We need to make sure our signals are easy to discriminate for the horse, and that we don’t put two signals at the same time, and that we have a different signal for every response that we want to train. 

The hard thing is that when we are on a horse, we are supposed to look like we are doing nothing, and still be able to send a multitude of signals - step longer, step shorter, step higher, go faster, go slower etc. This poses a massive difficulty for horses to be able to understand us. 

Each of our signals should only have one response attached to it. If you are unclear or use several signals at the same time, the horse is going to struggle to understand and become confused, and this will have negative welfare implications for the horse. 

When the horse is first learning something, it’s like learning a new language. We need to talk slowly to someone who is just learning, and then when they have learned the language we can talk faster. But we can’t say all the words at the same time. It’s the same for horses - with a trained horse you can use signals close together.