From: Sari
Dear Jessica, I am not very tall and my horse is very tall. I want him to lower his head on cue so I can put on his halter or bridle without having a fight. I have been training him to do this but it isn't working. Can you help me? Here is how I have been training Shadow. I use a pressure and release method that is natural, so I know he understands it.
I put one hand on the bottom of his halter, by the leadrope, and I pull down. I tell him "Head down" and I put my other hand on the top of his head to push his head down. The problem is he doesn't put his head down. Sometimes when I push really hard on his head between his ears, he will put his head down just for a minute but then if I stop pushing he pops it right back up high.
I know he knows what I want, but he just doesn't want to cooperate with the training. By now he should put his head down just when I tell him "Head down." But he doesn't. How can I get him to cooperate? I thought the point of gentleness training and pressure and release was not to have to have a fight with your horse, but what if your horse just won't cooperate with the training? I need him to give to my hand so I can release the pressure, but he won't.
Thank you for your consideration, Sari
In other words, you're not actually teaching him to drop his head on cue. Or, at least, you haven't taught him that YET. Since, from HIS point of view, you haven't even tried to teach him to do that, you could begin right now, do it a different way, and be much more effective.
I'm not sure what "gentleness training" is, but the name sounds pleasant enough. The problem is that what you're doing with your horse right now isn't really gentle - and it's not really training, either, at least, not in the sense of teaching your horse to do what you WANT him to do. Let's try this another way.
Pressure-and-release is a perfectly valid system of training, but you need to understand how it works. First, let's consider "pressure". There's more to pressure than pushing your horse's head down - "pressure" exists as soon as you begin asking your horse to do anything. Your hand on the leadrope, pulling the halter downward, is already creating pressure - you don't need to use your other hand to push your horse's head.
Now let's consider "release". The release means that you STOP applying pressure. The release tells the horse that he's on the right track, giving you the right answer, and doing what you want him to do. You need to release as soon as your horse begins to give you the slightest HINT of what you want. Really good trainers release as soon as the horse even begins to THINK about giving a hint of the desired behaviour.
The pressure-and-release system can work very well, but it doesn't work at all if you keep applying pressure until your horse performs exactly, precisely the action you want. Steady, incessant pressure works against training, for two reasons. First, instead of letting the horse TRY, it makes a constant, nagging demand that creates resistance, not cheerful cooperation. Second, it lets up ONLY if the horse performs perfectly, which means you're giving NO hints at all about what you want. The horse has to guess - and perform - a very specific behaviour, and you're not helping it figure out what that behaviour is, so it literally doesn't have a clue. You need to give your horse some hints - it's the trainer's JOB to provide clues and reward the horse for figuring them out.
For example, here's what happens when you pull and push your horse's head down. He isn't putting his head down, YOU are - and as soon as you stop pulling and pushing, up goes his head. As far as he knows, he's done what you wanted - he went along with YOUR actions, and didn't pop up until you stopped telling him to keep his head down. The problem is that what you want him to learn is quite different - you want HIM to put his own head down and KEEP it down, not because you're pulling and pushing, but because you've asked him to do something, he understands what you want, he can do it, and he's happy to do it.
The pressure you need to use is an asking pressure, not a forcing pressure. It should be light - and you should end it (ending the pressure creates the release) as soon as he shows any sign of doing anything. Don't push his head down. Put pressure on the leadrope, but don't hang your full weight on it, just put a little tension on it and keep it there. Tell him "head down". When you get a response, release the pressure and tell him "Thank you". A response would be ANY shift in his head position that shows he's relaxing his head and neck even the tiniest bit. The second you feel even a tiny lessening of the tension on that leadrope, let GO and say "Thank you". Don't hang on because it wasn't much of a movement or because there's still tension on the rope - let go if the horse drops his head even a tiny fraction of an inch.
If you hold on and wait for a bigger drop, you won't get it. If you release and praise the horse for a tiny, almost imperceptible drop, you'll get a bigger drop the next time you ask and you'll get it sooner.
Your OLD way: When you pull his head down, he's uncomfortable with the pressure, and when you let go, he pops his head back up where he can be comfortable again with NO pressure. You're acting, he's reacting.
Your NEW way: When you keep a little tension on the rope but don't increase it, tell him "head down" and release immediately when HE drops his head a tiny bit, he learns that HE can make the pressure go away by lowering his head. You're holding, he's acting, you're rewarding his action.
Your old way involved teaching him to resist - your new way means teaching him to relax. The new way will be much easier on both of you.
Once he's got the idea, he'll begin dropping his head more easily and quickly, and dropping it lower, and keeping it lowered for a longer time. All you need to do is be clear and consistent, react INSTANTLY to even a tiny lowering motion on his part, and do this.... several hundred times. ;-)
Remember, any time you set out to teach your horse something, you need to give him time to get the idea of what you want, time to get it right, and time to get in the habit of giving you the desired response. This is where practice and repetition come in.
When he'll drop his head and hold it low until you're ready for him to lift it again, you can teach him a "head up" cue if you like.
Be quick and generous with your releases. Your horse will eventually learn to associate the words "head down" with the action, and "thank you" with your release, but the release counts much more than the praise. Remember, in a pressure-and-release training system, the release IS the reward - the praise is just something to remind YOU to be polite with your horse. ;-)
Jessica
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