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What is a "Pecking Order"?
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All animals that live in groups instinctively create a "pecking order". Pecking order is the order of dominance. The pecking order starts with the most dominant animal that is the leader of the group. The order continues down to the last animal who is the most submissive. In most cases, pecking order is defined by age, health, and wisdom.
All animals, including humans, thrive on pecking order. Is there a leader in your household? Who is the person who consistently provides you with food, shelter, leadership, education, and mental/emotional/spiritual support? Who is the person that provides a majority of the decision making? Do you respect this person for their leadership? If you see a weakness in this person's leadership skills, you may try to take over.
The only difference between the pecking order in horses and the pecking order in humans, is that humans have the ability to become dynamic leaders. Humans can switch their leadership skills on and off, depending on their strengths and weaknesses. One person in a group may be a leader and be respected by others for something specific, for example, by providing food and shelter. Another person in the group may take over leadership for other areas, for example, mental/emotional/spiritual support.
In a horse herd, however, they do not typically swap leadership roles on a day-to-day or minute-to-minute basis. The herd leader often remains the herd leader until other variables are added (a new horse being introduced to the herd, a sickness or illness of the leader, etc.)
The Importance of Pecking Order
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Pecking order brings comfort to the herd. When a less submissive horse doesn't need to worry about finding food, water, shelter, and safety, she can relax. She will know that the leader of her group will lead her to these vital things and she will not have to worry. In addition, emotional, mental and spiritual support is received through consistent companionship.
Submissiveness & Dominance
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If you have been around horses long enough, you've probably heard of the term "Alpha". The Alpha horse is the dominant leader of a herd, to whom all of the other horses respect and are attentive and submissive to. By nature, horses instinctively seek leadership. The Alpha horse provides this leadership and security to all others in their herd. In return, the Alpha horse requires obedience and respect from the herd members. It's a pretty fair trade.
The Wild Herd:
A wild/feral horse herd usually consists of several mares (females) and one stallion (male). The stallion "owns" the herd, all horses in the herd are his property. He is not usually the leader, though. His role is to keep intruders away from his mares (this includes other male horses and predators). He usually runs behind the herd, keeping the slower horses caught up with the rest.
It is usually an older mare that is the Alpha leader of a wild/feral horse herd. She helps to keep the other horses safe. She calmly leads them to food, water, and safety. The other horses respect her for her many years of experience and wisdom.
The Domesticated Herd:
The typical domesticated herd is separated (by humans) into groups. Usually, there's a group of mares, and in another pasture, there's a group of geldings (castrated males). Stallions are often kept in solitary confinement to prevent fighting between males and accidental or unwanted breedings with mares. Some lucky herds of horses are mixed mares and geldings.
In these domesticated herds, the leader can be a mare or a gelding, depending on the natural abilities of each horse in the herd. What would normally be a stallion's role, is usually taken on by the leader, since a stallion is not present. So, the leader not only protects and alerts the other horses to possible harm (usually a stallion's job), he/she also leads them to life's necessities (usually an older mare's job).
Aggression and Dominance:
Aggression and dominance are two very different behaviors. Aggression is related to physical strength and assault. In wild/feral horses, aggression is most often used between two stallions when fighting for ownership of a mare herd. They fight until one of them is either injured or dead. This is what is known as "Survival of the Fittest". It is mother nature's way of weeding out the weak genes and allowing only the strongest genes to continue reproducing. This is what allows a species of wild/feral animals to survive.
In domesticated herds, you may see physical aggression and assault used by mares and/or geldings. Horses that did not have the chance to grow up in a herd environment, or those that grew up in a dysfunctional herd environment do not learn the required communication skills needed to successfully socialize with other horses. These horses will sometimes resort to using aggression that arises out of fear, insecurity and/or the lack of proper social skills. It is not a normal, healthy behavior. On the positive side, when you know enough about herd behavior and equine social skills, you can begin to help a horse like this learn the proper etiquette to survive peacefully in a herd.
Dominance, on the other hand, is used by the leader of a herd and is not related to the amount of physical strength a horse can exert. The leader of a herd instinctively uses a system (which is described in the Sensitizing and Desensitizing article) to achieve dominanace through the use of a variety of cues (body language, verbal and physical cues). Dominance is not used to injure another horse or "ban" them from the herd, it is used to establish boundaries, rules and consequences so that the members of a herd may exist together in a comfortable and somewhat peaceful manner. By using this system consistently, the leader proves to the others that he/she is worthy of the leadership role.
Have you ever seen an aged mare or gelding dominate all others in the herd, even though he/she may have the weakest physical attributes? We see it all the time.
Your parents are dominant to you, but they are gentle -- they don't physically beat you into submission. They do, however, care for you, teach you, and lead you to the right choices. They set boundaries and consequences. They tell you when they are proud of your decisions, and they also tell you when they are disappointed. You are dependent upon them (until you reach a mature age) to provide you with certain things. You look to them for advice, wisdom, and leadership. If your parents had physically beaten you into submission, you may have a great deal of fear, confusion, and mistrust.
Becoming the leader of your horse requires you to not only set up situations in which your horse feels dependent upon you, but those situations should emphasize to the horse that he can trust this new dependence. The leader's wisdom (or lack of) may mean the difference between survival and death. This is very important to the horse.
Submissiveness:
Being submissive means being respectful, obedient, and dependent upon a leader. To horses, it means being secure and safe, knowing that a trusted leader is in charge. Submissive horses know that they must be respectful and obedient in order to survive. When she is not, the leader of the herd issues a consequence that she can learn from. Sometimes this consequence is a physical threat (more common in herds that live in close quarters) and sometimes the consequence is being rejected from the herd temporarily (thus, vulnerable to predators). This is more common in herds that have plenty of room to roam. Horses learn from these consequences that their leaders create and learn early in their life to be respectful and dependent upon their leaders for survival. Horses who grow up in a stall or in solitary confinement are sometimes an exception, as they may not have learned these vital skills of communication and may have difficulty properly fitting in with a herd.
Love and Dominance:
Being a dominant leader does not mean that you cannot also share and feel love for your horse, or that your horse cannot feel love for you. The very best type of dominant leader is one who shares plenty of love and compassion. Your parents love you. You love them, and you also have respect for them, obey them and depend upon them for your survival.
This is the relationship you must create with your horse.
Do Horses Care if They aren't a Leader?
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I think of my own gelding who, when placed in a herd of mares, will become nervous and jittery. He agressively fights off horses that he doesn't want near his mares, and he continually watches out for predators or other frightening variables that may harm his mares. He uses his body language to herd them away from possible danger or threats. He acts very much like a wild stallion would, possessing his herd. Training can sometimes become more difficult with a horse like this because he is continually worrying about the safety of his herd and has more difficulty focusing on the task at hand.
However, when you place the same gelding in a herd of other geldings, with one or more of them being more confident and dominant-minded than he is, he immediately surrenders his leadership and becomes relaxed, confident and comfortable. He listens for instructions from the leader (move over, run away, etc.), and he follows those instructions without question. He knows and trusts that his leader is making wise choices to ensure his safety and survival.
Horses do not care where they stand in the pecking order, however, they do care to know where they stand. In other words, a horse doesn't care if he is the most dominant horse in the herd or the most submissive. But, he does care to know where he stands. Until he knows where he stands, he will be very uneasy. This is why horses will continue to challenge the leadership skills of others (to make sure that they are, in fact, a good leader). When a leader and pecking order becomes evident, the herd becomes content.
Some horses are more natural leaders and some are more natural followers. My gelding that I just talked about, for example, is not a natural leader. When he is put into a situation where he feels that he needs to take on the leadership role, he will. If there isn't a respectable leader to be found, someone must assume the role whether or not it comes naturally. However, he does so in a nervous way and he lacks a certain amount of confidence and composure. This causes him to worry about his herd all the time. He is, however, a more natural follower. He becomes more confident and relaxed when he doesn't have to worry about leading the herd, when he can respect and trust another horse as a leader. In order for me to work with him successfully, I had to fully understand this concept, so that I could become that leader that he can trust and respect.
Is your horse a natural leader or follower? Why?
Taking your horse's individual strengths and weaknesses into consideration not only allows you to work with him in a more understanding way, it also allows you to select the right herd for him to be a part of.
The "Keys" to Positive Leadership
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If you have ever watched the newer nanny shows on TV, you'll notice that although the parents love their children to no end, most of them have lost their leadership roles and have lost the respect of their children. Even the parents who yell and hit their children (a desperate and dysfunctional attempt at dominance) will easily lose their leadership role and the respect of their children. The children take over leadership and begin to talk-back, ignore, and become defiant. They act as though they are the adult and need to make all of their own decisions. It is natural for a child to assume a leadership role when he/she doesn't feel that the parents are to be respected as leaders.
Think of how this applies to the equine herd. Think of your own horses and their herds.
So, what are the keys to positive leadership? We all know that love and caring for the best interests of others are extremely important "keys", but most of us don't have a problem with these two aspects of leadership, they come naturally.
Think again about the nanny shows on TV. The ground-breaking part of the show is when the nanny shows up and teaches the parents how to become structured and consistent in their leadership roles. She does not just show up and "fix" their kids for them. She teaches the parents essential parenting skills so that they can regain the respect of their children. They are taught to use a regular daily routine, which increases predictability and decreases insecurity. This is structure. They are taught that when they say "no", it doesn't sometimes mean "yes" when the child has begged long enough. It always means "no", no exceptions. That is consistency.
The parents are also taught communication skills that their children naturally understand. Then, something amazing happens... the children not only climb down from their leadership roles, but they also begin to build a great respect for their parents as leaders. They become happier, more content, and less fearful or worried when they can trust their leader. They begin to respect the advice, suggestions and demands of their parents.
So, the keys to healthy, positive leadership are:
Love
Looking out for best interests
Structure
Consistency
Communication skills
Do you find yourself lacking in any of these areas with your horse? Try to focus on learning the skills needed to strengthen those areas that are weak.
Relating to Handling and Training
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The more confident and consistent of a leader you can be for your horse, the easier it will be to work with him and train him to perform the tasks you want him to perform with you.
If you are working with a horse that is more dominant-minded, you will need to be extra careful about your body language and communications with him or you will be communicating to him that you are not fit for the role of leadership. The horse will take up the slack when he doesn't trust you as a natural leader, and this often results in problems such as: aggressiveness, fearfulness, stubbornness, lack of focus, insecurity, defiance and more.
If you are working with a horse that is aggressive-minded, you will need to become a master at understanding the "hows" and "whys" of both functional and dysfunctional herd dynamics so that you can understand where the horse's aggression is arising from. The aggressive-minded horse is the most difficult to work with, and expert knowledge is needed to help teach the horse how to socialize with people and/or other horses safely and functionally.
Where Leadership Counts...
Let's say you're out trail riding with your horse and he spooks at something. Instead of surrendering the leadership role to you, waiting for you to tell him if he should run or stay, he takes over and runs. Although you are trying to tell him (by pulling on the reins) that he has nothing to fear and he shouldn't run, he does not respect your opinion, he just keeps running. Until he has brought himself to a place where he feels more secure and can slow down (this could be 10 feet or several miles), he will keep running.
The same situation happens all the time in a herd of horses. They may be peacefully grazing on pasture or wandering about. The leader of the herd suspects possible danger... he lifts his head and snorts to alert the others. The rest of the herd lift their heads, look at the leader, look in the direction of the possible threat, and then look at their leader again. If the leader takes off running, the rest of the herd runs. If he goes back to grazing, the rest of the herd relaxes. You don't see the herd running off without their leader, and you don't see them ignoring him either!
Back to the scenario of the trail horse that spooked... If the rider was the leader and had the horse's respect and obedience, the horse would likely stop and request a "run" or "stay" command from his leader. The rider would then make a decision and either tell the horse that there is no danger and he should stay, or, tell him that the danger is real and he should run.
You can "tell" your horse these things through a pre-determined and pre-trained set of cues that you have worked on. I discuss these cues further in other articles on this site. However, you must realize that these cues do not mean a thing if you are not the respected leader that your horse needs.
When you get to a point in your interactions with your horse that he sees you as a confident, respectful leader, training will come very easily. To understand what your horse views as a leader is the most important aspect in learning how to be his leader.
Learning as much as you can about herd dynamics will allow you to handle horses in the safest, most confident, and most successful manner possible.
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