5 Easy Ways to Build Trust with Your Horse: Tip 2

2. Protect Your Horse:

While protecting yourself and your space, you need to protect your horse. This means protecting your horse from any human, animal, or objects that could hurt him.

This responsibility starts as soon as you enter the paddock – you need to make sure that no other horse touches your horse. Even if the other horse is trying to touch your horse gently, you should not allow it.

After all, how can your horse trust you to protect him if you can’t even prevent his own herd mates from touching him?

You are the leader of your horse, and your horse needs to see you as the leader. Sometimes I hear stories of horses protecting their humans from other horses or scary objects – this is not a healthy and positive
relationship. You should be protecting your horse because you are the leader.

If you let your horse take on the leadership role by letting your horse be the one to shoo the other horses away or shield you from a scary object, then you are sending a dangerous message to your horse – you are telling your horse that it is okay for your horse to be the leader.

This can be dangerous because then it becomes confusing who really is the leader… so when you are riding or playing the horse might have his own ideas about what to do and how to do it – and this can be dangerous…. Especially if you are cantering along and the horse decides to quickly change direction, refuse to jump, or to take off and gallop all because the horse doesn’t recognize you as a leader.

Lindsey Forkun
www.lfequestrian.com

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Comment by Lindsey Forkun on November 6, 2010 at 12:42pm: I had the opportunity to meet and chat with Stacey Westfall yesterday - I asked her about this very question that has been discussed on this post - 'should the horse ever protect you in the paddock?' and she said no. She said she agreed with me - that the human should be the dominant leader when out in the paddock and it is your job to protect yourself and your herd. I just wanted to share.

Comment by Lindsey Forkun on November 2, 2010 at 4:16pm: It is a good point to consider.

I think in terms of horse psychology and herd dynamics. It is quite evident that it is the leader's responsibility to protect the herd when you analyze horse herd behaviour.

If a horse is protecting you from other horses/scary objects- it is nice that the horse cares to protect you and considers you a member of the herd, but this does not mean that you are considered the leader of the herd.

There may be unique circumstances where your horse steps in to help... but for the most part you should be protecting your herd.... this is based on wild and domestic herd behaviour. It is the leader/dominant horse that will protect his herd.

Remember that dogs and cats are different than horses... same with humans. Horses are prey animals and have completely different instincts than cats, dogs, and humans which are all predators by nature.

What I am emphasizing in this article is to build and gain trust you need to show your horse that you are a very capable leader... through excellent leadership from keeping your horse safe it will begin to build trust. If your horse is the one protecting you from other horses then your horse will not think of you as a competent leader.

I say that horses protecting their humans is an unhealthy relationship because if this is a common occurrence it means the horse sees himself as the leader of your herd. This means the horse may have his own ideas of what to do or what not to do. In a safe relationship it is the human that will be the leader that provides the focus of what to do or not to do - while maintaining a partnership where you listen to each other... but there still needs to be a very clear leader.

Horses that are particularly skittish benefit from a leader that is very aware of their space and is able to show they can protect their horse.

You are right that it is an honour to be accepted into a herd and to have other horses that are not yours even to protect you - I would just contend that these other horses do not see you as their leader, just a herd member... which is fine if thats all you want to be.... remembering of course there are always exceptions and unique circumstances... but in general, if you want to be seen as that great leader that can keep your horse safe, then it needs to be you protecting your horse, not the other way around.

I hope that makes better sense - thank you for the discussion point!

Comment by Deborah Hopkins on November 2, 2010 at 2:24pm: Allan raises an interesting point about the herd dynamic.Is only the job of the lead horse to protect the herd, or will any horse in the herd protect another herd member? I'm guessing almost any horse will protect except maybe not the lowest ranking one(s).