Identifying tendencies via the 7 Games
There’s a lot you can tell about a horse before you ever choose to fork a leg over him!
Friendly Game. #1
A horse that you have trouble playing the Friendly Game with is apt to shy and be scared of sudden noises or movements, even like moving your arms when riding him. Don’t be surprised by self defensive actions like kicking or nipping when on the ground (using a Carrot Stick as an extension of your arm will help here).
Expect any and all right brained, unconfident behaviours.
This horse will be inclined to get scared of pressure from the bit or your leg. Also there will be a strong tendency to be herd bound because the horse instinctively seeks safety within the herd. The more confidence he gains in you as his leader, the more these undesirable behaviours will diminish.
The horse that’s confident in the Friendly Game will probably give you more problems in the Porcupine Game and may be dull, disrespectful and hard to get going because he’s become desensitised to humans and their toys. Games 2 to 7 will then become the ones to get right.
Porcupine Game. #2
A horse that is resistant to the Porcupine Game will be inclined to push on the bit and be dull to leg aids.
He’ll have a tendency to bit, strike and kick under pressure with this game because he is used to “winning” the Porcupine Game himself! Because this kind of horse usually appears gentle, it’s easy to get sucked in close and within striking distance. Again, use extensions of your arm!
A horse that is hard to back up with the Porcupine Game in Zone 1* is usually hard to stop.
A horse that resists or panics when feeling pressure in zone 2 behind his ears probably has a tendency to pull back.
Driving Game. #3
A horse that is scared when playing the Driving Game will be inclined to shy. He’ll have a tendency to misread you, be impulsive and everything will mean “run off”.
If the hindquarters don’t yield well, beware of getting kicked. This horse is inclined to run over you when on the ground and won’t turn away from you easily when leading him and trying to change directions.
Yo Yo Game. #4
A horse who has a crooked Yo Yo Game both on the ground and when riding will be difficult to change leads on and will go crooked when stopping or making transitions.
If he is hard to back, he’s hard to stop…or he’ll stop on the front end instead of lowering his hindquarter.
If he is sticky to come forward, he’ll be hard to get going and probably travel on the forehand. it can also show lack of confidence, fear to come to you.
Circling Game. #5
A horse that doesn’t disengage his hindquarters properly in the Driving Game or the bring back portion of the Circling Game is more inclined to brace and rear or run off when you ride him.
He is also more inclined to kick out when scared or defensive because the hindquarters come toward you.
A horse that is sluggish and keeps slowing down on the Circling Game probably has more whoa than go. Whereas the one who runs off will be easy to keep going but hard to stop.
If he circles with his head out it could mean he’s thinking of leaving or he lacks confidence.
An inability to maintain gait with even rhythm will indicate problems when riding especially when related to refinement of gaits and moderation in terms of slow, collected, medium and fast (or extended)
Sideways Game. #6
A horse that won’t yield well in the Sideways Game is more inclined to body slam you when afraid.
Also, a weak Sideway Game will mean difficulty in getting the correct leads and flying lead changes.
If he drags his zone 4 while going sideways this could be a sign of impulsiveness and the tendency to run off when he feels any pressure in zone 3.
Squeeze Game. #7
A horse that’s unconfident in the Squeeze Game is more likely to have trouble with cinching, your leg aids, be unconfident crossing water or going over jumps, will be uncomfortable about getting in or traveling in the trailer, getting into small spaces like race barriers, wash racks and roping boxes… and he’ll have real trouble with tight reins or any from of containment including being tied up and probably has a tendency to pull back.
The difference between Aggressive & Assertive people.
“Aggressive” has synonyms like forceful, defiant and coercive.
“Assertive” has synonyms like insistent, compelling, confident, positive, urging.
However there are some synonyms for assertive the include the work “aggressive”, so what this writing needs to come down to is a description that defines the terms according to the treatment of horses.
In my mind, where horses are concerned, I observe aggressive acts on horses as that dealt with vengeance or cold blooded aggressiveness where the result is some kind of intimidation. Assertive acts are where you need to get firm to be effective, but you are not angry, frustrated or scared, and you have an attitude of justice that always gives the horse an opportunity to respond and experience the positive outcome. The difference between aggression and assertiveness is timing and attitude. My definition of assertive is somewhere between being aggressive and being a wimp.
There’s a fine line between aggressive and assertive. Horses are often aggressive with each other, bitting, striking and kicking, breaking the skin, sometimes even bones. Their motive is to dominate. They have a pecking order which is challenged on a daily basis over different things such as who drinks first, who eats first, who gets to stand with who, and as youngsters mature or herd members change, the pecking order needs to be maintained by each horse every day. It’s a part of their life but the big difference is they are not afraid that the other horse is going to kill them.
Therefore the horse who is the most assertive (in this sense, confident and insistent), the bravest, the quickest, the strongest and the fastest thinker, will be the alpha, in prey animal terms.
People who are aggressive with horses will often defend their position with comments like “I couldn’t hurt the horse, horses hurt each other a lot more every day”. From a physical perspective, that’s probable pretty true. But from a mental and emotional perspective, horses cannot take aggressive action from people without, often, grave consequences. A scared horse that believes his survival is threatened will do anything to defend himself if he cannot escape. He’ll strike, kick, charge, bite, savage. He will do whatever it takes. In my experience horses are not prone to viciousness, they would much prefer to run away. Therefore most of the bad experience people have with horses are born out of fear, frustration, confusion and boredom on the horse’s part.
Walk a minute in your horse’s shoes
Horses can take any amount of pressure from another horse. They were raised with an innate understanding about dominance games, and they have played them with other horses all their life. Being the same species, horses have a very strong bond with each other, and if ever they feel threatened they’ll herd up and protect each other.
When a human gets aggressive with a horse it’s a whole other story, as perceived by the horse: aggressive or forceful behaviour from a human (predator) to a horse (prey animal) is perceived as life threatening to a horse. Even though we might argue that horses have been domesticated for thousands of years. Horses are prey animals. Even if you personally don’t eat horse meat, thousands of people in many other countries do. So do lion, grizzlies, dingoes, hyena, wolves and coyotes. Horses know the we are the same family…predators.
What would it be like to be a prey animal?
Let’s say that you and your friends are walking through the Amazon and you are close to an area that is know for its cannibalistic tribes. Would you feel a little tense? Would all your senses be heightened so you could perceive the approach of a cannibal? Your survival would depend on early perception, the speed of your reactions and the ability to get away from the danger as quickly as possible. How are you going to react to a rustle in the bushes, a sudden or unusual noise, a movement detected in the corner of your eye?
One of your friends is the leader of your group. He is calm, confident, athletic. Every time you hear something scary, you check in with the leader. How did he react? If he still looks calm it calms you down. But if he got wide eyed and tense, what would that do to your sense of security.
Suddenly, a group of cannibals jump out of the bushes and herd your group into a compound. You stand there all night, scared out of your wits, you know you’re going to be lunch. The next day , you are singled out into another corral and one of the cannibals tries to approach you, and although you don’t know it, he singled you out because he wants to befriend you. He seems friendly and soft, but you know he’s a man-eater so you keep your distance. All your senses are so heightened, your nerves ending are screaming, it seems like you have super hearing, super feeling, super sight, your adrenalin is helping you survive, you even have superhuman strength and endurance. If that cannibal came within striking distance you’d let him have it in every way you knew how. It’s you or him, that’s all there is to it.
The cannibal, not able to convince you to stand still now goes for his rope. he swings it and catches you by the ankle. What are you going to do?! You’re going to panic, struggle, kick, scream, try to get it off with hands and teeth. You’re going to fight for your life, you’re not even thinking you are reacting out of pure sense of survival, there’s no time to think. Finally those ropes are looped around your whole body and you are brought to the ground, terrified, trapped. Once you are rendered completely helpless, the cannibal approaches you and your spirit has one last chance, you’re not going to give up. You try to bite, you scream obscenities. And the cannibal smiles and lifts his arm and his whip over you… and gently, lovingly strokes you. How long would he have to do this for before you believed, beyond any shadow of a doubt that he was not interested in eating you?
This is where horses are at. The instance I gave would be a kin to the experience of a horse that had never been touch before. But not all horses are like that, most of them are handled from birth and they’ve learned that they don’t have to be terrified but they are still suspicious and on guard. It takes very little to scratch the surface of a horse and bring out the prey animal. Put yourself back in the cannibal compound, even years later it wouldn’t take much to make you think that the cannibal had changed his mind and was going to kill and eat you after all.
Mild aggression vs strong assertiveness
There are degrees of aggression and assertiveness, but what’s really important is to examine the emotion behind the action as well as the result. Aggression, in any form is ineffective with horses. Even if you get the result you lose the horses’s respect.
What is an example of mild aggression” Rapping a horse with a chain shank when he pulls on you as you lead him; or smacking him across the nose when he tries to bite you. The horse feels your anger or frustration and it does one of two things:
- it increases his insecurity and erodes all chances of trusting partnership
- it develops resentment and not only does the behaviour not go away, it get worse if the horse begins to retaliate.
Now take strong assertiveness in dealing with the same examples:
A horse that is pulling on the lead shank:
Give him a loose rope and every time he passes you up, turn the other way and spank him on the hindquarters without getting mean, mad or flustered. It won’t take many times before the horse realises he is causing the consequence and will stay respectfully behind you or at your shoulder.
A horse that bites and nips:
Have eyes on the back of your head. When he comes to get your arm, flap your elbow like a wing a few times, without looking at him and without any negative emotion! He’ll run into your arm a couple of times and blame himself.
The behaviour will quit for two reasons;
- The more experience negative reinforcement which is perceived very differently from punishment – its instantaneous and the horse recognises the consequence was a direct result of his action and therefore he blames himself and not you:
- He could push your buttons and get you mad! If you think horses don’t do this, you’ve got a big lesson coming your way. Once a horse has overcome his deepest fears about people, he will play games and score points unmercifully! Look at it from his point of view… didn’t you see this happen to the poor dumb or shy kid on the bus every day? What kind of dominate games did the other kids play on them?
A horse will respect you if you can think quicker, are more athletic, stronger and braver than he is, and if you can stay mentally, emotionally and physically in control of yourself. Going back to the cannibal scenario, remember what qualities your leader had. Physically speaking, we are no match for a horse. But if we have the right attitude, knowledge, tools, techniques, savvy and experience, we can earn a horse’s confidence and respect.
Learn how to get firm with getting mean or mad
The trouble with getting assertive is that most people are not emotionally fit enough to get firm without getting mean or mad. If they see me having to get firm with a horse, they think I’m being aggressive because they cannot imagine themselves getting that firm without losing their temper. The whole secret is the attitude of justice. Small consequences for small things, big consequences for big thing. And consequence does not always mean contact, in most instances you just need to know how to cause a sore to be uncomfortable when he is doing the undesirable thing.
Pat often tells the story about the way his mother way a great example for assertiveness: “when I was a teenager lazing on the couch and replied with a disrespectful “oh, all right” when asked to take the trash out, she would just tip the trash right over my head and never take the smile off her face. She’d say “Son, this trash is going out via you whether you like it or not. You have two arms, two legs and one mouth which means you can say ‘yes ma’am’ with a smile and outstretched arms and hustle over to take it out”. She knew how to make me very uncomfortable, she never had to hit me! To this day I knock on the door with hat in hand and, after kissing her hello, I ask “Hey mom, do you have any trash that needs taking out?”.
It’s a sorry thing to see someone knocking on a horse. Where knowledge ends, violence begins. Although some people seem to get some kind of perverse pleasure out of intimidating horses, most find themselves smacking and jerking and yanking out of pure frustration, they just don’t know what else to do.
What I teach, more than anything else, is how to become more mentally and emotionally fit around horses, how to understand where the horse is coming from so you can act appropriately, and to learn infinite patience. Most people run out of patience in less than four minutes. Horses know this and they learn to play on it in the end. After they quit getting scared (for most that’s by the time they are over 12!) they make monkeys out of people because all they have to do is persist for longer than four minutes and they win.
The four phases of firmness.
A simple way to keep emotions under control when having to get firm is to determine four phases of firmness until you are effective. Lets look at how a horse usually does this when he’s going to kick:
- Phase 1 the horse lays his ear back, wrinkles his nose, gives a hard look
- Phase 2 he tosses his head and lifts his leg
- Phase 3 he kicks out without making contact
- Phase 4 he kicks out again and makes contact
He gave three strong clues that the kick way coming. Horses don’t often get kicked by other horses because they pay attention to the impending signs and get out of the way. People get kicked all the time because they are unobservant of the waring signals, and sometimes the phases come so quick they are barely distinguishable.
So how can we use phases the same way as a horse? To lash out and slap a horse or kick him in the belly is perceived as aggressive act by the horse because it is a sudden, there is no warning that the horse can reliably detect. One of the first things I teach is to use some kind of rhythm, like kick your leg up in the air three times. It’s hard to maintain an angry emotion when you have to do it three times. Same with doing jumping jacks when a horse barges into your space. Do it a minimum of three times without approaching the horse’s space, so he has the chance to get out of your space and realise how much better it is not to invade it.
I use the “Schwiegermutter Look” which means mother-in-law in German! It’s the “leave my daughter alone and get out of here before things get worse” look. I cannot physically put my ears back but I can still make the same face and convert the same message horses do when they lay back their ears in threat. It’s the behaviour that precedes any biting, striking or kicking that’s about to come. So when I want to drive a horse backwards, his hindquarter or front end away from me, I’ll use this look as phase 1. For phase 2, I might lift my hand. For phase 3, I’d swing my rope or a stick. For phase 4 I would make contact (not necessarily strong) in the appropriate spot, the one that makes sense to the horse. Then I would relax and start again. Horses are very perceptive. They know what happens before what happens happens and pretty soon, the horse needs little more than a firm look to yield without question and, more importantly, without fear.
Knowledge is confidence.
When you know you can be positively effective it helps you to remain calm, unconcerned and to maintain the horse’s perspective. The major difference being are you doing it to him or for him? As long as you never cross the line into aggression, your horse will learn to respond with respect and without fear. It’s better to have a program of prevention than to punish the horse when you think he’s wrong. If you really understand the horse, you’d see that punishment is not appropriate psychologically speaking and because you can’t balm him for acting like a prey animal.
Horses are simple. But they are only simple if you truly invest yourself in learning about them: not how to sit and hold the reins, what leg to put where… but what makes horses tick, what’s important to them, how they think, why they do what they do, and how to gain their trust and confidence. When you have this kind of savvy you’ll never get frustrated or run out of answers again. Work on yourself so you can enjoy you horse.
Some savvy sayings to help you stay sane!
- The attitude of justice is effective
- Be effective to be understood, be understood to be effective.
- Punishment doesn’t work for prey animals, but a program of prevention does.
- Cause the wrong thing to be difficult and allow the right thing to be easy.
- Don’t make or let; cause and allow. Know the difference.
- Walk a mile or a minute in your horse’s horseshoes.
- I’ve never seen it take longer than two days!
- Be polite and passively persistent in the proper position.
- Be as gentle as you can but as firm as necessary. When you’re firm, don’t get mean or mad and when you’re gentle, don’t act like a cissy.
- Don’t bribe ‘en with carrots, don’t hit ’em with a stick. Find the middle of the road.
- Don’t get mad, get even …tempered.
- If your horse wants to bolt..there’s probably a nut loose in the saddle.
- Don’t be a big jerk on the end of the lead.
- Don’t act like predator: become more mentally, emotionally and physically first.
- When in horseville, do as horses do.
- Think like a horse.
Summary
Friendly Game problems expose fears, right brained tendencies, unconfident behaviour.
This horse is more inclined to escape pressure from the bit or leg and more likely to be herd bond.
Good Friendly Game means these tendencies reduce.
Resistance to Porcupine Game will often indicate tendency to push on bit and dullness to leg aids.
Detect stopping problems and tendency to pull back with Porcupine resistance in zones 1 and 2.
Probability of biting and kicking is high.
Getting scared in Driving Game indicates inclination to shy, be impulsive and run off. This horse may run over you.
Crooked Yo Yo can indicate lead change difficulty, crooked stops, transitions.
Hard to back means hard to stop or stopping on front end.
Circling Game can expose disengagement problems, tendency to kick, brace, rear, run off.
Sluggish horse has more whoa than go.
Head out side of circle means thinking of leaving or lack of confidence.
Inability or reluctance to yield sideways may indicate tendency to body slam.
It also affects lead changes (esp. flying) and impulsiveness if zone 4 doesn’t really go sideways.
Unconfident Squeeze may indicate cinch trouble, scared of leg aids, crossing water, ditches, jumps, trailers, race barriers, roping box, etc. Also real trouble with tight reins and tendency to pull back.
Aggressive = forceful, defiant, coercive.
Assertive = insistent, compelling, urging.
Aggressive acts on horses are those dealt with vengeance or cold blooded intimidation.
Assertive means you can get firm without getting angry, frustrated or scared. The attitude of justice prevails. The difference between aggressive and assertive is timing and attitude.
Horses can be aggressive with each other and not feel they are going to get killed.
People cannot be attitudinally aggressive with horses because it evokes the fight or flight instinct in a horse.
Most bad experience people have with horses are borne out of fear, frustration, confusion and boredom on the horse’s part.
Inside every domesticated horse is a wild horse. They perceive us as predators and even if you don’t personally eat horse, thousands of people in other countries do. Horses know we are the same family as lions, wolves and coyotes…predators.
What would it be like to be a prey animal?
What if you were walking through cannibal country?!
How differently would you react if your leader reacted calmly to a noise in the bushes…or if he got wide eyed and tense?
If you were caught by cannibals and were singled out from the other, would you be suspicious, scared and ready to fight for your life if one of them approached you?
How do you know he has friendly intentions?
What would a cannibal have to do to prove to you, beyond any shadow of a doubt that he was not interested in eating you?
What would it take, even years later, to make you think that the cannibal had changed his mind and was now going to kill and eat you? Very, very little.
Examine the emotion behind the action. Aggression is ineffective with horses. Even if you get what you want, you lose his respect.
Mild aggression like rapping a horse with a chain shank when he pulls on you leads to insecurity, distrust, resentment and worsening of the behaviour.
Learn to deal with situation like this assertively instead.
Use smarter tactics, not more violence.
Set it up so the horse thinks he did it to himself and cannot blame you.
Negative reinforcement is different from punishment, it’s instantaneous and the horse realised the consequence of his action.
Horses also learn to push you buttons and get you mad.
Horses will respect you if you can think quicker, are more athletic, stronger and braver than they are…and if you can stay mentally, emotionally and physically in control of yourself.
Most people cannot isolate firmness from emotional links with being mean or mad.
The secret is the attitude of justice. Consequence does not always mean physical contact. In most cases it nothing more than discomfort.
The more you find yourself hitting a horse or child, chances are the more inadequate you are in gaining their respect.
Where knowledge ends, violence begins.
If you can understand why the horse is doing what he is doing, you are more likely to act appropriately. Most people run out of patience in less than four minutes. horses know this.
To keep emotions under control, use four phases of firmness. Learn from how horses do this.
Horses give warnings that a kick is about to happen.
To lash out suddenly at a horse or kick him in the belly is perceived as aggressive because there is no warning that the horse can reliably detect.
Use rhythm: kick out 3 times, do 3 jumping jacks, etc. It’s hard to maintain an angry emotion when you have to do it three times (without advancing toward the horse).
Learn to use the Schwiegermutter look effectively. Its the same as putting your ears back!
Are you doing it to the horse or for the horse?
As long as you never cross the line into aggression your horse will learn to respond with respect and without fear.
The more savvy you get, the simpler horses become. you won’t get frustrated because you run out of answers.
