TUTORIALS

Date: Tuesday June 25th, 2024

RELATIONSHIP BASED HORSE MASTERY

Despite the term Horse Mastery, the mastery involved and required in the pursuit of any horse related endeavour is the mastery of oneself rather than of the actual horse/s involved.

Much like when relating to children the results we have are a reflection of ourselves rather than of a subjective counterpart.

Horses are very much like dogs in the way they naturally love to be around humans, interact,

play etc. they will naturally call and come running up to you as a dog will etc.

Now imagine if I took that dog and grabbed a stick, put it on a lead and chased it away from me, yet not allowing it to run far, the only thing it could do was keep running in circles while I chased it with a stick, holding the lead until it was exhausted. Imagine I did this for weeks, months, every day, every time I interacted with that dog.

Do you think this dog would come running happily up to me anymore?

Horses are large, powerful animals and our fear gets in the way of our relationships with them. Lungeing is exactly the procedure I just described. It is done as a standard practice by horse riders, owners, trainers etc. It is abuse. It is also one of the many reasons horses run away from owners when they come to collect them from their paddocks.

Most riders are scared to ride a horse in a non exhausted / dumbed down state even at Olympian level.

Also commonplace is the restriction of energy in foods, horses are worked daily to maintain them in physical & mental states of exhaustion and a raft of other counterproductive and ineffective methodolgy is commonplace.

But remove the fear for a moment. Why is it that children can go and befriend a horse in a paddock and ride them with no gear pretty much easily, but that same horse when confronted with an experienced rider will run away and play up nervously while ridden.

Why is it acceptable to wear sharp pain inflicting metal objects on our heels to dig into a horses belly...just to so called communicate with them. How can we even consider this.

Communication that causes pain is no communication at all, it is bullying and a person who chooses to bully a horse is a person who will never experience the beautiful relationship of trust and harmony between horse and rider which comes from an authentically respectful and kind way of communicating with them.

The same people using this methodology are the same who educate us that horses are flighty and nervy animals. Not in my experience. They are bold, calm, relaxed, friendly, placid and will call and come running up to you much like a dog does, happy to see you and if you're holding a saddle they get excited that they're going out for some fun and try to help you put it on them. THAT is what horses are truly like.

If you would like support dropping cruelty and abuse out of your horse endeavours