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.
I am convinced that many people (perhaps the majority) continue to believe that the quality of training or the degree of education of a horse is judged by what we can get it to do.
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).
