Teaching a feral horse to lead: experimentations with a medieval method (February 2021)

Diamant learning to be led

Following last week's post on my thoughts on medieval horsetraining after handling my ponies, here are further reflections, written in February 2021, trying to see how the method developped by Jordanus Rufus in 1250 would work on real horses. 

One of the first skills a horse, whether he has been handled from his birth or has had a feral upbringing, is to lead. This point is raised by Jordanus Rufus in his method: after the foal has been captured with a rope, a halter is put on his head and he must be led to the stable where his taming will take place. He states that this must be done using an already tame horse to accompany the foal. Later, he also says that while the foal is wild, he must remain in the company of that tame horse. Can it be inferred then that the tame horse goes on being used to teach the foal to lead?

In the absence of any other indication, this is probable. In Rufus’s method, it is all the more important that the horse should learn to lead since groundwork is essential at the moment of the breaking-in. After the introduction of the bit, the horse must be led to learn to respond to it, rather than to a halter. That is also the case when the horse is first ridden: he must also be led on the ground by a man on foot. However, it appears that Rufus takes the actual teaching of the horse how to lead for granted, though it is not straightforward: a horse, especially a feral one, will instinctively resist to any kind of pressure. Pulling on a leadrope will put pressure on the horse’s poll and nose, depending on the shape of the halter to which it is attached. Though the horse can be taught to give-in to the pressure, if the handler releases it at the right moment, each time the horse takes a step forward, for instance, this is a lengthy process. It can also prove difficult if the horse is strong and stoical enough to go on resisting to the pressure.

Using another horse to teach the ponies to lead can be a simple and efficient solution. I was able to try it out in recent days as I started teaching my young gelding, Diamant, to lead, by getting him to follow the example of my older horse, Québec. Diamant did not know how to lead, despite attempts made by another person to teach him to give in to pressure by attaching a rope to his halter and pulling on it. This did not have very good results, or maybe it wasn’t done over the necessary length of time. However, when I tried to lead both Diamant and Québec together, I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the whole process went. Diamant stayed closed to Québec, whom he perceived as a reassuring presence, followed me when Québec did, stopped when he did. I accompanied each movement with vocal cues and put a bit of pressure on Diamant’s leadrope just before walking on, so he would associate this stimulus with going forward. I found another advantage to using Québec as an example. Being a high-spirited young horse, Diamant was tempted to run around once he was out of the stable, or to not respect my space and be pushy. Québec threatened him, raising a hind leg as if to kick and glaring at him with his ears back, each time Diamant showed disrespect by pushing against him or trying to get ahead of him. All this was done without me having to intervene. 

The next day, I was able to lead Diamant for a few steps without having Québec on the other side. I did use food as a reward to make the experience more pleasant for the pony, something which probably was not done in the medieval method. Though Diamant still needs much training to lead properly, the use of my older horse as an example was invaluable. Even if it meant that I had to handle two horses at the same time, which may seem counterintuitive, it made things easier for me as I did not have to pull on the leadrope, Diamant was not trying to escape as he instinctively remained close to Québec – as Rufus is very much aware of, horses are herd animals who seek the company of other horses – and he learnt to keep his distance, again without me having to make him back off or do anything that would have been aggressive. And because he saw that Québec trusted me and willingly came up to me, that emboldened him to do the same. As in Rufus’s method, the older, tame horse is not only an example for the younger one, but also a helper for the handler. There is a form of cooperation at play: the horse is educated to both equine and human codes which, in this instance, complement each other. 

Teaching the foal to lead in that matter raises one question: which kind of horse should be used? Another destrier whose education is more advanced? Or a completely different kind of horse, maybe a rouncey whose function in the stud was exclusively to help with the colts? He would need to fill several criteria in terms of temperament. He would need to be quiet enough to have a calming influence on the foal. Yet he should not be too meek and submissive: the foal must respect him. It is out of the question that this horse should be a mare, since the foal being trained in the medieval method is a young stallion. It would also probably be more appropriate if he was a gelding as this might (though there is no guarantee of that) limit conflicts with hormonal young stallions, which might not be the case with an uncastrated male. This horse would also need to have a good relationship with humans, or at least with the handler, to be a good example for the foal, and to be well trained. A horse fulfilling all this criteria is not to be taken for granted, which makes me think that once he was found, he was repeatedly used for that purpose in the studs. 

I have just started to teach my filly, Topaze, to lead, using a different process, without the help of Québec. This was justified by the fact that she has a different character to Diamant and a different relationship to me: though Diamant relatively quickly became accustomed to other humans and showed no real difference in his behaviour towards me and towards other people, Topaze still is very wary of them. She has started to trust me and will willingly come to me (without being prompted by the prospect of food). However, she will retreat to the furthest end of the stable when she sees someone else. Paradoxically, I find her easier to approach and touch than Diamant. To lead her, I used both a leadrope and a ‘dressage whip’ with which I touched (not hitting, with no more pressure than I would use with my hand) her rump when I wished her to go forward. This enabled me not to have to put pressure on the leadrope and made my instructions easier to understand for the filly. Crops are used when the horse is first ridden, as a training aid to reinforce the indications given by the legs. Were they also used when the horse was taught to lead? 

The exclusive relationship I have developed with Topaze makes me wonder if those horses with a typically wild temperament were those that Rufus wished to turn into destriers. This would realise the ideal of a warhorse accepting only one rider, like Bucephalus. It would also make the horse difficult to steal or capture should the knight be unseated on the battlefield. However, in the context of a stud, it was probably not very practical as it would mean only one person could handle the horse.