Horses: The Spoiled Edition

Hi everyone!  How's your week going?  Good, not so good?  If the answer's the first, great!  If not, I'm sorry. 

Anyways, today's topic is something that was blatantly put into my awareness as of the last couple of lessons I've had with my 'normal' trainer, and while hanging out with one of my 'normal' horsemanship friends.  And that is what happens when you inadvertently shower your horse with so much love it becomes inappropriate and your horse becomes something called 'spoiled'.

As with many other horse owners, my horse is, admittedly, my 'baby'.  Yep, when it gets what I consider to be really cold out, I am guilty of wrapping my already thick furred horse up in layers of gear he may not actually need, he gets a fly sheet in the summer when the flies are bad, and he even gets splint boots when he gets exercised.  And yes, it's all matching (blue or black). 

 

He has a matching blue cooler sheet that I use after playing with him, oftentimes gets too many treats during a session, and even gets massages given by yours truly from time to time. 

 

And while all this makes me feel like a 'good' horse owner, it doesn't necessarily mean it's helping the relationship.  In fact, in a relationship with a left brained introvert, it points to the opposite.  It oftentimes points to an owner willing to bend over backwards for the happiness of their horse.  Which can be a great thing!  When boundaries are established and responsibilities are upheld.

 

 

 

 

 

With left brained horses, one of the main keys to building a strong relationship is actually learning to put your foot down when it's needed, and in a way that's not crabby or mean.  Which can be hard to grasp for people like me, who have the first instinct to throw in lots of love and just expect it back in return.  Because why wouldn't it be returned, right?

But horses aren't humans, and they will show us that that point of view is very misguided indeed, and can actually harm the relationship instead of helping!  We become boring push-overs, and oftentimes the ill-tolerated naggers for our horses when we ask them to do something.  We're exactly like the teachers we've all had in school that have the monotone voice and are always reading straight out of the book rather than teaching us something we couldn't learn on our own, and then looking over our shoulder as we do our classwork.  It becomes quite boring, and frankly, horses don't want to be around boring people. 

 

 

There is also something to be stated here, and it's something I've run into with my left brained introvert.  When we focus so much on making the task enjoyable for the horse, the horse can take that and use it negatively.  For lack of a better non-anthropomorphic phrase, a horse's 'work ethic' can be lost, or in Chase's case, poorly built at all.  Your session will go great for a while, until your horse decides that they no longer want to participate, and that you won't convince them otherwise.  They've had fun up till now, but they're getting bored and will throw a tantrum if you keep asking more out of them.  After all, they're very tired, busy horses and have better things to do (like eat).

 

It is at this stage that we are faced with a difficult challenge both within ourselves and in our horsemanship.  Do we engage in discussion and try to somehow convince them that the task is actually fun after all?  Or do we put our foot down, and say "I directed you to a task.  It is your job to do it."

 

 

 

It's a blurry and sometimes unclear line.  But the truth is, our horses are not going to be happy with everything that we ask of them, all the time.  And while yes, having them voice their opinion and allowing them their dignity is absolutely huge to the relationship, holding the horse to their responsibilities as forty percent of the partnership is equally as important. 

 

I don't know about you guys, but I know that tomorrow when I tack up my horse and play with him, it's going to be with a different attitude.  I'm going to attempt to clean my hands of all this wishy washy goo-goo overly affectionate stuff, and learn to be a better leader for my horse's sake.  After all, that's what it's all about.