Fear and Loathing in Horse Training

A pun on the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Before I became a full-time horse trainer, I worked in a corporate environment. One of my bosses at the time was, and how shall I say this nicely? Mean and intimidating doesn’t seem to cover it, but that’s what I’m going to go with. She terrified so many people who worked for her that turnover was very high. People were stressed out having to deal with her. More than once I saw someone in the hallways turn and go the other direction to avoid even saying hello to her.

The other results of her terrible leadership skills were that people would call in sick so as not to have to deal with her, people would lie to her to avoid getting in trouble, and some people even stole from the corporation to passively get back at her. The corporate big-wigs loved her because she made them money, but a large number of her staff showed signs of PTSD.

One day, after witnessing one woman cry and two other people talking about how scared they were of her, I went to my boss's office and asked to have a chat with her. This woman was extremely nice on the surface. She was from somewhere in the southern part of the USA and had the façade of a beauty queen and the heart of a dictator, much like some horse trainers I have seen.

I sat down at her desk and brought up the fact that many people were afraid of her, and did she know this was the case because people seemed terrified on a daily basis. This was her answer: “I think a little bit of fear is healthy.”

I left her office, returned to my office, and quit shortly after. It perturbed me that she thought it was acceptable to scare people into obedience. It was mean as hell and, in the long run, actually damaged both the business and her reputation. (Within two years of our conversation, she was transferred to another building. Not long after, she was either terminated or retired, I never found out which.)

That conversation started me thinking about other avenues in life where her behavior could be applied; for example, what if I woke up every day and attempted to scare my wife into doing something? What if she went around telling her friends that she only stayed with me because she feared me? That would not be good.

This kind of dictatorial behavior is what many horses experience on a daily basis. They live in fear of their human partner, behaving so they get into trouble, terrified that they will do something wrong, and like the corporate staff I worked with, ducking down the hallways to escape. (Only when a horse “ducks down a hallway,” it usually looks like wandering off into a pasture, or being hard to catch.)

This kind of training is old school and needs to go the way of the payphone, no longer useful and difficult to find. It is more than possible to respond to our horses so they do not fear us, but you would never know by looking at some of the responses on social media, where people are giving advice to others on how to handle their horses. Much of this so-called advice is barbaric and born of ignorance.

Every day, I read “advice” about getting a harsher bit, putting on a halter with a chain, and backing a horse up forcefully until they “learn their lesson.” These suggestions do nothing to help the person and nothing to help the horse. Often, it makes things worse. I can’t tell you how many times we have had people come to us for help, and we end up having to “undo” the training the horse has had from some person who thought they were doing the right thing but weren’t.

Lest we think this is a novice endeavor, it is fair to point out that even top, well-paid, famous instructors say and do things that, if you were a horse, would make you run for the hills. I won’t name names here, but I think you get my gist.

In addition to not being effective as a training modality, fear makes horses distrust us and can shut down their future learning. I will put this more plainly in case I have not made it clear enough: FEAR HAS NO PLACE IN TRAINING HORSES.

A statement like this should no longer be necessary to say, but it is. So, please, if someone is giving you fear-based advice about training your horse, politely (or not) refuse and seek some advice that is actually helpful — as well as good for your horse. Okay, getting off my high horse now. Insert smiley face.

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