My thoughts about the importance of credible leadership in our relationships with horses..
I believe that, like your child, your horse likes to feel safe under your wing, but unlike your child, your horse needs to believe in you & you have to earn that position. If not, the horse may be your friend, but will trust his own decisions more..
& being your friend doesn't mean he will look after you, he may like you but he will like horseplay & wouldn't know safety boundaries where humans are concerned. Plus I think every horse has an instinct to try leadership that starts through play, or may start through reaching for grass when riding, or trying to turn for home, or stopping on your way out, speeding up on your way home. & all of these little challenges s/he sets for you will develop if s/he succeeds too often. S/He will see these successes as doubts in you.
A horse is a herd animal, normally very happy just to follow advice, the alpha mare, or stallion will earn leadership through physical strength, we cannot do that, so we use our brains.
On the ground a horse must learn to respect human space, it doesn't know that to barge, bite or kick you, could do you serious harm. It doesn't know that to do you harm may result in, at the very least, you not being able to feed him/her that night, or worse still, selling him/her.
Our experience & confidence with horses generally grows & with that develops an inner strength & certainty which a horse will read & respond to positively. Often this positivity in your own mind alone is enough to convince the horse.
If we think about the decisions horses would make for themselves, they would be simple decisions with only the short term in mind, they do not know the consequences of their actions in our world, they would favour other horses, food, frolicking or just standing around, yes, I think they enjoy being ridden, alot of them love jumping & will choose to approach a fence, alot of them love a good gallop & I believe they do have a sense of oneness & feel the double sense of joy when you are united in action. Or indeed united in inaction.
Yes we should listen to our horses & respond to their fears knowing when to push through a problem rather than indulge it. & When you have complete trust from your horse, it will happily hand the problem over to you.
We mustn't forget horses instincts for fear & flight, but we know that flight in todays world isn't always the way to safety. It is in fact often the way to danger. We know there aren't any lions waiting behind a tree, so when we decide to get on board, we must be able to control that instinct, the best way to do that is before you have to pull on the reins. By desensitising your horse to everyday possible scary things & by earning their trust in you.
They trust you if they feel you are the one who won't harm them & they trust you more if you are the one that makes things happen that always turn out OK.
I'm writing this to kind of establish in my own mind, what it is I do & why, I think my purpose with horses & their humans is to help them to be safe & happy together in a practical way & furthermore to educate a horse in the universal language of humans so that they can live safely in this world wherever they are & whoever they're with, whilst educating humans to understand their horses & to be responsible owners.
All of this is for the love of the most beautiful & most generous animal in this world. ❤️🐎
