04/01/2024
Do you make your horse feel safe?
Now, I don't mean from invisible Tigers, or that carrier bag of doom that could creep up on you out hacking, or even a very real, over enthusiastic dog who has just pulled his owner into a muddy puddle, escaped his grasp and is now coming, terrifyingly, towards you at full pelt.
No, I mean in much more subtle, everyday ways.
When we handle and ride our horses, we are asking them to follow us, give up their free will, to a certain degree, and listen and comply to our requests. By doing this we are asking them to look to us for their safety and safe keeping. It's a mutual agreement. The horse commits to agreeing with your decision at any given moment, on the premise that, yes, you keep him safe. That's the exchange. There is always an exchange. Personal safety is high up on your horses list of top priorities. This brings with it quite some personal responsibility, and one we absolutely must be capable of fulfilling.
Take for example, a big unbalanced young horse, being ridden around the arena. Micro conversations are, or should be, being transmitted between the two of you almost continuously via your aids. You are asking your horse to use his body in a specific way, some of which will come naturally and some of which will be harder for him.
But perhaps, every time you reach a corner, you let him fall out. You might not be conscious of this or maybe you are. It doesn't matter. Your inside rein is too strong and none of your outside aids are supporting him appropriately. Whether or not he physically crashes into the outside wall or fence is irrelevant. At that moment in time, you didn't support him, you didn't look after him and he felt unsafe, vulnerable. He had to look after himself, catch himself before anything untoward happened. Then you come out of the corner, potentially kicking him on due to the lack of forward movement and pulling harder on the inside rein to bring him off the wall or fence. This, what we might deem as an insignificant incident, has the potential to happen continuously, on every corner, circle, or turn, if you don't support the horse as is needed.
He doesn't feel safe, and through this continual lack of correct aiding, he trusts you less. Over time, this can show as 'misbehaviour', a 'lack of willingness to work', or more tension and bracing through his body.
This lack of trust can have far reaching consequences and whether or not your horse deems you as able to keep him safe or not, can impact all your interactions on the ground and riding.
The good news is, with a little help, trust can be built, rebuilt, gained and repaired in so many wonderful ways.
Isn't that the point? We crash and burn and fail, sometimes utterly spectacularly. Then we get up again and do better, know more and start to become the person our horse needs us to be in order for them to feel safe. So they can let us in, be vulnerable under our direction and let us help each other. We both want to feel safe.
Ultimately, it is always about learning how to be a human in a horses world; and how to be a horse in a humans world.
