TCJpart 18 Horse Psychology

PSYCHOLOGY:
Lot's gets written about horse psychology, but your own observations are just as important, after all no-one is like you, and no horse is like your horse.  A unique combination of personalities, brings unique qualities to a relationship...

I was just out in the yard with my boys, my plan was to ride them, it's a beautiful breezy sunny cold October morning, but as I brushed the wind got faster and the horses got jumpier.  by the time I got to their tails, it was far too windy to go, so I changed my mind.  I didn't force myself or them to carry on regardless, I don't have ego, I don't think of it as defeat.  Just simply do something else instead.

This made me think about psychology. 

We expect our horses to be ok with everything we ask, to be happy with all the things they have to do, to be calm riding near things that terrify them....why?  Because we certainly are not perfectly balanced are we?  We have things that scare us even terrify us, and no one makes us face these things! So why do we expect our horses to cope? Prey animals are the flightiest creatures and arguably not mentally equipped to cope...they are built to run.

We can be rational.  We can have lengthy conversations, even therapy about the things that frighten us, in the hope that, if we wished it, we might get better at coping.  But humans don't all cope...and neither do horses.

My message, give your horse a break. 

If you're terrified of spiders for example, imagine if you were forced against every instinct in your body, to face them?  Most people would have a melt-down.  All you'd do, as with the rest of us and our fears (and they are mostly irrational aren't they?), is avoid these things, you just wouldn't go near spiders where possible.

Having said all that horses are clever, and they adapt very well and notice everything, that's why they can be spooky.  If you rode past a worrying white flower that bloomed overnight (and wasn't there yesterday), and he's not terrified, just he's noticed it, the more you ride past, the less interesting it will be to him. That's how horses cope, in layers.  Repeating things is key.

Just think the next time you feel you are under pressure to get your horse to do something, or face something, perhaps by someone else who tells you you're letting him get away with certain evasive behaviours, that we allow ourselves these breaks, these failures in our psychology if you like, why is it ok to make our horse do it?  Well, it's not ok.  Give him a break, give him lots of time, he'll decide for himself if and when he'll be happy with the situation. and this way, he'll be happy about it forever, because he's worked it out for himself.