There are no bad horses...

I think everyone who rides horses has heard the saying "There are no bad horses, only bad riders." And probably everyone who has heard that saying has thought, "thats nice, but there's no way its true!" If you have been around horses long, you have probably been thrown, kicked, stepped on, dumped or bitten a number of times already. (That's the voice of experience!) I'm sure you've noticed that there seems to be horses that behave badly inspite of the riders best efforts to do everything right, and then horses that just seem to be angels in every imaginable circumstance! So lets explore this "no bad horses" theory and see if there is any truth in it.

Horses have only two sources of information. One, their God-given instict; or nature. Two, us. A horses insticts tell them to run from anything unfamiliar, to kick at anything they deam harmful or undesirable, to dominate one another and to fight for survival. This is not because they are mean or dangerous creatures, but because all this behavior is necessary for their well-being. This is pre-programed into your horse.

Now, what we attempt to do is to cover all of that inner instict with a different message. We tell the horse to trust us, to allow us to touch it, lead it, put it in a rolling metal box and haul it miles away to a place it is unfamiliar with and upon arrival, act calm and collected. We want it to stand quietly when confronted with loud noises, people or animals, to obey our commands when we ask it to cross water of an unknown depth, or walk over a bridge suspended in midair. All these behaviors are the exact opposite of a horses inborn sense. And we wonder why they resist?

The relationship between man and horse is built on a fragile balance between respect and trust. When we undertake the task of creating for a horse a world that can be trusted; that is safe, we take on a huge responsibility. From the day a horse is born, every interaction with humans either creates that world where humans are safe and welcomed, or it reinforces their instinct to lash out and protect themselves. That puts it in very primal terms, but as the species that was given domination of the world we live in, it is our job to learn to relate to the horse on his level. Not the other way around.

So, if a horse's idea of a human is built on each interaction with humans since his birth, then it is really up to us to shape his response to our commands and desires from a young age. Sure, horses are individuals, and always have unique strengths and weaknesses and individual personalities. But it is our actions, or sometimes our reactions, that make a bad horse, well, bad.

I'll never forget a story about a 3-year-old stud colt who was brought to trainer and "horse whisperer" Buck Branamann to be "cured". This colt was gorgeous! But he was wicked, too. This colt was the ultimate "bad horse". He could not be handled or touched, let alone saddled and ridden. He was violent and aggressive toward any human, and would attack if you even neared his paddock fence. His owner admitted that since he was foaled he had not been worked with, ground trained or even gelded. His handling had been limited to coddling and being allowed to push his owner around. As he grew up and became less controlable he had been turned loose with other colts and allowed to be, for all intents and purposes, wild.

Buck worked with him for two days, and was able to saddle him and ride. But that small bridge of trust was not strong enough to rehabilitate a wild stallion in one weekend. He then told the owner that he recommened putting the horse down. I was shocked. He was saying that there was a horse that could not be cured! Maybe he was just a "bad horse" after all. But I'll never forget what he said to the owner. He said there was nothing wrong with the horse. He was simply doing what his instincts were telling him to do. No one had given him any other information to follow! He said, "The human failed this horse." By not creating a different world for him, the owner allowed his nature to take over, creating a very unsafe animal. Buck said that rehabilitation was possible to make this horse safe and useable, but he refused to release the horse to the owner because of the risk that he would attack someone with the intent to kill. He said "its not worth your life or mine to keep this horse alive."

Branaman points out that it was not worth any person's life to save that aggressive horse. But the choice to put him down should not be viewed as necessary because of the horses behavior, but because of the human's lack of direction. We create bad behaviors in our horses when we do not teach them respect, trust, and obedience. Remember, if we do not build that world for the horse, he has no choice but to follow his God-given instinct... and that's not pretty!