It is the same with people. Take a group of bright, resourceful, enthusiastic and motivated people and give them a manager who is a negative, critical, control freak - who refuses to delegate and rules with an iron fist. You will soon see a very different group of people - if there are any left working for him. Horses, unfortunately, don't have the freedom of choice to find different employment... but they do find numerous ways to demonstrate their dissatisfaction - from biting and agitated disrespect, mistrustful head shyness and twitchiness around their handlers, through to dull resentment and a complete lack of joie de vivre, resulting in conditioned suppression or 'shut down'.
Going back to that group of employees - when they have the sort of manager who uses motivation and positive goal setting to encourage staff to grow and flourish, you'll find that they want to do better and enjoy doing it.
It can be very much the same with horses. If you can get a horse to respond to you, rather than react - to want to do what you want him to do - then training becomes easier and more enjoyable and far more successful in the long-term.
Horses have incredible memories and think in a series of visual 'slides'. They are constantly recalling these visual snippets and, as 'actionary' animals, relating them to current situations, before giving what they consider to be an 'appropriate response' at that time, for example, 'taking flight'.
Putting this into perspective, a horse that is constantly exposed to negative reinforcement and punishment and who is trained through force and fear is going to have a lot of memory material to draw on...
There's more. Horses have the same capacity for emotional feelings as we do - that part of their brain (the Neo Cortex) is very similar in size to humans. They can like, love, desire and need companionship or become angry, frustrated and take a distinct dislike to something or someone - very much like humans.
All this means that, if you act like a dictator and do things that cause your horse to feel you are cruel, unfair and impossible to understand, it is pretty much a given that he won't think much of you. And I for one find it quite hard to give that extra effort and consideration to people I don't like or respect.
Mutual respect and trust are vital in a truly successful horse/handler partnership. One of the best ways to establish this is by making an effort to learn the language of horses - Equus. This requires an in-depth understanding of equine as well as human body language and an ability to accurately 'read' your horse and use that to your mutual advantage. If you don't understand your horse's language effectively, it can be rather like shouting louder and louder to make someone who doesn't speak your language understand you. In short, it's pointless.
By using positive communication and an understanding of horse behaviour to build two-way trust and understanding, the horse learns to give you what you want - and to want to do that. You can work to build a closer relationship with horses and have the feeling that they are 'with you', 'listening to you' and responding to you.
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