Empowered Horses - A New Reality

I just finished reading, in its entirety, Empowered Horses by Imke Spilker.  This book is about a new way to "work" with horses, a different way to interact.  It's about looking at things from the horse's point of view and giving them the respect they deserve. I think most trainers would say that they already do this.  I think that most of us like to think that we are being gentle, or that our horse likes what we do, that they like us.  We like to think that whatever "method" we learned in the beginning of our training career is the right one and we don't question that.  Then there are some of us who never stop questioning, and I'm not ashamed to say that's ME.  I have never stopped asking myself some pointed questions along the way.  Little things I've seen over the years have bothered me and so I tucked them away in the corner of my mind, and yes, while following whatever method I was using at the time.

Getting back to the book, it may be difficult for many horse people to digest and to change their thinking after reading it.  The author is a German woman who it seems already owned horses and decided (I am still not sure if it was for a project at school or for herself) to start a horse communications project.  The point being to try to communicate with the horse.  Not at the horse but with the horse, meaning there is a two-way conversation.  Meaning that the horse has a say.  The only goal was to find a way to communicate openly. 

Many of us may think we already do this, but we do not.  If we go to the pasture and can't catch our horse, does anyone think about why their horse doesn't want to be caught?  Many beginners have said to me, "I can't catch my horse, does he not like me?  Does he really want to be ridden?"  I said what I was taught to say, "Oh, it's just a game they play, they are testing you.  Once you let them know you won't put up with that they will come to you."  In reality, what are they really saying?  I had finally graduated to my horses standing still in the pasture when I went to catch them.  After starting clicker training it went to the entire herd running to the training pen to wait their turn when they realized we were doing clicker training.  That made it perfectly clear how my previous training was not enjoyable for them.


Just like the other book I've read recently, Galloping to Freedom, by Frederic Pignon and Magali Delgado, Spilker is a huge proponent of playing games with horses.  Games that stress equality, fun, being free spirited, and rhythmic movement.  The games develop, if the horse wishes, into what we call "work", in Spilker's realm it's really collection and helping the horse to move in such a way that they are beautiful and efficient.  She provides an excellent example of what collection is and how it comes about from work on a circle. 

The thing is, the horses do the work of their own accord! The person is merely a "tutor" as she says, a person who aids the horse in finding its base of support and its "magic spot" where the center of gravity shifts back.  Once the horse understands this it can choose whether to move forward or not.  What Spilker found, however, was that they not only want to, they practice on their own!  They become addicted in a sense to this new, easier, more beautiful way of moving.  This is because horses love movement, it is the center of their being. 

The person helps the horse with aids, aids that the horse truly accepts, understands and envelopes.  The horses are ridden, many times bareback, but only if they want to be ridden.  You may think that if a horse is allowed so much freedom it would choose not to carry someone, but according to Spilker, they do.  They allow riders because a mutual relationship has developed of equality, friendship, trust, and two-way communication.

If some of these words sound familiar, that's because so many trainers use them without really thinking about whether or not they are true.  I recently went to talk with a local trainer who told me his methods were very gentle.  However they were the same as every other trainer's, that is, he used mainly thin twisted wire snaffles, he was aggressive and dominant and insisted on the horse following through.  All my life I have been told that I'm not aggressive enough, that I had to be dominant, that I had to bend the horse to my will.  I never liked that way of training but two things kept me from going against it:  one, I am naturally a gentle and empathic person, so I thought I had a character flaw that prevented me from being a really good trainer.  Two, there seemed to be no other alternative to what I'd been taught. 

To be fair, I do have a few criticisms of the book and the "method". The book itself is very philosophical and not especially practical.  There are no real suggestions on how to take your 15 year old horse that you have trained using whatever method, say modern dressage (German), and then convincing your horse that you won't be doing THAT anymore in favor of this empowerment method.  The problem is, if I were a general and my horse a soldier, it would be like telling the soldiers that they are now free and they can do whatever they want. In the presence of the general they might feel encumbered or inhibited.  It would take some doing to convince them that they were indeed free to do what they wanted.  The longer they had been soldiers the more difficult it would be.

Also, she doesn't address the practical side of things.  For example, she shows a foal and a horse being saddled for the first time.  What about picking up their feet, or getting in a trailer?  There are a few things that are "musts" for horses kept in captivity.  It would be wonderful if I lived on a large nature preserve and the horses came here and never had reason to leave, but realistically I have had to move every now and then.  As a trainer and riding instructor I am not sure how this philosophy will affect my training and therefor my business.  I have been urging people to be as gentle as possible and to not use language that puts the horse down (not because they can hear us, but because it creates a negative image of the horse in our mind).

This way of thinking is so different, so completely opposite of what I have been taught and yet so in line with what I think and feel, that it's hard to reconcile everything I've learned with what I do and what I know.  Yet, this point of view and philosophy really resonates with me. When I was working with Bella in the beginning (before I knew about horse training), I couldn't tie her because she would pull back and sit down on the ground, unmoving.  So I would take her in the round pen, start grooming her and then saddle her.  She stood absolutely still the entire time. She accepted me and my approach, for the most part.  Had I known more at the time I could have taken it further, but unfortunately I learned to be a trainer.  I am so thankful for Imke Spilker for bringing me back to where I belong!  Today, I am going out to play with my horses, to simply enjoy their company.