I've been really fortunate in my horsemanship journey to have studied with a number of incredible people. They've all contributed to the ideas and methods with which I train today. One of the cornerstones that has stayed true is thinking like horse rather than thinking and acting like a human. Horses are prey animals and humans are predators. Horses have different ways of looking at the world because their life depends on it. As prey animals, survival is a horses number one instinct. It is really easy to forget that they don't think like us. People can get incredibly frustrated, angry or cross - basically, emotional - about the fact that their horse isn't doing what they want it to do. They often call the horse names - stupid, naughty, bad - again, emotional labels but ultimately, labels that put the blame onto the horse. So next time your horse does something and you think, what on earth did he or she do that for, try to consider it for your horse's point of view. The are three main reasons why you might be getting unwanted behaviour:
1) They might perceive a danger that they think will cost their life
2) They may not understand the question you're asking
3) They might be in pain
All three of these reasons need to be considered. The better you get at reading horse behavior, the better you will start to know which one of those three things is causing the problem. Sometimes it's all three. Imagine if you were in a situation where you were afraid and you were in pain and you didn't understand why something was happening to you. If you can do this, you are able to empathise with your horse. The goal from there is to find the solution to improvement.
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