Maddox Performance Horses

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You can't force balance, but you can balance force. - Force has many synonyms. Force can mean coercion or duress and it can mean strength or power. But either way, you can't force balance, but you can balance force. In training most horses, there is some force involved. The question is what kind of force from the horse and from you the trainer?

I read about how today's horse trainers are opposed to using force and I am not sure that is possible. By this I mean that something as simple as a horse rearing on a lunge line requires a trainer to use their strength to maintain control. I think this is the use of force. But this kind of force is strength or power. The problems come when strength turns into coercion, which is not good if only because it is not effective. If you fight with a horse, you teach the horse to fight.

The far right image is a picture of duress. This obvious force is intended to create a certain balance in the horse, but can it? Can a horse be forced into a specific balance? I don't think so. The first image on the left shows a horse in a powerful movement. The rider has relaxed reins, which indicates she has brought her horse into the powerful moment we see by means of balancing the horse's power slightly back toward the hind. This rider is clearly balancing force.

All of this should be widely known. Every horse trainer should be constantly asking themself, "Am I forcing balance, or am I balancing force." It sounds simple, but it is not. Strength, power, energy, pressure, coercion, duress, oppression, intimidation all mean force. Force is there in the training process in some form because horses are so physical. It is up to us the trainers to determine what form of force is in our training process.

*the top left B&W photo is French Cavalry Officer Étienne Beudant doing a Piaffe on a loose rein. Balanced power without coercion.