When a horse is being trained,
analysis of the horses character type must be sought before instructions
are put forth for training/teaching.
What is your horses type?
Lazy - stubborn
Fighter - fight
Nervous - flight
Willing - bargainer
Lazy horses can become
chums with you very easily and the person may think that the training is
going to be a breeze. That is until the person decides to start teaching
the horse. The horse goes from lovey dovey to a refusing uncooperative
horse.
Fighters don't want
anything to do with a person from the start. It maybe called a rebel.
Ready on alert all the time. The horse will let you know that he wants
to fight by stamping or snorting in a aggressive manor. A person should
never approach this type of horse thinking that it will not harm you.
Nervous horses need to be
trained with much more patience and slower progress than the other
types. A nervous horse may see a candy wrapper and go in to a frenzy
while the other types will not think much of this.
Willing horses use their
mind to greatest possibility. They rationalize the best of the 4 types
of horses. They are thinkers with good courage. A willing personality
type will poses the other personality types on occasion, but not as a
major trait.
With each of these types the
stages of training and the application of the technique will vary. The
lazy horse will have different responses to an application than the
nervous horse.
Actions of a horse out in the
pasture can not determine his/her personality when it come to training.
Environment
personality
A horse of course has the inborn
personality of fight or flight. But a horse is shaped into a deeper self
personality with the surrounding that it is in.
Nonhuman surrounding
Human surrounding
Semi human surrounding
Horse that are in a nonhuman
surrounding are known as unhandled horses that are not exposed to
handling of humans from birth or the first couple of months of life.
They will take quite some
confidence building to prove that you the human are not going to
harm them. The longer the horse is away from the hands on exposure
to humans the longer it will take to get the confidence built.
To see in the horses eye what
they see humans as would be like the human seeing a alien. If a
human saw an alien would we be so willing to be relaxed and
trusting?
Horses that are in a human
surrounding are horses that have or have had handling from a human.
Horses that are handled
properly from early in life will not fear humans. It is like the
human is scenery. It's there and no big deal.
The horse that is in a semi human
surrounding have both characteristics of the nonhuman and human
surrounding.
One can have a horse in the
pasture and not handle try to catch the horse until later on in the
horses life. This horse will keep the distance just incase the human
is going to "eat" the horse.
There is curiosity in these
horses.
Confidence building will not
take as long as the nonhuman surrounding horses.
Variation
in personality
Mental impressions
Endocrine System
Nutrition
Physical capabilities
Mental impressions made by either
nonhuman surrounding or human surroundings have a great deal to do with
how an animal will react.
If a horse was mishandled in
the human surroundings either by abusive action or by not teaching
manors will make the teaching process much harder than if the horse
had no human contact.
Horse in the nonhuman
surroundings will have different experiences depending on the
environment with in the surrounding. One horse may live in pastures
of green year round while another will live in more range conditions
where they need to find food and watch for predators.
Endocrine System needs balance.
Ductless glands can determine
how the nervous system is used along with the mental capabilities.
Nutritional needs in a horse are a
must for a health active thinking horse.
Without proper nourishments a
horse can not function properly. The horse will not be using the
brain nor the body normally.
Physical capabilities of the horse
may limit or heighten a horse.
If a horse is in pain it will
not do what you want comfortably. Thus the horse will tell you in
the horses own way that something is wrong. Such as bucking, shaking
the head, pawing, laying down and limping to name a few. But this
does not mean that when the horse bucks, paws or lays down that the
horse is in pain. This may also be a horse way of avoiding training.
If a horse possess physical
characteristics that are limiting for certain disciplines then the
human should not push the horse or compare the horse to any other
horse. Nor think that every horse is the same.