Drive & Draw... Respect & Rapport

A horse has to have both in order to listen, do what you ask (or communicate) and have enthusiasm. If he doesn't respect you he might do what you want but he'll be sticking his tongue out at you or not do it at all, and if he doesn't have a rapport with you he's likely to be scared of you- doesn't feel safe and/or comfortable around you. Horses aren't afraid people are going to hurt them, they're afraid they're (we're) going to kill them. Knowing that, doesn't it make more sense why sometimes a horse's reactions are so extreme, in our eyes?
Anyways, horses' hierarchy of needs goes like this: 1- Safety, 2- Comfort, 3- Play & 4- Food. That's why trying to get a horse in a trailer, stable, vet stall, etc. with cookies doesn't work. He doesn't feel safe. Now, here's where the trouble starts... If they feel safe, comfortable and they have others to play with then motivation to play or want to be with us (in this case, ME) can be nil.
So last night I went out with the plan to just play in some way with Maliki and rasp (a rasp looks like, and is, a giant nail file for horse's) a hoof. In the almost 5 acre pasture where they're kept there's a smaller corral in a corner, maybe 80'x80'. I'd had it closed off for the past few days so when I opened it up all the horses wanted to go in and look around. Horses will be curious when they're confident, and they're confident when those first 2 things are met. Red rolled before following King back out the gate. (Note: for a horse to roll with a person around is huge! They're in very vulnerable position so its the ultimate test of confidence, and in some ways is a compliment.) Maliki saw that the other 2 were out and slowly walked over to me, after having sniffed the barrels that were in there. I had only my stick (4' long and stiff with a 6' string) so I played at Liberty- no strings attached.
Now, I had to explain respect and rapport so that you'd understand "drive and draw". How much your horse respects you equals how well they'll drive away from you, so how much rapport you have equals how well they'll draw (or come) to you. Last night he stuck to me like glue!! It was the coolest feeling :) I asked him to back up- drive- a few steps by simply flicking my fingers and drew him back by stepping back and changing my body language. I played most of the 7 Games with him with him staying with me. For those of you none Parelli students, there are 7 types of games horses play: 1-Friendly, 2-Porcupine (steady pressure), 3- Driving (implied pressure- in the air), 4-Yo-yo (drive & draw), 5-Circle, 6-Sideways and 7-Squeeze.
I asked for a Yo-yo, then drove his hind end toward me, used Porcupine on his tail to pull him towards me and then drew him backwards to me too. When he turned to face me I sent him out on a circle. This is where it got really cool... He trotted off, decidedly not in a circle so I chased him out- using the psychology of "you don't want to be with me? Let me help you go away!" He cantered 2/3rds around the corral then stopped and looked at me. When horses look at you, with both ears and eyes, they're asking a question. I whistled to see if he'd come to me. He did, at a trot. I took a couple steps back and smooched to which he responded to with a toss of his head and broke into a canter and ran almost the whole way across the pen to me!!!! Thats pretty much a first. I had the biggest bug-eatin grin you'd ever seen on my face after that. I gave him a cookie and walked away. I knew he was willing to stay after that, so I trimmed a hoof before leaving him. I still had a gate to get him through, which he squeezed (turn, face and wait) through and stuck to me, even with the other horses around. He walked with me and stayed close enough that I could keep my arm on his neck. Yes, it was a very good day :D
p.s. it is human to have 'just-one-more-itis'... "just one more jump..." "just one more lap..." "just one more game..." your horse just thinks, "nothing I do is good enough... there's no release". So it's a learned thing to find a good, or great, place to stop and remember that if you leave off there tomorrow will be better.