12/12/2024
“How to teach your horse to trust you”
You cannot teach trust.
You cannot learn trust.
You can only give trust.
So how does trust actually look like?
A horse that got startled but immediately turns, secures and looks for reassurance in the handler with active communication
How does learned helplessness look like?
A horse that’s suppressing any bodily reaction, seems unbothered and uninterested in the surrounding or trying to increase the distance to the handler slowly but steadily.
The goal is not to shut a horse down - to make them NOT react. You can ask that a robot but not a living being.
The goal is to GIVE them trust - not to take their nature away.
However, it is possible to shut a horse down. And certain schools of horsemanship have made that their primary focus through psychological techniques.
But just because it works doesn’t make it ethical. It just offers a quick fix for a human made problem for which the horse must bow.
To teach trust you must give choice first.
Learn to see the difference - and ask yourself are you really okay with horses being horses?
Or are you afraid of their reactions, wanting them to shut down to make YOU feel safe?
So don’t talk about trust if you’re not understanding what that actually means - especially from the horses point of view.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk about how I can’t stand those flags on sticks wiggling around anymore.
