It seems to me there may be a difference between saying to a horse - "Can you do this?" And "Do this."
The difference between "Can you do this?" And "Do this." can be in the speed, pressure or application of your aids - but it doesn't have to be.
I want to talk specifically about the situation where the difference is the intention or feeling tone of each of those options, rather than the precise physical mechanics.
"Can you do this?" has many variations - for example "Would you like to do this?" "Is this easy for you?" "Do you feel OK with this?" (I think this question could have tendrils into emotional, physical, mental and spiritual realms).
"Do this." also has many variations - from the empowering "Here is how to handle this situation" and "Here is clarity for your confusion" to the disempowering "Give me what I want right now, regardless of how you feel".
I was confused for a little while about these things, because I wanted to demonize one of the feeling tones and venerate the other - but I flipflopped on which to put on the pedestal and it wasn't very helpful.
Then I became confused again wondering about to move between the two feeling tones without confusing the horse. I thought about dividing them into different training periods, or different tack, or different sessions.
I wondered as well whether "Do this" feeling tones would remove my ability to listen to the horses feedback. (Spolier alert - it doesn't seem to. And there also seems to be a huge area of communicating with the horse which can be performed after they have done what you asked but you can see they are finding it hard - so you respond by helping them out or asking them to stop or do something easier instead - I'm still thinking about this and I will write on it later.)
I also noticed that "Can you do this?" questions often seem to presuppose the horse knows what "This" is, and so I wondered how to use them with young horses who haven't had a lot of life experience.
I've had a great interest in equine bodywork, inhand rehab, health and posture for the last couple years. I've done some learning, had some great mentorship and now I'm halfway through getting qualified as an equine bodyworker.
I noticed that my bodywork mentor and was able to successfully move fluidly between the two feeling tones and still listen to the horses. The horses were incredibly receptive to this. We had some great chats and I decided to try emulate her during my assessments of the horses.
For example - I ask a horse to pick up their leg with "Can you do this?" feeling tone, and the horse does not. Great observation for me. Then I ask them again with no escalation of pressure but "Do this" feeling tone, and wait many heartbeats as the horse slowly readies himself for me to lift his hind leg. I move it slowly up feeling the flexion through his fetlock, hock and stifle, and noticing a lack of motion in his hip - without going so far as to press into that lack of motion - I back off and put his leg gently back down. Another useful observation.
I'll give another example. I walk a horse up to a pole on the ground with "Do this" feeling tone. He power walks over - great info. I walk the horse up to the pole again with "Can you do this?" tone. He slows, hesitates, takes a big step with one foreleg, a small step with the other, and knocks the pole with his right hind as he crosses it. More great info.
If I had only asked the questions in one feeling tone, and not the other, I would have only learnt half as much about that horse - and so greatly decreased the quality of my assessment and in theory the potency of the help I can give him.
I'll give a final example. I go to put a horse back into the yard with "Can you do this?" feeling tone. He is worried about the tractor he can see through the open doorway behind him, and doesn't want to let it pass into his blindspot long enough to enter his yard. He is getting increasingly concerned and anxious. Without escalating the pressure of my aids I switch from a "Can you do this?" To a "Do this." feeling tone, and he immediately settles, walks in, and boops my hand.
I thought for a while that saying "Do This." to horses was problematic. Now I've kind of moved on from that thought and realized it's the humans reactions to the horses response to "Do This" which can be problematic.
In my examples of assessing horses during my course even when I said "Do This" The horses still sometimes say "No." And if I asked 3 times and got the same No each time (or I notice something in particular about the first or second No) I was just telling my mentor the horse said No to that part of the assessment - which I am told in bodywork land is a very valuable and astute observation - and then we would simply move on without insisting that of the horse.
Or sometimes I said "Do This" and the horse did the thing for a few steps and then reverted back to whatever they were doing before. Which is also acceptable and a great observation.
Or sometimes I said "Do this." And the horse did the thing but with a poor enough quality that I stopped them and went back to something easier. Another acceptable option which gave me valuable insights.
To be clear, in none of my musings am I talking about imposing my will on a horse or blowing past their hard nos. I'm just talking about asking the same question with different feeling tones and getting different communication back from the horse.
I think I got confused for a few years in the middle and thought there was something inherently wrong with saying "Do This" to a horse. But I actually reckon the thing to avoid is throwing your toys out the cot if the horse doesn't actually "Do This".
At the end of the day there is no use trying to demonize one feeling tone and venerate the other. Both have value, both are needed, sometimes even in the same session.
A huge part of the discussions we were having as students during the assessment part of the course was how to assess the horse who was "complying" but with mechanical, trained responses instead of the horse considering the questions and feeling them in their body. That's where the "Can you do this?" questions start to add a lot more value.
We had to look much beyond tickboxes and single data points, and use all our sense to build up pieces of the puzzles. Staying humble the whole time as well knowing we will only ever be able to see part of the picture.
This leads me to a clarification I think I should add. I've been learning from this teacher for a while, and I know we do a little bit of "Do This" energy in assessment or for health and safety easons etc etc. But when actually working inhand with horses who are rehabing from injuries, functional posture stuff etc it does turn predominantly into "Can you do this?" energy.
That's the balance I've been learning for horses who are injured and in rehab. I'm still exploring where the balance would be for horses who sound and in training.
I did ask that mentor how she moves between the balance of the feeling tones she uses when working with rehab horses and what she uses when working with her own young horse she is backing and she pretty much told me she would let me know once she worked it out herself :D
I am also not sure whether these two feeling tones will end up being binary options or more a spectrum between the two, with a big middle section that's got something to do with "Please Try".
I'm still playing with these concepts in my head, and my understanding is only a wee little sapling that doesn't yet know which direction it will grow in.
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PS: After I wrote the original blog post I came back and added this to the end:
Having reflected on this further I think my "Can you Do This?" And "Do This" in the context of the older, trained but physically compromised horses is often actually refined into "Show me how you feel about this request?" and "Please give this a try" respectively.
Of course, horses and humans are both deeply complex social creatures. I often feel like I simplify things in order to talk about them, but then in practise acknowledging the complexity seems to be more true to reality.
Writing this post really reminded me how two things can be true at the same time. This lead me to the rather "Captain Obvious" realization that if two things can be true at the same time, then three things can also be true at the same time! Of course, many more things than three as well... but I'm not ready to think about that yet :D