ROLES WITHIN THE HORSE & HUMAN PARTNERSHIP
"With great power, comes great responsibility" Uncle Ben (Spider-man)
Many people can get themselves tied in knots trying to create a positive relationship and partnership with a horse only to find themselves failing time and time again after trying multiple approaches.
Again, I believe this is due to the confusing contradictory and mixed messages that are out there.
I try to keep it simple. With a horse you have a partnership that has to be functional. Your role in the partnership is to make the decisions and guide the horse. The horse has to learn to perform the actions they have been guided to do. In a cool way these two roles are really the combination of both species superpower - the horse's ability for movement, and the human's ability to think!
Therefore, because you are the decision maker in the partnership you have a lot of responsibility. These include being responsible for establishing and maintaining how you communicate with the horse. How well they understand, how engaged and motivated they are in order to respond to you.
You also are responsible for listening and observing the horse and how it feels and responding to this.
Finally, you must ensure that you are a good load for the horse to carry. They have to perform actions based on what you are guiding them to do, therefore you cannot get in the road of this performance making it hard or uncomfortable.
Therefore, as Uncle Ben in Spider-man says - "With great power, comes great responsibilty"! The only responsiblity the horse has is to be a horse!
The quality of this partnership will determine the quality of the relationship that will result overtime. Therefore, if you are struggling with a horse there is a good chance you need some help making decisions and executing your responsibilities.
Therefore, if you run into trouble with a horse look at your ability fulfil your responsibilities. The quality you can do these things is a never ending learning journey that horse's take you on.
Please SHARE if this makes sense to you.
