HOW TO DESTROY A RELATIONSHIP WITH A HORSE

How to destroy a relationship with a horse.

Poor communication sits at the heart of most problems people experience with their horse.

Why?

The lack of clear communication causes the horse to struggle to make sense of what they are expected to do.

This causes the horse to experience frustration as they are unable to successfully navigate the pressure that is constantly or randomly applied.

Halters, lead ropes and bits become more like restraints that are aversive instead of lines of communication they can understand and follow.

Then there is the kicking, spurring, whipping...

In response to this perceived restraint and discomfort the horse becomes stressed and their defense system is triggered.

When a horse is triggered to be defensive, they exhibited symptoms such as anxiety, aggression, pushiness, shutdown and ignoring etc. Overall, the horse experiences the interaction as a negative and aversive experience.

Therefore, the relationship becomes damaged and dysfunctional.

To help people and their horses out of this bad place I teach them how to to pay attention to their horse and become aware of HOW they need to communicate in order for the horse to learn, understand and be motivated to respond.

Horse’s may not talk but they will always tell you what they know and how they feel about being asked by HOW they respond.

I teach people how to observe this and understand what it means.

I call my approach "Re-Booting" and it is documented in my courses. It is where I teach people to heal their struggling or dysfunctional relationships with their horses by taking their relationship back to the ground and rebuilding it with better communication skills and awareness.

People are always surprised how the problems they were having with their horse disappears as they progress through the process. But the negative behaviour disappears because the horse is no longer uncomfortable, feeling like they have to protect themselves or under threat!

Therefore, next time you are struggling to get on with a horse...consider how your communication is making them feel...