The Rider as Trainer
As a rider, you are also a trainer. Every time you ride or handle your horse, you are teaching it either good things or bad things. If you want your relationship with your horse to be a good one, it's your responsibility to make sure your skills are adequate enough to teach good things and avoid bad habits from creeping in and establishing themselves.
In the example of the bolting horse, it's clear that the rider's tension and poor riding habits resulted in the horse's misbehavior. The tension and gripping suggests that the rider doesn't trust her seat and lacks confidence in her ability to control this horse. The problem becomes a vicious circle — the more times the horse bolts, the more the rider's confidence gets chipped away.
Working with a good instructor can help heal this rider's relationship with her horse. The trainer may put the rider on a different horse to help restore her confidence in herself. Some lessons on the lunge line without reins and stirrups may be in order to improve the rider's seat and balance. Finally, the rider must get back on her own horse and apply her brushed-up skills to the problem. The horse has learned to bolt as a resistance to this rider, and the misbehavior has become an established habit. The trainer may ride the horse a few times to see if he tries to bolt. However, in the hands of a more skilled rider, the horse may behave differently and be completely obedient because he's not getting mixed signals that confuse and frustrate him. He has not forgotten his past training and good manners. His actions were simply a rebellion to the unfair and abusive (although unintentional) treatment of his rider. Once the rider gained the confidence to relax and employ her aids properly, without gripping or grabbing, her horse returned to his normal, well-trained demeanor.
Good riders make good horses. Bad riders turn good horses bad. A green or mediocre horse will improve in the hands of an effective rider because a skilled rider instills good habits in the horse every time he rides. An unskilled rider's poor habits will rub off on a good, well-trained horse, and that horse will eventually descend to that rider's level of bad habits.
This example illustrates why it is so important to learn to ride well and effectively. Horses do have an innate sense of fairness, some more so than others. Many horses that have been highly trained and consistently ridden by good riders often don't tolerate sloppy riders very easily. They will test your skill level as soon as you get on, and if they are of a mind to unload what they view as a nuisance on their back, you'll find yourself facedown in the dirt soon enough.
