looking. If the ears point straight ahead, the horse is looking straight ahead. A wildly active ear can indicate blindness.

Touch

 The areas in which the horse is most sensitive are the nose, eyes, ears, legs, flank, withers, and the frog. Touch is the most important sense in riding and training. The rider touches through the horse’s mouth, neck, and ribs as they cue the horse. He can communicate his directions or cues as well as his emotions-- tension or calmness, excitement, and doubt or loss of confidence.

Sight 

Be aware of where and how a horse sees. Many horses with shying, head tossing, and general confidence problems can be cured by education through vision. Try to see yourself as the horse sees you. This will help you avoid any training inconsistencies.

The amount of forward vision is related to the degree of trainability. A horse with “pig eyes” (small eyes set too far to side of horse) or a Roman-nosed horse (face is convex, rather than straight or dished) cannot see in front of him as well.

The horse has monocular vision, which means that he can see separate objects with each eye at the same time. This increases his side vision, but makes it harder for him to judge depth.

When the horse looks at one object, farther than four feet away, with both eyes he is using binocular vision.

The headset of the horse also determines what he is able to see in front of him. His conformation influences this headset.

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How to Teach English Horseback Riding

One of the most important aspects of horseback riding is gaining confidence in oneself and in the horse. Respect for the animal is paramount. Without it, the partnership necessary for English horseback riding cannot be achieved.

1 Allow the student to prepare the animal for riding. The student can help groom the horse while learning the purpose of the different brushes and which spots the horse wants him to brush. This allows the student to acquire familiarity with the horse.

2 Have the student help put on the horse's tack, saddle and bridle. You stand at the horse's head to keep the animal still.

3 Teach the student the proper way to lead a horse. Start by having the student lead the horse to the ring where the lesson is to take place. Once inside the enclosed arena or ring, teach your student to mount on the left side of the horse. Have a mounting block on hand in case the student needs assistance in reaching the stirrup.

4 Spend the first portion of the lesson teaching proper position, which is a large part of English horseback riding. Have the student visualize a long string attached to her head, pulling her upright and aligning the head, back, hips and heels in one continuous line. Teach your student to hold the reins so that they pass through the bottom of her hands and up through the top, with her thumb pointing toward the horse's mouth. The hands should remain perpendicular to the ground, never horizontal. The student's heels should always be pointing down, allowing her to maintain her seat low in the saddle.

5 Practice the walk, and encourage the student to look up. Have him learn to look in the direction the horse is heading. Remind your student to allow his hands to move forward and back with the movement of the horse's head while keeping the reins slack-free.

6 Draw the student's attention to the letters in the ring. Ask her to use the letters as markers. Instruct her to do certain commands, such as turning right at A, making a large circle at C or reversing direction at D.

7 Attach the horse to a lunge line and work on the trot. Ask your student to notice the feel of the gait. Tell him to post (rise up and down in the stirrups) in time with the outside front shoulder. Encourage him to learn to post without looking down, and to learn the correct timing by feel. Reverse directions and repeat.

Wildkin English Horse Riding Backpack

8 Introduce your student to the canter while on the lunge line. Teach her the importance of relaxing and keeping the body straight while keeping the heels down. Teach her to allow her body to follow the movement of the horse's gait while still maintaining position.

9 Work on each of the gaits off the lunge line, until the student can control the horse while in the proper position. Have him make turns, circles, lines across the diagonal, and serpentines. Introduce the sitting trot (trotting without posting) and the jump position.

10 Introduce jumping by lying posts on the ground and have the student trot over them in the jump position. Over time add cavalettis (a pole attached to two x's that can be turned for jumps at varying heights) and small jumps.

11 Gradually create more complicated courses for students to complete so they can learn the importance of turning their horses at the proper time. This will help animal have a good, square approach to each fence.

12 Have the students memorize simple dressage tests that require the them to perform certain commands at specific points. Gradually increase the difficulty of these tests as each student's ability increases.

13 Have fun going on trail rides, where you and the student can ride in the country in a less formal fashion.

14 Continue teaching the importance of caring for the horse and the tack (saddle and bridle) when you teach English horseback riding. Such lessons will stand students in good stead if they decide to buy horses of their own.

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