Get Your Lobes Straight

I was at the barn once, brushing Spicy down in the aisle after our ride. There was another woman at the barn who had ridden with me, and her horse was (in my opinion), very well behaved if not a bit tight through the back.

we know tight.

She was untacking when her horse pissed an absolute river right in the middle of the aisle. Already frustrated with her ride, she had an outburst about what an asshole he was for peeing in the aisle on purpose. I'm old enough now that I've learned to at least try to keep my nose out of other people's business, mostly because they're not going to change so why should I waste my breath. I could not let this one go, though.

"I think he just had to pee," I said, interrupting her string of frustration. Maybe it was the tone of my voice, or the fact that I said anything at all, but she finished cleaning up the mess in silence.

I see it happen more than a few times in blogging and on social media as well. People attribute bad rides, injuries and undesirable behaviors to 'my horse was pissed at me for x, so he did y'. This might come as something of a shock to those people, but: horses do not do things out of vengeance and spite.

Actually, let me rephrase. Horses cannot act out of vengeance and spite.

don't bring them down to our level
they're better than us.

There have been countless articles, studies, research, books, etc, explaining the why's of how a horse's brain works, and why horses cannot act out of spite.

The short version is: horses do not have a frontal lobe like humans do. For those of us who are not science minded, the frontal lobe is responsible for the the most human-y parts of humans. That means horses do not plan for the future or have human depth of faculty. Their memories are untainted with emotion or bias.

They don't lay awake at night, worrying about that thing that happened fifteen years ago.

The most difficult aspect of horse training is the constant struggle to understand how they are thinking and what they need to learn. All we know is being human. Trying to consider how a horse's memory works is like trying to imagine what life is like after death; your brain can't conceptualize not existing so you just get stuck in a loop of contradicting yourself. It's hard for a human to envision memories being simple and untainted by emotion, but that's how horses live. A horse doesn't worry about what's coming up next month or next year. It doesn't think about job fulfillment as a definition of self or societal demands resulting in its own popularity.

If your horse isn't doing what you want, you can distill the behavior down to two causes:
  1.  The horse was not taught how you want it to behave.
  2.  The horse is physically incapable of behaving how you want it to behave.
That's it. I challenge you to find a problem that, at its root, wasn't one of these two issues. In the case of my anecdote above, you could argue the horse was not trained not to piss in the aisle. Ideally you'd see the horse drop, go 'oh, he's waving the pee flag (literally) in my face', and chuck him in a stall to do his business.


I know Spicy doesn't do things out of spite, but I've taken to pausing and asking myself those two questions when things aren't going as I want. Is my horse physically capable? Have I actually trained my horse to complete the task that I am asking? I usually find that the answer to one or both of those questions is no, otherwise I wouldn't be asking them. Taking that gentle pause ends up in a healthier relationship, for as 'inadequate' (by human standards) as their frontal lobes may be, a horse's memory is far better than ours will ever be. Untainted by the lens of being human, a horse will only remember exactly what happened, exactly as it happened.

When you get angry at his 'vengeful' behavior, all he will remember is that you were unfair and inconsistent, and his learning of that will be far more detrimental than spite.

Comments

  1. Excellent point and well stated! I can sometimes fall into the pattern of 'she's being a dick' but the reality is that she is still not completely trained to understand that spooking is not the best response to a waving leaf (at least now this is mainly when it's really windy!). I have also, inadvertently, trained her that I back off when her behaviour escalates and undoing that is hard.

    As for the horse peeing, it could be that he was waving the 'I have to pee flag' and she ignored/missed it or it was just too late. Because there is a physical point at which not peeing is impossible.

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    1. "I have also, inadvertently, trained her that I back off when her behaviour escalates and undoing that is hard. "

      This is so true. Spicy learned that as well, and that's what made long lining so important to me. I needed to be able to push through even if what he was doing was scary to me, and the long lining was a great way to help me feel safe while still getting past his escalations.

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  2. I never knew the scientific explanation that horses don’t have frontal lobes ... makes sense tho! I remember watching a Stacy Westfall video years ago where she talks about not taking anything a horse does personally, and talking about how horses just live in the moment, and that’s been a very helpful mindset for me in training and riding. Obvi we ARE human and we do get caught up in emotions and frustrations and no matter what the textbooks say it can sometimes be impossible to “leave our baggage at the door.” But... yea I also get really frustrated when I see people blaming their horses for being a jerk or purposefully trying to be bad or whatever when really the horse is just being a horse...

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    1. hah I may have misspoke - they do HAVE frontal lobes (I think mammals need them in some form to function? I know very little about brains I'm sorry) but they're just not as developed as ours.

      Remembering horses (and dogs, cats, etc) live for the moment definitely helps temper my frustration!! It also makes me jealous... I wish I could do that...

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  3. GREAT post!! Thank you! I am constantly reminding myself to stop and think WHY Hampton is exhibiting behavior I don't want. Is it me? Am I being unclear (this is usually the reason). Pain? Confusion? Not strong enough? All of the above? lol Although there are times I wonder just how smart horses are when he CONSTANTLY and deliberatly steps on the hose during bath times LOL!

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    1. Thanks!!! It's so true. The unclearness especially, horses aren't good at extrapolating so if our cues are at all different they're not going to understand it. That's why proofing is important.

      I'm not sure about the hose thing. I think it's clan knowledge for all horses. They're born into it.

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  4. There are....a LOT of people who need to read this. A lot. 👏👏👏👏

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    1. unfortunately probably not people who actually read my blog. But... whatever it's out there on the internet at least??

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  5. SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK

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  6. hahahah agree but have to say Remus can do some things in spite (AKA if my husband is taking care of him and leaves the stall guard down Remus WILL ESCAPE and run away). Now who is missing a frontal lobe? My husband OR MY HORSE? You do the math HAHAHAH

    but seriously I do agree, that horse did not pee in the aisle to get back at her. Seriously people :)

    PS Remus does the hose stepping too Karen!

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    1. HAHAH nooo it's not spite. He's just learned he has a free pass from your husband. Whereas you will get in a kubota and hunt his ass down.

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  7. Excellent timing, I had the hardest time getting my bridle on my mare last week. I haven't had this problem in years and normally she practically puts in on herself. I felt just horrible afterwards and was convinced I had damaged our relationship. I tried telling my husband that she wasn't being spiteful, that something was wrong. Turns out she needed her teeth done, they were just bad enough. Next time I'll try not to get so fustrated and really listen to what she's telling me.

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  8. YESSS. This. I think fear can come into play as well. But maybe that falls under the physical question.

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  9. YES. I learned this a while back doing training classes with my dog and I've had to *really* internalize it while nursing my senior cat through his last years. No, Dad, my cat's not peeing on stuff because he's bad or pissy or getting revenge, he has severe tooth decay/a bladder infection/hyperthyroidism/IBS. No, self, the dog isn't being obnoxious just to be a jerk, she's being obnoxious because you're the asshole who was too lazy to walk her.

    It's served me well getting back into the saddle after almost a decade away and riding an almost-schoolmaster who does, for better or for worse, *exactly what you tell him to do*.

    Or don't tell him to do. XD

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  10. This should be required reading for anyone who swings a leg over a horses back! (And some that don’t!)

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  11. Love this ❤️ I personally think it’s fun to humanize the horse *as long as* you know that in reality, horses don’t have the same feelings as we do and train accordingly.

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  12. I logically know horses don't have object permanence, I logically know horses don't do things out of spite and vengeance - knowing honestly won't stop me from writing like they do though and I logically know this too hahaha

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