Desensitizing and Sensitizing

Is it possible to have a horse that is extremely responsive to its rider, but unresponsive to everything else?
I think it is.
You may here people say that desensitizing makes your horse unresponsive to your cues, and they would be correct... if that was all you did.
I'll give an example.
Aleythia and I started training a young filly, Flicka, when we were about ten. We didn't know what we were doing. We had a little help, but mostly it was what we felt like doing, whenever we felt like doing it, and no thought as to the mental readiness of Flicka. We did a lot of one thing and not enough of others, or not at all.
The best thing about Flicka is that she is pretty much child-proof. That was because of all the things we did with her. We got on her bareback and bridle less in the pasture and just sat there, we swung up Indian style, and moved all over her back sideways, backwards, and standing up. That's about all we taught her.
Flick is the laziest most unresponsive horse you could probably come across. Ok maybe not quite that bad. There's always something that's worse.
Flicka won't canter. We never made it a requirement for her to canter.
She can't do ground work worth didlysquat. I worked with her once this last summer and I wanted her to back up. Basically I ended up hitting her chest with my whip for five minutes until she figured out that going forward wasn't the answer. Then she stood still for a minute. After that she took one tiny step backwards.
Her steering is faulty. If she doesn't want to go somewhere you won't get her to go there.
My point is we didn't do any sensitizing. She is five years old and she hasn't cantered with a rider.
The other extreme is a horse who is off the scale sensitized. Those horses are really nice in a calm, familiar area, but the moment you take them away from their comfort zone they become terrors. They spook at every little thing and are very unenjoyable to ride. They haven't had enough desensitizing.
We all have some form of those two extremes. Maybe not quite as extreme but they're still there.
What we want is a horse that listens to our request, but zones out almost everything else.
The trick is to have an even balance of sensitizing and desensitizing.
The best way to do this is before or after every ride with your horse you desensitize. Just make a habit out of it. It doesn't have to be major. It can take 30 seconds.
The first time you desensitize say like to a rope, your horse will more than likely freak out and you might have to make a whole session out of that one thing, but after that it will not take very long.

May your horses be responsive and safe,
Lydia Johnson