To the horse there is no loneliness lonelier than distrust. Trust is the glue that bonds the leader to the led.
This incident was relayed not to introduce the latest training method or to describe how to perfect your technique, it is about a change of attitude, becoming aware, getting involved and staying that way. The lesson in the story goes much wider than leading, in truth it touches on every contact you have with a horse, how minuscule it may be. But there are two sides to this story both starting at the horses inherited herd instinct: • Horses evolved as creatures of flight, not reason, who seek safety in numbers (a herd). Implicit in them being herd animals is that they are always seeking a leader. The herd have unquestioned faith in their leader, follow blindly and do not think rationally or for themselves. These are facts and they are fundamental to the way all horses act and react today, even though this instinct developed in different circumstances very long ago. In working with a horse you have to earn his trust and establish yourself as the leader he is looking for that is: in control, calm and confident at all times. To earn his trust you have to keep him safe from his perspective, not yours. A horse, if he feels lost or loses his trust, will take over the leadership role from the human: in certain circumstances this will be irreversible. A human losing control is nearly always and entirely down to the human’s inattentiveness and lack of awareness. A leader who is always the last to know is not a good leader. • A horse thrives on discipline because of his inherited herd instinct. Discipline in a herd is kept according to the pecking order which is not set in stone. A horse will always perceive you, as the other animal in the “herd”, to be the one to challenge for a better position, in other words test your authority. Humans being indifferent or negligent often miss that and consequently fail that test. When the horse tests his boundaries as he most definitely will do and you miss that, the horse will start dominating you, showing no respect. In layman’s terms “a horse can’t follow someone who is not leading” . Rashid M, Whole Heart Whole Horse, Skyhorse Publishing, 2009 1
For a human the challenge in gaining and keeping a horse’s trust is twofold: Firstly, due to a horse’s superior powers of perception (hearing, smelling and seeing) coupled with a brilliant photographic memory, the horse can distinguish changes in his environment many times faster and finer than any human can, in consequence a horse will always be aware of any changes long before you noticed anything. The second factor is the flaws in human nature - humans are as a rule relatively 75
INTERNATIONAL RACE HORSE June 2013
June 2013 INTERNATIONAL RACEHORSE
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