The expression “training a horse” is the art of teaching him in some specific task or purpose, while the expression “breaking a horse” signifies preparing him for common everyday tasks which is typically achieved by simply working him down or wearing him out until he does not have the stamina to refuse. This is the type of horse that frequently surprises his master by rearing, kicking, running away and the like when able to regain his former condition. A horse that is well educated to routinely performing common tasks requires careful training.

In this article the term “training” is employed to signify the educating of the horse both for common everyday work and for special tasks, the object being to train the horse to increase his efficiency, and not to break the high and superb spirit that makes him the most desirable of all animals.

The usefulness and overall worth of a horse depends on his training and on his being unhesitatingly subservient to his master’s commands. Much of the unruliness and viciousness existing among horses is due to improper training, poor management and irrational care. The trainer, though often naive of the fact, are at fault more often than the horse. To avoid this state of affairs, a careful study of the horse and his surroundings should be made in order that the animal may be trained, managed and cared for in a way to enable him to learn and develop to his utmost potential.

In horse training, the two key elements to consider are the horse and his trainer. Of these, the trainers disposition, temper, and personal traits are of crucial importance. While knowledge of the techniques applied in training is not difficult to obtain, the successful application calls for certain qualities in the trainer. The lack of such qualities accounts for many of the bad habits existing among horses. With a little patience however, most horse owners and trainers can acquire both the knowledge and personal traits required to effectively train a horse.

In order to be an effective horse trainer you must have some knowledge about the mental capabilities of the horse. You should first carefully study the horse in order to establish what he’s able to comprehend. It must be apparent if the horse does not understand what is wanted of him, if he does not understand the meaning of the commands and signals, he simply cannot be taught to obey, but instead will be confused and often become unruly, and hence all attempts to train him will fail.

A horse’s intelligence is often overestimated. A horse cannot reason, and lacks the aptitude of acquiring knowledge by drawing conclusions. This being true, can only learn only by association. For example, a touch of the whip on the hindquarter will imply to go forward, but by giving the command “giddy up” just before the horse is touched with the whip he soon learns to go by just the verbal command. This should be repeated until the habit becomes fixed, then the whip may be discarded. As the horse forms habits without difficulty, much care should be employed in establishing only desirable ones. If a desirable act is repeated, a good habit is formed, whereas if the act is undesirable, the habit is bad. To the horse the habit is neither good nor bad, but is only a means of responding to treatment or a suggestion, or by association.

When a habit is induced generation after generation, it has a tendency to be transmitted from parent to offspring. There are many examples of this among horses, such as with gaited breeds, race horses and working cow horses.

A habit when fully established induces the use of the memory, where the horse must remember that certain commands or signals calls for certain action. A horse has a good memory and what he fully understands he seldom forgets. The vividness with which events are retained depends on the intensity of the impression as well as repetition. Intensity of impression is more serviceable than repetition in embedding ideas in the horse’s mind. Painful lessons are long remembered and have a profound and lasting impression, therefore it’s extremely important that your lessons aren’t entirely based on him learning or associating a lesson based on painful experiences. Rather severe methods of training can have dire effects. Repetition however, is extremely useful in all training lessons and is absolutely essential in horse training.

In training the horse there are 3 main elements which determines how fast a horse will memorize events, and thus which habits are formed. First, with mature horses the power of memorizing or making new associations decreases with age. Therefore you should begin training when horses are young. Second, fatigue, either mental or physical, impairs the memory. Hence we should not continue working out the animal[/spin in mind or body. Third, the greater the number of ideas or commands associated with the same [spin]event the weaker each idea or command becomes. Thus, each response should be developed by a different event. That is, to teach a horse to stop, have him do so at the command ‘Whoa”, in teaching him to back, have him do so at the command “Back”, never give the command ”whoa-back” when we wish him to stop, or when we wish him to back, and don’t sometimes use the command “Whoa” and sometimes the command “Stop”, this just confuses the animal. Keep your list of commands to a minimum, use short simple words, such as “Whoa”, “NO”, “Walk”, and be sure each command is used for a specific and clear action. The actual words used usually do not matter, as long as they are consistent, though the tone of voice can have an influence. A horse doesn’t have the capability of understanding the English language and that multiple words have the same meaning.

In training the horse’s memory, there are two other factors that must be kept in mind. First, there seems to be a slight connection between the two sides of the horse’s brain. A horse may be very familiar with an object from one side but when such object is viewed from the other side he may become frightened or confused. To avoid this confusion, train him to view objects first on one side, and when fully familiar with them on this side, repeat the process on the opposite side. Second, the horse in his natural state lives in herds and is rarely found alone. Because of this tendency to flock together it is easier to drive a number of wild horses than an individual horse. The domestic horse never looses this instinct. In view of this, the horse’s memory can be more efficiently trained when worked alone. If worked with another horse, it has a natural tendency to imitate rather than to learn, and thus relies on the other horse and not on his own memory.

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