Philosophy

The older I get the more I realize that what we don’t get done today we can do tomorrow, and if tomorrow doesn’t come, what we don’t get done today probably isn’t going to matter anyway. I think about this when I catch myself trying to hurry with a horse.

By nature horses are suspicious of man. God made them this way. They eat grass, we eat meat. If they didn’t instinctually know this they wouldn’t have survived this long. At the same time they like to be comfortable. We can offer them comfort and not abuse their confidence in us, and they can willingly want to work for us because they feel better than they did when they were suspicious and uncomfortable around us.

Horse don’t reason the way we do; we plan for the future, horses look only at the present. Looking to the future is what makes people greedy, storing up more and better. Horses only want comfort at the present time, and respond accordingly.

When something works with a horse, there is a reason why. When something doesn’t work, there is a reason why. If we can learn to understand the why — what prepared or caused the response — then we can learn to identify and influence the horse in a positive and productive way. If we can identify the cause, the problem can go away.

When we look for solutions to our problems, the solution sometimes winds up being something to trick the horse. Too often we end up treating the symptom with only partial success because the cause is still there.

How and when we apply pressure and give relief determines the horse’s attitude and response, and either builds or breaks down his confidence. One of my basic philosophies with horses is to always try to build the horse’s confidence.

I have heard of horses “taking advantage of people” but I have never seen it. What I have seen is people losing the advantage over their horse. Horses don’t have egos, they don’t keep score, they don’t try to get the better of us. They just want better for themselves. If we threaten their well-being and get in their path, they are bigger and stronger and every bit as quick as us and they can hurt us. Not because they want to, they’re just seeking comfort.

Sometime we get the wrong answer because we ask the horse in the wrong way. The key to our success with a horse is presentation. If we can motivate the horse in a way so that they interpret the pressure as self-inflicted, avoiding doing what is causing the pressure makes perfect sense to them. They don’t like putting pressure on themselves, and if they understand the avenue to avoid pressure, the choice is very clear to them. If the horse finds comfort when they take the right avenue, it will be hard to get them to take the wrong avenue.

Horses instinctively yield to pressure where they can, and if they don’t understand how to find relief they go against the pressure. Their first instinct is flight, their next is fight. If we set things up in the right way before we apply the pressure, we can give them the chance to avoid the pressure by yielding, instead of having to resort to fighting. When they can’t find relief then they will fight or go against pressure.

With some horses it takes very little pressure for them to go from the mindset of yielding to seek relief, to the mindset of fighting or just tolerating more and more pressure. We can have trouble if we miss this and continue to increase pressure. The horse may become more tolerant instead of yielding. Or he may fight. The horse doesn’t like the situation but they don’t understand another option, and neither does the person, in too many situations.

I like to help the person understand and rise to the horse’s level so the person can communicate with any horse, instead of dumbing the horse to the person’s level and sentencing both of them to a monogamous relationship. By this I mean the person only understands one tailored horse, and the horse only tolerates the one person — neither is on a path to reach their highest potential.

It takes pressure for relief to be effective, and relief for pressure to be effective. When horses experiences more pressure than relief, they try to fight what they can’t tolerate and tolerate what they can’t avoid — either way they are experiencing increased pressure. On the other hand, pressure is a useful tool if used correctly. It can motivate a horse to look for, find, and experience relief. Once they experience this, they are likely to maintain a better frame of mind. They will look for new, good experiences by exercising their curiosity instead of resorting to “flight or fight” because of concern for their safety.

It comes down to this: when horses panic they react with “flight or fight,” and when a horse is interested in relief they evaluate, exercise their curiosity, and soak up more of their environment. If we keep them in a good environment, they can learn and progress more than by fighting them.

More Details about Martin Black

•  Martin grew up working on the family ranch and after High School, left home to work on other Ranches with top Horseman in Idaho, Nevada and California.
•  At age 24 he took a management position on a 1.25 million acre ranch running 400 horses and 15,000 head of cattle in Northeast Nevada.
•  After more than 30 years of cattle being the primary source of income and horses being the secondary, Martin decided to make his living working with horses. With his reputation on the ranches and in the arena, it wasn’t long before he was traveling coast to coast in the US, Australia, Europe, and Brazil.
•  Martin does public and private clinics.
•  Martin has worked with Hall of Fame and All Time Leading Trainers of cutting, reining and race horses.
•  Started Pleasantly Perfect who went on to win in excess of $7 million.
•  Started Smart Little Scoot who is the All Time Leading money earning son of Smart Little Lena. As well as numerous other champions in Cutting, Reining and Reined Cow Horse.
•  Earned over $75,000 in Stock Horse and NRCHA events, as well as roping, saddle-bronc and camp drafting competitions.
•  Competed in the Worlds Greatest Horseman 3 yrs in a row. Scored in the top ten in Roping, Reining and Cow-working go-rounds.
•  Multiple finalists at NRCHA World Show.
•  RHAA National Champion Cowboy and Open Ranch Horse, Abilene, TX
•  World Finals Ranch Rodeo, Open Champion Ranch Horse two years in a row, Amarillo, TX