Alpha and Beta Horse communication

The concept is simple, there is an Alpha (the Leader) and there are Beta(s) the subordinates. One horse is in charge (Alpha) and the rest follow the direction of that horse (Beta). The herd trusts and follows the Alpha leader out of harm and into safety.

I think in the more recent years I’ve noticed people philosophizing horse training to the point of sounding like a therapy season for the person and leaving the actual horse and training out of the equation. Horses have not changed their communication methods for thousands of years.

In 136BC Roman soldiers trained and rode their horses into battle, there are no new revelations with horse training, it has been around since the beginning of time when these animals were used mostly for work, war or travel. So why are there so many TV Star horse trainers making millions off people? They tend to follow the latest horse training “fad” full of words and not simple action. It seems there has been a trend to humanize the horse too much in modern times, and a tendency to cater to these animals with treats, comfort, and the horse being in more control than the rider/handler. If a child was raised that way they might become a naughty, irresponsible brat, that has no respect for others, and in the years we’ve been in this industry we’ve seen more than a few horses behave that way.

A horse needs a leader to respond properly or he/she will decide to be the leader in charge. In the horse mind it’s about survival, so if the rider/handler/trainer is not a strong leader the horse will be insecure and decide they need to take the best action for survival and begin to make the decisions for the rider/handler and that’s where the problem starts.

If you really want to understand the language of the horse, study horses in the wild, how they communicate, who is in charge and why? How do horses respond to each other and what type of silent communication do they use? The horse communicates with body language and sometimes brute force, either with their feet, teeth or intimidation, the Beta horses respond, respect and follow that leader.

In my many years of training (over 30) I have never seen a wild horse give another wild horse a treat to respond to it’s requests…with that said the proper training methods can be conveyed with the correct response and with the correct body language that the horse can understand without fear.

When a rider/handler can learn to have the horse’s trust as the leader, that is when the horse will engage and respond in training, much like the light bulb just turned on. A training method doesn’t need brute force to get the point across, however the leader can still get the point across with certain humane ground training techniques that include pressure and release methods with no harm to the horse, but clear communication so that the horse knows you’re no longer speaking in a Foreign language and he can comprehend the language being communicated to him understanding you have control of the situation and he can clearly trust his leader.