(This blog was originally posted on February 15,
2016)
 |
|
My horse,
Galahad (front) and his brother,
the
Lipizzan stallion Favory Alisa II (Amadeus)
Photo by Sara Fogan |
Earlier this
afternoon one of my good friends described how and why she has slightly
different training approaches for each of her three horses. One of them
responds well to body language, vocal and clicker instructions. He is a
“thinker,” she said, and he will work to figure out what she wants and complete
his “task” before he gets his reward. The other two, she said, would crash into
themselves and her to get a treat, so she must adjust how she asks and make
sure they understand what is expected of them and when. This makes complete
sense to me.
Although my gelding,
Avalon’s Galahad, receives the same training and handling as the other horses
at the barn, he is definitely his “own horse.” Like them, he understands the
aids for walking forward, stopping, transitioning up and down between gaits,
backing up, standing still, etc. Like them, he also knows when I am on him and
when our trainer is riding him, and what he can, cannot and will try to get
away with depending who is on board. Galahad likes to really understand what he
is being asked to do and why. If he thinks human error/confusion is going on,
he tries his best to do what is being asked. If that still doesn’t make sense,
he responds how he thinks the human up there on his back intended. To his
credit, he understands the subconscious intent of his rider in terms of her
body language. How she sits in the saddle or shifts her weight is one of the
aids he correctly interpreted, based on his training. However, at that moment
his rider’s conscious mind hadn’t caught up with her body (subconscious mind) and
she didn’t actually ask for the movement she intended. So horse and rider try
again: the rider asks the question more clearly and/or a little differently and
checks how Galahad responds. Sometimes he is genuinely confused when he is
learning a new movement; sometimes I give
mixed signals when I ask for that transition down to a walk but my body keeps
moving along with the rhythm of his very comfortable trot. He is probably
thinking: What do you want, lady?
For example,
before she ever put me on Galahad for a trial ride, my trainer had me ride her
hunter (and Galahad’s brother), Ban. I knew the gelding understood what I was
asking him to do, but he would not budge no matter how many clucks or squeezes
I gave him. Ban knew his owner/trainer was not on him, and he was not going to
move a hoof until she said to do so, at which point he became a (fairly)
willing equine partner for an hour or so.
Granted, my
horse is much more fluent speaking and understanding “Human” and body language than
I am speaking Equus (horse). We share a mutual vocabulary in terms of the aids
we use during ground-work and training in the saddle. Unlike his brother,
Galahad is my horse; when I ask him
to do something he will make a great effort to do answer my question as he
understands it. We also enjoy a good rapport: mutual respect, trust, improving
communication and to like and even enjoy each other’s company. I know and
understand from working with my hypnotherapy clients that these factors are
imperative to understanding their individual therapeutic goals, as is being
able to effect the specific desired behavior changes through hypnosis. I
believe the same is true when we are riding and interacting with horses. With
rapport and good communication skills, it is possible to have a great, mutually
rewarding and even enlightening conversation.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified clinical hypnotherapist based
in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation
Institute in 2005. For more
information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an
appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2018
