How To Help Your Horse Understand You
I’m not sure if there is any known way of comparing animal intelligence to human intelligence, but I am going to say this; horses are reasonably intelligent. They can be taught; they know and learn. Even if you try to teach a pony something that goes against its basic instincts, it’ll still follow you and obey so long as you take the trouble of ‘breaking in’ the pony gently. As an example, it’s easy to get a horse to conquer its fear of a weird and potentially threatening object by letting that pony get used to the presence of the object. It takes time, but if you’re patient, the horse learns well. During the course of a life spent with horses, I have seen professional riders get their horses to do some praiseworthy things (talking horse show-wise) with no apparent physical or vocal cues whatsoever, and you can’t reach that sort of understanding with an animal unless that animal has a particular level of intelligence.
You also can’t reach that sort of understanding unless you relate to the horse. Let’s get this straight: in the initial stage, you have got to reach out to the horse, not the other way around. The enormous difference between you and any animal is that the animal does not know better, but you do. Thus, it is your decision to take the lead, and if you set about it the correct way, you’ll find your pony responding positively. Setting about it the best way means persuading the horse and steering it in the direction you would like in slow steps. It means ingraining habits in the horse by rewarding it for everything it does right. You’ll achieve a degree of unwilling obedience if you include punishment in your teaching curriculum, but you may never achieve blind trust and tenderness.
Once a horse learns its lessons, it does not forget them, it can become baffled badly if it starts receiving contrary directions later on. You must be consistent with your pony, and you have to make sure others are also consistent with it, because that’s the only way you will achieve the type of perfect coordination with your pony that you see in professionals.
You can see horses demonstrating their powers of understanding in other ways. I have seen horses instinctively put on their best behaviour with youngsters and women, and I have seen them roll their eyes at folk they had not seen before, but sensed were difficult to deal with. I’ve seen horses finish with a grumpy rider and come to their owners with lots of joy, as if to show their relief at the end of an ordeal.
I think I can wrap up by saying this: you gain a horse’s complete understanding when you give it yours first. I have never seen a pony that didn’t respond well to a keen coach, handler or rider. Often horses can be very difficult, but just about inevitably that was because they had not received correct care or coaching earlier. Even these horses can be brought into line, though with lots more patience than normal.
Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about equine health
