![]() ![]() Is the horse greeting you at the gate because he is interested in being with you and is looking for an adventure or because he views you as a giant cookie jar? As with any good sugar rush, it tends to be followed by a crash. Since horses can be both subtle and overt in their communicative behavior, it’s important to distinguish between a horse that is gregarious, or indifferent, or depressed. To change her behavior, I would need to change her associations. Even though we had no such intentions, her associations were already there, and her reactions were reasonable. Not surprisingly, every time we approached her pen, she would slink away and bury her head in the farthest corner of the pen-a clear message. After a decade as a broodmare, she’d learned that humans approaching her with a halter likely meant she would be put in stocks, twitched, hobbled, bred, or invasively palpated by a vet. My new foster training project, a Thoroughbred mare called Truth, is a perfect case-in-point. It doesn’t take long before the horse associates humans with negative emotions and avoidance behavior makes sense. On the other hand, consider a horse that has had repeated negative experiences with humans-either through strenuous performance training, having to work through pain, or being treated day-in and day-out for an injury or sickness. ![]() ![]() Still, this habit can result in a horse that eagerly awaits your arrival, but it will not create the kind of bonded relationship Benjamin is looking for. Using food to reward a horse’s attention rarely works according to plan since horses establish dominance in the herd by taking away food from others. One should not mistake this behavior for anything other than what it is-acceptance of a bribe. This kind of learned behavior can make a horse eager to see you-or pretend you don’t exist.įor instance, if every time you approached a horse, you offered it a delectable treat, it wouldn’t be long before it was greeting you at the gate, eagerly anticipating your arrival-more accurately, the arrival of the treat. A horse with zero experience with humans would be naturally shy, but with only one encounter with humans, a horse could make a strong association, either positive or negative. Horses have strong instinctive drives, and they are also lightning-quick learners with a memory like a steel trap (important traits for prey animals). While these are highly desirable traits that can be honed by many positive associations with humans, it’s unreasonable to expect all horses to be that way, given the nature of prey animals. Some horses are affable, friendly, and investigative by nature, but it’s not the norm. Some horses are more interested in people than others, but whether this is a trait of their natural born temperament or a result of learned behavior, may be difficult to discern. While they are instinctively drawn to the herd and form strongly bonded relationships within, their affectionate behavior (non-reproductive) is not overt, and they often ignore each other. So, is the fact that he does not run to greet me an indication that he sees me as any other ‘human,’ and I should work on developing that kind of relationship?”Īs prey animals, horses are standoffish, skittish, and stoic by nature. He is a 14-year-old Quarter Horse, who is a very sensitive, ‘hot’ type. I do feel we have a good connection when riding or on the ground. My own horse tends to be aloof and keeps on grazing no matter where I am. This makes me feel perhaps I should aspire to that as well. For example, having him meet you at the gate in the paddocks, etc. “Many blogs, books and online training resources talk about helping you develop the relationship you always wanted to have with your horse. Recently I had a question from one of my podcast listeners, Benjamin. ![]()
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