Herd Instinct

by Dennis Bright

Our horse training philosophy is about establishing communication between horse and human. This is a training method based upon pressure and release, (Pressure=Punishment and Release=Reward). We reinforce the positive results through consistent condition and response exercises. To begin with we must understand the fundamental differences between horse and human. Horses have evolved since prehistoric time as a prey animal, in other words, a food source for meat eating predators and learned early on that there was safety in numbers. It was their instinctive need for survival that created the herd relationships that we know today.

Horses are unique in that they are individuals with their own personalities yet they must be able to blend in with other horses of their herd for survival. They understand the need for establishing their role within the hierarchy of the herd. The most aggressive horse will assume the leadership role and like rungs in a ladder the other horses will fall into their respective places. We all know how difficult it is to reach a quick decision by a committee, so can you imagine what would happen to a herd of horses if they had to reach a consensus between them as to which way to run as they were being attacked by a pack of wolves? The odds would be definitely in the predator's favor. This is why when a group of horses are standing together in a pasture and one of them spooks and takes off the other horses gallop off too without even hesitating. Mother nature weeded out long ago the horses that stopped to look around to see what the other horses were running from, they became lunch.