Your horse deserves to be educated

Your horse deserves to be educated.

They deserve to be taught the skills that they will need to be able to be safe in our world. If you own a horse, you are already influencing and taking control of their life, no matter how many “consent-based” ideas you want to put on it. So prepare them. Teach them how to lead, stand tied, and follow direction so that they are above all else prepared to be safe.

Every week I work with students who get pushed around, and often are literally run over by their horses. Most of these people are doing what others have taught them to do, which is to allow the horse to be themselves, chose what to do and how to do it, even if it means the person gets trampled in the process. This might arise from a brief interpretation of a snippet of information that someone online has provided to my student, and these students often have not had skilled instruction from someone right in front of them to help navigate these things. These are usually the same horses, of all the horses I work, that are also the most insecure, the most herd-bound, and the most neurotic. They can't trailer, stand tied, have their feet done, or lead. Your horse deserves to be educated, and you deserve to not get trampled.

It helps me to think of it this way - in order to help a child become confident and well adjusted, we as adults provide safe and predictable boundaries, structure, and clarity. If a child is able to make all of their own decisions about life, you may end up with a child who eats candy three meals a day, doesn't sleep, and stares at a screen for endless amounts of time. That might be an extreme example, but the connection to how this relates to horses is there. This can be even more important for children who have experienced trauma. We do more to provide students who have experienced hardship with structure and guidance, not less.

Here I'm going back and revisiting some skills that my girls need. My sorrel mare has pulled back, so instead of avoiding the issue because being tied makes her uncomfortable, I'm educating her. She's in a halter that won't grab her face, in the arena with a friend, on a blocker ring at an appropriate height, on a quiet day. I alternate working the pony and then ask my horse to sotfen her poll and body when she feels the parameters that the end of the lead rope give her. The kindest thing you can do for your horse is educate them.