Personality and How it Can effect the Training of Your Horse — Part I

You’ve all heard about the herd instinct and the role it plays in gaining leadership and developing relationships.  What you don’t hear  much about, are the personalities of horses.  I’ve worked with many horses over the last 20 years, and I have probably worked  between 25 and 30 horses a month.  I’ve seen a range of personalities and out of that I have identified some very distinct personalities.  In fact, I wrote a book called Building Your Dream Horse and I describe seven different personalities.  The personality of the horse is an important factor in the training of that horse.  In other words, when we work with a horse, we know  that the horse has herd instincts— you know when one horse bolts, they all go.   Also, we know that there is a pecking order and that a leader has to be established,  and we know that horses have a fight or flight mechanism.  If you corner a horse, you’re going to push him into having a fight or an argument with you.   Push a horse and he will likely response with a fight.  In other words the horse will buck or bolt or bury his head in sand just like people do sometimes.  So, with the herd dynamic in mind, we also need to understand the personality.  Every horse has its own personality.  Lets go over the seven basic personalities and see if you can identify your horse.

Compliant - This is the type of horse that most of us want to have (or should have) but this type probably makes up less than 5 percent of all horses.  This is the horse with the mind and attitude that says, “I don’t care, whatever you want to do, just let me know and I’m happy to oblige.”  The compliant horse gives easily to pressure and has a natural emotional level usually around two or three on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest.  The handler or rider could be a youngster or a senior citizen.  This is a very forgiving animal, easy to train with very low fear levels.

Bully - The bully is extremely pushy.  He will have no problem walking into another’s space and doesn’t care about anything.  He has no respect for humans and often little for other horses.  This horse requires a very confident handler or rider.  Communication must be in black and white when working a horse who is a bully.  It is important to note, if we offer too much pressure or the bully during training, we can actually get a reverse effect, the bully may become timid and fearful.

Indifferent - This horse is aloof and not social.  Once you capture his mind, you may well become his best friend but this usually takes a considerable amount of time and he will never be a true “people horse.”  With an indifferent horse, the handler or rider must be confident, insightful and very consistent.  It is hard to get this horse’s attention and keep him focused.  However, once the connection is made, this type of horse can actually become very nice.

Timid - The timid horse usually seems quiet on the outside but he will fall apart under pressure.  When working with a timid horse, the demeanor of the rider or handler must be very relaxed and quiet.  We need to put pressure on such horses to raise their emotional level, but not so much that they “blow up.”  Our objective is to instill confidence in them and to make them feel secure in the arena and on the trail.

Nervous Nellie - This horse differs from the timid horse in that he is just nervous about everything.  This horse looks at everything.  He has confidence to a degree but is also concerned about everything happening around him.  The Nervous Nellie is very likely to bolt if too much pressure is applied or if he is asked to do things too soon.  The demeanor of the handler or rider needs to be relaxed but you cannot skirt around issues with this type of horse.  An assertive person may need to tone it down a bit (in body language and tone of voice), but the behavior must not be catered to.  This horse’s emotional level must be worked frequently and with greater intensity.

Personality and How it Can effect the Training of Your Horse — Part II

We’ve been talking about the part that personality plays in the training of a horse.  We know about the herd instinct and the fight or flight mechanism, but the personality of the horse is also an important factor in the training of that horse.  Last time we discussed five of the seven distinct types of personalities: compliant, bully, indifferent, timid, and the Nervous Nellie.  This time we are going to cover the last two personality types. 

Lethargic - There are actually two categories of lethargic horses.  There are those who are cold-blooded with little natural life or energy.  You can achieve an increase in energy and forwardness, but it takes work.  This type of horse is not good for a novice who often does not follow through with the forward cue.  If not properly addressed through foundation training, this horse’s attitude will become, “If you make me go forward, I will kick or buck.”  If a good work ethic is not firmly trained into them, they can get nasty.

The other variety of lethargic horse is what I call a “sleeper horse.”  Beginning riders buy these horses all the time.  Super calm and relaxed, the sleeper is fine poking along and appears to be a compliant horse.  What you discover later is that in the past, this horse simply never had anything asked of it.  The horse has never been required to work and as soon as you start asking with energy, for good forward impulsion, you end up with a real Jekyll and Hyde situation.  This horse has a lot of energy and is actually a forward horse, but he was never asked or motivated to use that energy.  The sleeper horse can develop a real attitude.  He doesn’t want to work, since he has been trained in the past not to want to work.  This can be overcome, but again, which he appeared to be a good beginner’s horse, the reality is that a confident trainer with the right timing and feel is needed to get the horse back to its natural forwardness, minus the attitude.

Of these two types of lethargic horses, the first is “naturally” not forward; it was not born with a strong “go forward button.”  This comes back again to a lesser flight instinct and sometimes just lower energy or impulsion— just as with certain people.  The sleeper horse though, is man made and is the result of poor training and expectations.

Way too smart - We all want an intelligent horse but if you are a beginner, you really do not want a truly smart horse.  It’s not that they cannot perform; the problem is that they find the holes in your training rather than you finding the holes in theirs!  They are not very forgiving when you are unclear on signals and cues, and they have an uncanny knack for training their people rather than the other way around.  For example, they learn quickly that when they do something that scares you, you may back off or cease asking for work.  The next thing you know, they are behaving that way all the time.  It takes a lot of confidence and exceptional timing to make a really smart horse into your dream horse.

Of course, most horses are made up of a combination of the elements of the seven personality types.  The important thing is to evaluate and recognize your horse’s personality characteristics so that you can most effectively work on his emotional and mental aspects.  This is what all of this comes down to: understanding how your horse acts so that you know how to apply the training principles in the most effective way.

Our talk about horse personalities would not be complete without mentioning the “B” word.  That is bombproof.  What is the most requested type of horse?  A bombproof horse.  Between parents looking for a safe mount for their kids and the huge influx of adults who discover or return to riding later in life (and discover they don’t bounce so well as grown ups), thousands of people each year search far and wide for the legendary bombproof horse.

Clients ask me all the time to find one of these elusive animals.  I will tell you the same thing I tell them: there are no truly bombproof horses.  The very complacent horses with naturally law fear levels, and those who have had very solid foundation training added to that natural disposition are the closest thing to bombproof that you will find— especially if they are older horses with solid maturity and life exigence to season them if further.  But every horse in the world has the potential to react negatively to something.  Despite the best disposition and training, there is always the chance that the flight instinct will override all else.  Riding and handling horses is inherently dangerous.  Ultimate Foundation Training will greatly reduce the danger by significantly increasing the horse’s respect, confidence and responsiveness but there is always some risk.  Accepting that risk is part of horsemanship should provide you the best motivation for training you and your horse.