I agree with pretty much everything in it. Horses like to know we can be in charge of them and keep them safe. Gandalf loves being with Seraphina, although she "bullies" him unmercifully. I spend a lot of time watching my horses' interactions (sad, I know) and she is pretty relentless, moving him around, biting him, keeping him away from any hay she wants, changing her mind about which pile of hay she does want and moving him around again and again.........but if she goes out without him, even if he's left with Sky, he gets very agitated and calls and calls for her. She is his leader; she makes him feel safe.
That's what I try to do for my horses. Make them feel safe. Sometimes to do that have to take them out of their comfort zone, let them get worried, frightened, then be there to show them that actually, it's OK, nothing bad will happen. This involves a lot of umbrellas, dogs, flappy plastic, going past scary places over and over again and not being fazed by any "undesirable" behaviour. And above all, being consistent with my own behaviour........
So the way I see it, you can either change your horse to fit in with what you want to do (hack out alone, do a TREC course, ride along a main road, go to a competition, ride past that scary dog) or you can change your life to keep your horse in his comfort zone, not take him away from from his fieldmates and not do all those competitions/fun rides/hacks you'd really like to do. I made my choice a long time ago........
1 comment:
You don't really need anyone to tell you you're on the right track, do you? Calm Assertive is not bullying, it's a leadership skill-set.
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