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What do I mean by this? Think about predators around the world; lions, bears, wolves,tigers, sharks etc. And now think prey animals; deer, sheep, zebra, wildebeast etc. The twojust don’t mix! Predators are designed to hunt and kill prey animals while prey animals aredesigned to avoid these predators and so survive. Because of this you just don’t see thetwo species co-existing anywhere.

Because of the unique qualities of a horse and our human drive to change and progress, thetwo of us have come together and have co-existed in a one-on-one relationship for thousandsof years. For all the good things that have come out of this relationship, one thing can beguaranteed … there have always been problems and trouble in the relationship. That’s right,horses still would have been spooking at funny noises and sights when Julius Caeser wasriding down the road, there would have been horses that bolted and bucked and I bet even ifKing Arthur of Camelot had a float he would have come across some horses that didn’t want togo on!

Why is this so? Even after so many years with horses and so many experiences, why arehumans still having so many issues? As I mentioned above no other predator and prey animalever form relationships that don’t end with one eating the other. So, because a horse is aprey animal they are designed to avoid predatory behavior. Their flight instincts tell themto run away from danger. As humans, we are the world’s major predator, eating a variety ofprey animals … and don’t horses know it! So it is our responsibility to prove to our horsethat we are not going to hurt them. We need to show that we understand why they do thethings they do. And we need to form a partnership with them based on trust and respect withthe absence of force or intimidation.

How do we do this? To put it simply we must learn the horse’s language and understand theirpsychology to form a willing relationship. In any relationship communication is key, withoutit one cannot understand the other. Let’s face it, we could all use help on ourcommunication skills at times, even with the people closest to us. So to go about having arelationship with a horse we must learn their language and how to speak it. Don’t be misleadthough, this is not a verbal language! You won’t go into a paddock and find a group ofhorses having a chat. Their language is silent and based on body language and gestures. Havea think about that now, most of us have seen a group of horses moving each other around,pinning ears, threatening to kick, licking and chewing, nodding their heads etc. Thesegestures are horses communicating with each other. It’s a pure language, and one we shouldall learn if we want to become good, effective leaders for our horse.

As for a horse’s psychology, we must understand what motivates or drives them to want to dosomething. If we think about ourselves, we will do just about anything for money, or maybethe reward of a treat such as an ice cream may be enough to cause us to want to dosomething. Simpler than this, we may just want a bit of praise for doing the right thing, apat on the back, a ‘Well one Son’ etc. We can even carry this through to our dogs and thinkhow they respond to food as a treat and how a pat on the head is sometimes all the praisethey need for doing the right thing. We are similar because we are both predators and aretherefore motivated by the same kind of things. Taking food as an example, predators have towork for it, they need to hunt and earn their food, it is therefore of great value and sopredators see it as a reward.

Prey animals, however, are quite different. They live on the fields with grass all aroundthem. Their food does not try to escape or run away from them, so food is not a reward, andneither is anything type of physical object. However, as they are food for other animals,keeping safe is at the top of their list for things that motivate them. They want to findsafety in any situation, let’s take the float for example, to a horse it looks like a trapon wheels, a place where once they are cornered into they cannot escape. So in this case itis vital we let our horse know that the float is actually safe and that they won’t betrapped inside forever.

Once they do feel safe with a situation horses then want to get comfortable. When you seehorses in a paddock that they feel safe in most of the time they are just standing still,grazing away. Horses don’t like to be uncomfortable and will always follow the path of leastresistance. So taking us back to our float example we need to make the inside of the float adesirable, comfortable place to be, and make outside, not wanting to go on, an undesirable,uncomfortable place. With the horse’s safety and comfort taken care of, typically horseswill then feel free to interact, they will have fun and play with each other. For thisreason we should make sure all our interaction with horses is as much fun for them as it isfor us!

You can clearly see that as horses and humans we are so different in so many ways, thiscauses so many of the issues and problems that exist. Misunderstandings are a regularoccurrence. So to minimise these issues we need to take on the responsibility to learn aboutour horse, learn their language, learn their psychology and develop a willing relationship.You will be amazed at what you can achieve by learning and applying these techniques … andyour horse will thank you for it!

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