The reason why we have been able to work and exploit horses for our benefit over millennia is that they evolved to be highly trainable and compliant. We don’t ride grizzly bears, and we don’t plough fields with giraffes for good reason.
One of the most common questions I was asked was whether they should get a young green horse that had almost no handling and was a clean slate and not messed up by poor training.
When the subject of horse behaviour comes up one of the first things that come to a lot of minds is the notion that the relationship between humans and horses is dominated by the relationship between a prey animal (horse) and a predator (human).
We all struggle to help horses change their ideas. However, changing a horse’s idea is the only thing that separates good horsemanship from training a slave.
