I cannot remember when I read this the first time, but it was a very long time ago, and I often heard it before that, my grandfather used to say it when I was a child. He also said we should leave ‘thinking to the horses’…

I always thought I knew what it meant; “the horse is always right’’, but I only started fully understanding it when I started working with traumatized and injured horses for my day job. Honestly, it seems to be adding layers time after time again, with each new horse and with each new experience. Horses are indeed ALWAYS RIGHT. Even when I thought, this time, the horse wasn’t, it always turned out, he was!

 

So… what does it mean, “the horse is always right”?

It means:

1. Horses are pure, they never lie, they do not have the ability to do so

2. Horses react to what they experience and feel right NOW

3. Horses react on what they have learned on past experiences

4. Horses ‘speak’ with their body language exactly how they feel and what they think

5. Avoiding pain & discomfort, risky (to their prey minds) situations, physical damage, loosing balance or loneliness, are their main motivation for all most every behaviour.

 

Therefore, horses ALWAYS have GOOD reasons, from their ‘prey’ point of view, for the behaviour that they show. Humans tend to think a horse ‘overreacts’, or is lazy and unwilling. That is NEVER the case.

Horses simply react to each action or sensation with the feeling this creates within their nerve system. Each sensation tells them how to react, based on the 5 rules above and experiences from the past of which they learned which behaviours to repeat or not.

 

When a horse seems unwilling to your demands, please do NEVER punish your horse. Just understand that he is right and you are wrong (Yes, really!).

You have simply not offered the right stimulus or sensation to receive the answer you seek.

 

When a horse seems unwilling to your requests, go back to the drawing board:

- Is your request within the 5 rules above?

- Are you sure your horse is able to react the way you want, is he physically able and mentally able to understand?

Most probably, this is not the case. So, go back to the step that came before this one, or maybe even more steps, so you can make sure your horse understands and is able… and ALWAYS TIMELY REWARD EVERY EFFORT the horse offers no matter how small.

 

To this I often get the following:

“BUT MY HORSES KNOWS WHAT I ASK, HE DID IT HUNDREDS OF TIMES BEFORE”

Do you never have a headache, a stomach-ache, mis stepped and hurt your foot?

Tell your horse it is okay if he cannot produce this today and ask again tomorrow. If the problem continues to occur, there will most probably be a physical problem. Be happy, therefore, that your horse is telling you that something is the matter, instead of trying to do it any way and making matters worse.

Help your horse to fix what ails, in stead of trying to push him beyond his physical and mental abilities.

 

That is why so many horses get injured or traumatized in the first place: Because horses that say no, out of sheer self protection, get punished and pushed to do it anyway.

 

This needs to STOP TODAY!

LISTEN TO YOUR HORSE, YOUR HORSE IS ALWAYS RIGHT!

 

As a result, your horse will learn to trust you to always have his back and will give you 200% more in return when he IS ABLE!

If you often encounter ‘unwilling horses’, read my book. I promise you, your problems will get fixed (and your horse will thank you very much).

 

I am on a crusade to help horses, I want 1 MILLION people to read my book!

 

Will you help? Share this post or email with all your horse friends!

Follow Dressage in Hand by Josepha Guillaume

 

With love and thanks,