Why so Tense?

Stress and tension plague us in modern times. Too many voices. Too many demands. With white knuckles and gritted teeth we soldier on. We can spot the signs of tension in a person – but what about a horse?

As judges we’re trained to recognize technical errors, lack of talent and lameness. What about signs of tension? We’re talking about this more, but the more subtle signs are easily clouded by a flashy mover, which naturally impresses us and we feel inclined to reward.

Conflict behaviour is a term in learning theory describing the way horses respond when they’re confused. Short rigid necks, busy mouths, fixed ears, hasty steps – these happen when a horse feels torn between the mixed messages he’s getting from his environment or his rider. Simultaneous, opposite signals or noisy cues trigger a horse’s flight response and when there’s no way out, he acts out (often subtly) or zones out (learned helplessness).

I admit, it’s a dilemma – comparing a talented but tense horse with an average happy one. It’s enough to stir some conflict behaviour in judges! Would honing the penalty system to include specific signs and degrees of tension be a step in the right direction? What about educating our riders beyond the mechanics and posture of the sport to the science of how horses learn? ( the “whys” behind the “hows – my passion!)

What do you think?

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Comment by E. Allan Buck on August 24, 2011 at 12:23pm: Maybe this piece I wrote could assist riders, trainers, clinicians and judges in having a lightbulb moment.

The Sympathetic Connections/Aids

E. Allan Buck

2011(c)

I am not a trainer of the horse; I am an educator of the human element in horsemanship.

A trainer is one who teaches a specified skill, while an educator gives intellectual, systematic instruction for particular purposes through development of character and mental abilities.

I believe that a great majority of individuals schooling horses do so from the knowledge acquired from numerous friends and trainers. This knowledge is essentially varied and inconsistent.

What has happened to the fundamental requirement of two-way communication between horse and rider? In today‘s horse industry, the big name clinicians all seem to unknowingly participate in the subjugation of the horse, creating horses that respond from learned helplessness rather than from desire to participate. This methodology teaches the human species to be reactive rather than responsive to the horse. This in turn, results in horses who are compelled to do a task rather than asked to join in the task.

In researching the use of the word sympathetic with regards to horse 'training', I have found that it is used by several individuals and is found in several scientific research papers. I also find that there is a tendency of individuals who say they use sympathetic training to still confine their knowledge of equine biomechanics to the proverbial in the box thought processes. The result is that they still, unconsciously, apply subjugation processes in the 'training' of the horse.

Sympathetic educational methodology requires the educator to be fully aware of the student's inhibitions that would block the learning process. Thus the educator would seek out methodologies that do not force the student to learn a specific subject, but instead would ask the student questions and give the student the opportunity to find the correct answer.

How does one know they are headed toward the sympathetic connection?

The educator, [the rider] reaches the 'beginning' of the sympathetic connection when the she/he [the rider] realizes when the mistake is made, why the mistake occurred, and fixes the cause of the mistake, while still riding the lesson. When the rider is able to acquire all three of these traits, then the rider has reached the stage in her/his education that they are beginning to open a sympathetic line of communication with the horse.

The processes of thinking the aids, thinking the horse, thinking the movement are in actuality confounding the rider. This occurs because the rider is working at thinking these elements that she or he already are fully aware of and this process causes confusion within the brain function.

On the other hand, the processes of the 'feel' [sense], such as being aware of the physical tension signals from the horse and from the rider, blend into a combination of physical sensations that send clear and concise messages from the horse to the rider and from the rider to the horse.

For example, if the rider thinks the horse is not listening, some part and/or parts of the rider's body will have tension applied to the muscle structure. This tension is relayed to the horse who then, in a reactive reaction, also applies tension to one or more parts of its muscle structure. So at that moment, the combined tensions now remove the free, light, loose, supple and unconstrained biomechanics of horse and rider that the educator [the rider] should be actually striv

Comment by Ferrous on August 24, 2011 at 11:30am: Well said, Jackie!

I cringe when I see an obviously tense horse with extravagant action (especially in the front end) beat a relaxed horse that is using its whole body well, but isn't as 'flashy' (ie. not flinging its front legs out). A relaxed and happy horse that is working in a good partnership with its rider, and that has learned to carry itself, is far more of a joy to watch than a tense horse that is being 'held together' by the rider.

Comment by Jackie Cochran on August 24, 2011 at 10:30am: I don't know where to begin.

If judges stopped rewarding just fancy movement then the trainers and riders would not put the horses under extra stress in order to get the fancy movement.

If the judges stopped looking to reward "talent" then trainers and riders would have to be better riders to win. A horse who is perceived as "talented" is often forgiven many, many faults in training.

There is also the danger that when a "talented" or "fancy moving" horse is rewarded that the owners and trainers of the horse think they do not have to emphasize training, they won, after all. Since winners are always imitated this means that the general standard of proper horsemanship goes down and the ring ends up full of tense, talented, fancy moving horses which are badly trained and ridden. Hey, they MUST be the best, all the judges make them winners!

Poor horsemanship by the trainers, riders, and rewarded by the judges. Of course the horses are tense.

Comment by Barbara F. on August 24, 2011 at 8:32am: Super topic. It's time to get way past the ignorant thinking that the horse is just "being naughty".