Where Do We Draw the Line??

This is a post I have been thinking about for a while. I haven't written it because I haven't had the hours I would need to gather all my thoughts and put them into writing. Lucky for you, I have a few extra hours this morning :)

My title question is referring to training. Where do we draw the line at how much pain is acceptable when we train our horses?? Everyone has a different answer to this. For example when looking at this picture. What comes to mind?

Or this picture?

Soring in the Walker horse world is now illegal (Thank goodness!) so why is it we can't cause pain in their feet to get them to perform behaviors, but we can with bits? I cringe when I look at some of the bits that we put in our horses mouth. Sometimes we even put two bits or a bit and a Hackamore, what makes it okay to cause so much pain to the horse. Is it the lack of control? Our fear? The need to win? Our dominant nature as humans? People will say the bit is only as cruel as the hands that use it, but I think we have to ability to make any bit cruel. But that brings me to my next question how much pain is considered cruel and in what circumstances does it become cruel. Is using a bit cruel in itself or is it once we use it incorrectly that it becomes inhumane. Is it when the horse starts to protest and evade the pain to the point where he/she becomes dangerous? Is it when the horse bleeds from injury caused by the equipment? I switched to the word equipment because it is not just bits that cause pain. We have to potential to cause pain with any piece of equipment we use with horses. We can take a lead rope and turn it into a scary object by hitting the horse. We can use our own bodies to cause pain through hitting and kicking.

I will tell you what made it okay to me in the past to cause pain to my horses. My fear and my lack of control!

 I will say pressure and pain to me are two different things, but there is a very fine line that can be crossed easily if one is not careful. Looking towards the future I am setting aside all excuses and will not use my fear as a reason to use painful methods while training. When it comes time to ride Navi and Char if I can't ride in just the halter than we are not ready to go out on the trails. I am super excited to start Navi on the trails. It will be a long time before we hit the trails though because I am standing my ground and refuse to use a bit with her just so we can advance faster in our training. It was my backslide a few months ago with Navi that made this post what it is. I am not judging others for what they do with their horses, I am judging myself. I am not perfect and have made many many mistakes with all my animals in training, but all we can do is learn from them and make ourselves better.

For a long while I only used my positive training methods with Pixie. We used traditional methods with Jess. What was our reasoning that made it okay to cause Jess pain when riding. He was trained that way his whole life. He was trained by the use of pain through the bit, he knew his release to stop the pain from the bit was to listen to us. The downfall of his training is now that he is older and his mouth is dull from years of wearing the bit he is not responding to pain as well. For example he rushes home on the trail to the point where I consider it dangerous to someone not experienced. I will ride him out, but I would never put a beginner on him to ride out of the arena! As I see it there are 3 answers to this problem: 1. Never ride him out of the arena. 2. Put a bigger bit with more stopping power. 3. Offer a reward when he is offering the correct behavior.

This situation is a perfect one for my title question of Where do we draw the line? I could easily say this behavior is lack of respect, but I don't see it that way. I see it as a lack of partnership. Why should he care about what we want when all we do is cause him more pain and the faster he gets home the sooner the painful ride is over! By the way yesterday I rode with treats to modify Jess's behavior. We had the best ride I have ever had on him.Why because all of a sudden he got something for not rushing home!

So how much pain is considered okay, and where do we draw the line at what is acceptable and what is not? I cannot answer that question for others, but I do know where I stand on that question.