(“Blah, blah, blah, Ginger”)

Here’s a news flash: In horse training reason trumps emotion. There are plenty of times that flawed reasoning won’t solve a problem. Picture a beginner rider who thinks that pulling on the reins makes a horse stop. Standing in a group, the rider’s mount begins to back up. Applying what she thinks is the brakes, she pulls back to stop the horse, and naturally he just backs up even faster. No lack of reasoning there—just a misunderstanding of how the mechanism works.

Gary Larson’s Classic Far Side cartoon pokes fun at animal owners who anthropomorphize and over-estimate their pet’s (or horse’s) ability to relate back to them in human terms.
In this case there’s no wonder why Ginger (or Waltzerkoenig or whomever) isn’t getting the message.

What has my dander up at the moment is a different kind of insensitivity which is all too prevalent. Anyone who knows me or has seen me ride knows I’m no shrinking violet around horses. However, a punishment that a horse doesn’t understand is just gratuitous violence. I just saw a girl whacking her horse roughly on the neck because he wouldn’t stand still. As you’d guess, it just made him more anxious and inclined to dance around nervously. Similarly, a lightning-bolt-from-the-blue-like bash with the whip without preamble or context accomplishes no useful training purpose. A reinforced aid which employs some strength isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As long as it’s logical. As long as it makes sense both to you and your horse. Otherwise, it’s just—pardon the expression—STUPID!