So it is with horses. We don’t know how horses go about picking their friends or their foes. Sometimes the meanest horses form the strongest bonds in a herd. Sometimes horses that make the most unlikely bedfellows become inseparable. It too is a mystery.
Challenges Make For Better Relationships
If we truly want to develop the best relationship possible with a horse it does not come from protecting them from trouble. It doesn’t come from allowing the no-go areas of our relationship to linger. It comes from facing the things that create anxiety and stress in a horse and ensuring the horse comes out the other side with a good experience and feeling better. Then we look like the good guy and the best friend he could ever have. The best relationships are born from human and horse solving problems together.
Reward From a Horse's Perspective
Kids and Horses
The first horse that I belonged to was called Luke. Well, when he came to live with me his name was Sebastian, but I couldn’t let him carry that burden for the rest of his life. He didn’t deserve that. So Luke became the name he answered to when I called him for dinner or when he ordered coffee at Starbucks and when the bakery asked what name he wanted on his birthday cake.
One Horse, Two Sides
Most of us appreciate that all horses are different. When training, what works for one horse may not be the best approach for another. The almost infinite variations of a horse’s nature combined with their varied experiences (nature plus nurture) mean the chance is almost zero in finding two horses responding identically to identical training.