Six weeks in…

Six weeks. In the world of rescue, this is about the amount of time that everything is wonderful between the beginner-safe, sweet, easygoing horse that’s been adopted and the family that’s brand-new to owning horses who promised to continue taking lessons with their trainer but quit shortly after bringing their new horse home, because now they have a horse and are just going to learn by being with him.

Eight weeks. The same lovely horse suddenly has developed a brand-new problem. Can’t be caught when owner only has an hour to squeeze a ride into their schedule. Horse spooks at the same rock he’s been past over the past 45 days. Starts pushing and shoving his way past new owner to get into his stall. Pins his ears when he’s girthed up. New owner doesn’t know why, but starts to formulate a story of how they were misled about the horse.

Eleven weeks. The email: “Please come and get him, he’s doing xyz and we were told he’s a beginner horse but he’s not.”

Here’s the thing, though. Horses are not robots or bicycles. They are not for the lazy or the casual. Working with and around a horse means working with a sensitive, constantly thinking prey animal that outweighs us several times over. Think about interaction with a child:  you are constantly teaching a child through positive or negative experiences. A horse is really no different. It will take a few weeks for him to settle into a new place, and settle in with new herd-mates if there are any. Think about the “rule of 3s” in the dog world, and apply it to a horse’s perspective.

With each interaction, you are training your horse. When you allow ‘bad’ behavior the first time, the horse learns it’s ok. This could be as simple as swinging hindquarters to you when you enter the pasture to catch him. It could be walking quickly on a lead toward the barn, and rather than bump him back and slow him down to your pace, you hustle to keep up with his. It could be that you consistently catch your new horse only when you ride, teaching him that catching = work, and who wants that outcome, so of course it’s taking longer and longer to get him caught before each ride.

Like a child, a horse will constantly test boundaries, experimenting to see what’s allowed, read your body language for cues, and learn. Horses are herd animals that live within a hierarchy; in the wild, this is how they survive. Horses communicate through hoof and tooth, true – but also through subtle movements of ear, body, and tail. When a handler ignores, or doesn’t understand, the horse’s subtle language, small and very fixable ‘tests’ of hierarchy or discomfort become large and sometimes dangerous problems – and that’s not the horse’s fault, it’s the fault of the person who didn’t know how (or take the time to learn) to listen. Likewise, when a handler expects a horse to fear something – maybe you’ve heard the jokes about horses and puddles, so you ‘tiptoe’ around your horse, expecting him to be afraid to walk through a puddle - sooner or later, you teach him to fear something he wasn’t the least bit worried about to begin with!

Absolutely any horse can become dangerous in the hands of someone who doesn’t take the time to learn. Truly beginner safe horses are difficult to find because they take years and years to make – but, they can be unmade within a period of time when we aren’t willing to invest in ourselves to become better horsemen and women.

Owning a horse is a lifelong commitment. Horses can live thirty years or more. The best horsemen spend their whole lives learning how to be better.