This seems like an obvious statement, but its true.

I’ve heard it said before, but never really understood what it meant. “To be a good horseman, you have to think like a horse.” But most people think like humans.

You have to do as horses do to gain their trust and respect, and that means thinking like a horse.

Horses are prey animals. They are herbivores and in the wild they are hunted by predators. They have bilateral vision, meaning they can see out of each of their eyes separately and can see almost all the way around them. They do not have very good depth perception, and they are color blind.

They are gregarious animals, meaning they live in herds, and within these herds they have a pecking order to sort out who is the leader, who gets to eat the best food, who gets to go to the water first, and who is the alpha horse. But also within these herds they have a protection system. When they feel threatened they group in a circle protecting the young and weak in the center.

When horses are threatened they have two options: they can flight or fight. Horses always choose the first option first. When they run from a threat, they run until they feel safe and then they turn and face to reevaluate the situation. This is referred to as their flight zone. If a horse is cornered and they feel they have to fight they will use what ever their strength is, or what ever they feel they need to do to rid themselves of danger.

Horses can be very timid animals for good reason. Even a well tamed and domesticated horse will act in these ways as they are still a horse. Horses have lateral thinking, while humans think in direct lines. Humans are predators and the enemy of the horse.

So to be respected and trusted as a horses leader you need to act like a horse. That means not direct line thinking as humans would do, it means lateral thinking like horses do. You need to understand what it is that horses do to communicate with each other to best understand what you need to do to be understood by your horse.

Once you prove to your horse you aren’t going to hurt him, and he accepts that, he will put you in his pecking order and its then that you can begin to earn his respect and trust through true communication.