05/17/2023
Absolutely nailed it. āInconveniencesā and resilience to them are a life skill we humans must help the horse develops
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Inconvenienced
Kathleen Beckham
Years ago, I had a baby horse, and when he was about 18 months old, I had the opportunity to have an equine chiropractor work on him. He was wiggly and squirrelly, and I apologized to the chiropractor for that. āThatās okay,ā she said, āLittle babies havenāt learned how to be inconvenienced yet.ā
That was big for me. So big. āInconvenienced.ā I hadnāt thought of that before, but it was the perfect word for it. We donāt want our horse to tolerate being hurt, or being treated unfairly, but he dang sure needs to be able to be inconvenienced.
From that day forward, ābeing inconveniencedā became a more thoughtful part of my horse work. I started to see some of the āissuesā students were having with their horses as having to do with the horseās inability to be āinconveniencedā without becoming very anxious. I also saw the stress that some of my students experienced when they knew they were going to inconvenience their horses. It turned out it was, indeed, a āthing.ā
The ability to be inconvenienced and be resilient about it, itās a skill. Itās a skill for people, itās a skill in dogs, and itās a skill in horses. Itās a skill that needs to be purposefully taught, and then carefully developed and expanded over time. It should be part of any training process for horses, because itās something that they donāt necessarily come āfrom the factoryā with, and itās something they really need to succeed in the human world we insist they live in.
For a horse, ābeing inconveniencedā can be things like being asked to work while other horses are eating, standing tied, not being fed first, being turned out or brought in a ānon-preferredā order, standing next to strange horses and not being allowed to socialize, having their feet picked up, going down the trail while other horses speed by, having veterinary work done, getting in a trailer or other small space, not being allowed to graze while workingā¦ I think you get the picture. Once I started thinking about my horse being āinconvenienced,ā I saw it everywhere. Gosh, a LOT of a horseās life in the human world is inconvenience. I also started to see how much stress a horse who had not learned to be resilient about being inconvenienced could experience.
Itās not always possible to remove the inconveniences in our horsesā lives, and Iām not sure thatās the way to go anyway. A horse who is resilient about being inconvenienced develops many other positive qualities because of his ability to be inconvenienced. He learns to self-soothe, he learns to think before he reacts. He learns patience and he learns to be flexible. He learns not to get stuck in patterns and expectations. He learns to be softer and more thoughtful. He learns to be calmer and quieter.
A horse who develops the ability to be inconvenienced as a principle of his training/life is less likely to be herdbound, gate sour or barn sour. Theyāre more likely to trailer load easily, to tie quietly and to learn whatever we are trying to teach them. Itās kind of the āsecret sauceā of horse training, if you know about it.
Being inconvenienced might start very small. The first time one of our youngsters is inconvenienced might be the first time we have him on a lead rope and he wants to go left and I want to go right. Or he wants to eat grass and I want to take him for a walk or take him over to get his feet trimmed. So it might start very small at first. But Iām aware of it. Iām aware of when heās inconvenienced, and Iām aware of how much inconvenience heās able to take, for his stage of development. I am carefully and thoughtfully, methodically building his āfitnessā to be inconvenienced.
Those little, fleeting inconveniences will turn into bigger ones eventually, like being left outside or in the barn by himself, or standing tied to the trailer all day, or working in the rain, or working while the farm is being fed. Those are much bigger inconveniences than being asked to turn left when you want to turn right. A working horse, or a horse we want to be able to take places and do things with, heās really got to be able to be inconvenienced. That makes him much safer and more fun to be with.
Being inconvenienced is also about a horse being practiced at changing his mind. So he can practice thinking about one thing (āI want to go sniff that horse over thereā) and change what heās thinking about (āHey horse, letās go over here, away from that horse, and do a stop/back/bring our front end around.ā). To do that, we have to be able to decipher what our horse is thinking about, and then become proficient at causing him to change his thoughts. Horses who canāt change their thoughts do not deal with inconvenience very well, while horses who are good at changing their thoughts will be much better at being inconvenienced.
This is different from ādesensitization,ā and itās not about getting the horse āshut down. Itās not about hurting him, or flooding him, or setting him up to fail. It is literally about building the horseās mental flexibility, by degrees. Itās methodical and progressive. Itās sometimes a delicate balance, and it can be something that takes some awareness and skill on the humanās part. Itās no different than building a horseās physical fitness and abilities, itās about choosing the right size steps for that horseās fitness level.
A horse whose ability to be inconvenienced has been well-developed will be quieter, less anxious, less ulcery, and more physically and mentally balanced. They will have more brain-space available for things of our choosing.
This ability to be inconvenienced, itās a gift to the horse. Itās a gift to him, so he doesnāt have to suffer the unnecessary stress and anxiety caused by his lack of mental flexibility. Done mindfully, it doesnāt have to be scary or dangerous. And done earlier, itās easier. And older horse who has never been inconvenienced, thatās going to be more difficult than a younger horse with no preconceived ideas about things.
At the end of the day, this is a practical thing. We choose to have our horses live in our human world, so if they can be inconvenienced, that makes living in our world a lot easier for them. Itās a gift, not a burden to them.
Coming soon... The Attention Course: an online learning opportunity that will help you get, keep and direct your horseās attention (thought), and in the process, become worthy of it. This is part of being inconvenienced, because it is not always convenient for our horse to pay attention to us (or for us to have to ask for his attention). If youād like to be eligible for a discount on The Attention Course when it goes live soon, sign up for your discount here: https://www.ethosequine.com/courses
