Do No Harm

There are times in training where I have to protect a horse from their owner’s enthusiasm or greed, usually it’s when people want too much too fast. Other times I have to push clients whose anxiety is holding them captive, or reassure them that their horse is really capable of more. I have no problem doing either, but in both cases I ask my clients to trust me. You are not just paying me for my skill, you are paying me for my experience, and so much of that is timing and good judgment. You can always come back the next day to jump higher, or push the extension more, but if you ruin a horse’s confidence, or injure your client, that is not something you “fix” the next day.

When I come into a show, a lesson, or a training ride, my principal consideration is “Do no harm”. I practice this principle when I run a jump chute for young horses, I practice this when I sit on a client’s horse for the first time, and I practice this in every lesson I teach. When I talk to my team before we run a jump chute, I tell everyone “Our first goal is to keep ourselves and the horses safe, our second goal is to give every horse a positive experience, and our third goal is to make the owners and judges happy. In that order.” That is the same ethos I use when I do anything with horses. I think sometimes this can be misconstrued as “playing it safe”, and that’s not totally wrong. You see, I really have no problem pushing the envelope, or asking a client to stretch their comfort zone, that is part of my job, but I am not going to do that until I know a horse or rider well. Once I see where they are, what their challenges are, and how they cope with stress, then I will push them when I know they are ready. I would rather not be the person who crashed a horse into a fence that was too big for it, or have a client fall off and get injured because I pushed them before they were capable.

Using pressure, pushing horses, or pushing riders is all very much in line with the discussion the equine industry is having right now. What is ethical riding and training? What does that look like, and how is it practiced? We talk about pressure verses reward based training, we talk about what tools are appropriate and what tools are harmful, and we ask ourselves if the ends justify the means. On a weekly basis I still see people who put performance and sport before their horses, but I promise you, they don’t see it that way. That's why this is hard, the line is subjective. I also see on a weekly basis people who are so concerned with their horse’s well being, they get sucked into a world of extreme passivity in the way they handle and ride their horses. The answer I see, lays in the middle. Pressure can be positive, but the way pressure is enforced, that is what makes it positive or negative. You can get results through fear, intimidation, pain, and social pressure, I won’t argue with that. I see it done, more often than I would like, but I can tell you that very real harm is done. Pressure that is fair, moderate, does not create fear, and is released and rewarded when the horse or rider tries, is what builds relationships and confidence. As with everything else, pressure is a tool and your mark as a trainer, rider, coach, and horseman is how you apply it.