This may seem like a question with an obvious answer depending on what you are trying to do with your horse at the time.  For example you might have a horse that provides you with some fun in the paddock when you are trying to catch it, and your answer might be “I’m teaching my horse to be caught”.

Are you having success?  If so your answer is probably right and you really are teaching your horse to be caught.  If not, then your answer could go something like “I’m teaching my horse that being caught is not much fun but there is quite a bit of fun to be had in evading my owner and not letting them catch me”.

So there are really two questions we need to consider:  one is “what do I want to teach my horse?” and the other is “what am I actually teaching my horse?”

Horses are amazingly intelligent animals and they are constantly learning from us, whether we realize it or not.  When we behave consistently in a given situation our horses learn this and are taught by us.

So back to the example of teaching a horse to be caught…  If we go into the paddock, try and catch our horse and are still trying to do this 15 minutes later it’s understandable that we could be getting a bit frustrated!  This could lead to us being annoyed and grumpy when we finally do catch our horse, or it could mean that we throw the halter on at high speed before the horse takes off again.  Neither of these behaviours from us would make the experience of being caught a pleasant one for the horse.  This would reinforce to our horse that avoiding being caught is a wise thing to do.  Whereas if you were to take some time to go into your horses paddock (preferably without a halter at first), patiently catch your horse and having caught him simply give him a nice scratch and let him go again, over time you would teach him that being caught is a nice experience.  Because of this your horse would become increasingly easy to catch.  Which in turn would mean that you had succeeded in teaching your horse the very thing you had wanted him to learn.

This same principle can be applied to whatever we are trying to teach our horse.  If we have a happy horse and are succeeding in the thing we are currently trying to teach them – great.  If not we need to ask ourselves what our own behaviours are actually teaching our horse and whether or not that is really what we want them to learn.  It then gives us an opportunity to modify our behaviour and increase the likelihood that we will succeed.

This is also a useful tool if we begin to notice habits or behaviours in our horses or ponies that are undesirable.  An example of this could be a pony that has become quite nippy or bossy around children.  A possible cause of that behaviour in the pony could be that it has become used to being hand fed by children.  The pony will then be associating children and or their hands with treats and over time will have come to expect a treat.  The pony may then  demand it by nipping or bossing if the treat doesn’t appear to be there.  If this is happening we can then look at our own behaviour – hand feeding our pony – and modify this in order to modify our pony’s behaviour.  So in this case we could choose to either reward our pony with a scratch instead of food or we could give the pony treats in a feed bucket rather than by hand.  By doing this over time we would succeed in teaching our pony something that would make them far more pleasant to be around.

A significant key in all of this is the need for our behaviour to be consistent as we teach our horses.  Inconsistent behaviour leads to confusion for the horse, but over time consistent behaviour provides them an opportunity to learn.  It may take time, but it’s incredibly rewarding when we succeed in teaching our horses new habits that are good.