Ten Golden Rules of Horsemanship

Ten Golden Rules of Horsemanship by Dr. Bruce Nock

1.  Aids and cues are signals for change.  A cue is a sign designed to elicit a particular response.  An aid, similar to a cue, is used to modify the movement or balance of a horse under saddle.  Often the two words are used interchangeably.  They are both directives that tell a horse to change something that he is doing.
 

2.  Signals should stop as soon as the horse begins to make an acceptable response.  The cues and aids should remain silent until the next request as long as the horse is staying responsive to what was asked.  If cues and aids are ongoing, horses become desensitized to them and eventually stop responding.
 

3.  Signals should never be ignored.  Don't take no for an answer unless, for some reason, the horse is unable to respond.  Primary signals can be supported by secondary signals (whoa followed by passive resistance with the reins, for instance).  Pressure with the signal is increased gradually until the desired reponse is obtained.
 

4.  Signals should be distinct.  If the horse is unlikely to respond satisfactorily, don't signal.  It is much better to focus on improving a horse's mental state when he is frightened or excited than to give him commands that might only exacerbate the situation by escalating his emotional state even further.  Don't give conflicting signals.  Don't give double signals if they can be avoided (stop while I am driving you forward into the bit).
 

5.  A response should be easy for the horse to make.  Unless you are conditioning a horse for higher performance, if you ask a horse to do something that is difficult for him to do, you will have to be forceful to get him to do it.  Break training down into small steps and work through them one at a time and the difficulty will be overcome in time.
 

6.  Rewards enhance sensitivity to signals only when they immediately follow an acceptable response.  A reward should always be a consequence of the rider's initiative rather than that of the horse.  Always rewarding a horse is counter-productive because we know they learn to expect it.  Reward more in the beginning of a training session to encourage the desireable behavior and then less and less as the horse "gets it."
 

7.  Undesirable behavior worsens only if it is rewarded.  An undesirable behavior must be corrected every single time that it occurs, with absolutely no exceptions for optimal effectiveness.  The hardest behaviors to extinguish are those that have been rewarded intermittently.
 

8.  Undesirable behavior extinguishes if it is not rewarded.  A correction discourages undesirable behavior because it prevents the horse from attaining the reward, not because it punishes the horse.  Corrections supress undesirable behavior permanently.  Punishment does not.  Punishment often has severe negative side effects.  Corrections do not.  Corrections encourage proper behavior while punishment does not, and punishment usually begins where human knowledge ends.
 

9.  The reaction to a stimulus will dwindle if the stimulus continues while the reaction occurs.  Here we are not talking about "flooding" or "sacking out," methods still used to desensitize horses through force, creating horses that lack affect and perform in a mechanical sort of way without enthusiasm.  Burying horses in grain or sand up to their neck is one method of "flooding."  For a claustrophobic animal, being buried alive is like that room in the novel 1984 where you are imprisoned with your greatest fear.  The trick is to implement the next golden rule, no. 10, without the fearful reaction occurring.  (ESCT, for instance, works exceptionally well in doing this).  There is a point in ESCT when maintaining the stimulus while the horse is being pulsed with the ESCT pulser can produce quick and effective results.  This technique is introduced only after a series of short approaches and retreats while using the pulser and after the horses initial reactivity has dropped.  The pulsing interrupts the fear cycle and allows the horse to accept the stressor while it is in place.
 

10.  The reaction to a stimulus will dwindle if the stimulus terminates with the reaction occurring.  Just as a release of an aid is rewarding when riding, so is the withdrawal of a stimulus that arouses even slight apprehension.  Generally, the smaller the size, the less the sound, the less the movement and the less the structural complexity of the stimulus, the less the reaction to it.  Desensitization is a process that goes more quickly when you proceed slowly.  The approach and retreat method of introduction and removal of the stressor is one of the hallmarks of good training and part of the ESCT process.  Respecting the horses fear and working with it instead of against it moves desensitization along much more quickly.  Working with a flag, for instance, starts by introducing the flag low and folded and out of the horse's personal space, then gradually coming closer, unfolding it, touching him, raising it next to him, raising it over his head, etc.  It is a process.