are you listening?

🐴 ARE YOU LISTENING? 🐴

As a rule, horses are non-confrontational, given the option of fight or flight they will usually choose flight or remove themselves from a situation, fighting back only if they feel trapped or have learned to become defensive through previous experience or association. In addition to avoiding confrontation, horses are generally a fairly tolerant species, hence our ability to teach them, as a prey animal, to carry a rider and perform tasks out of the norm for them.

Usually if a horse feels the need to fight back they will indicate their intentions first, using a facial expression or the raise of a foot. These signs may be subtle, so if we plan to work with horses or build our relationships it’s our job to listen to their communication and learn their language. Sometimes we can be a little wrapped up in ourselves and only notice a behaviour when it begins to affect us adversely or interfere with our training sessions, at this stage the behaviour may be magnified or escalated. So how can we better listen to our horses?

Read More