Me: I’m going to look at horse forums, I bet the drama there is so funny
Me after 4 hours of horse forums: Damn….those people really love and care about their horses…
See, I think horse people are Like That because you can’t do anything with a horse without entering into The Mind of the Horse. Like yeah, to ride a horse you need an intimate understanding of how its body moves and how your body is in contact with it and everything it is seeing and hearing and feeling in its own body and how your body responding to the horse’s movement and reactions creates feedbacks upon the horse’s response—which in itself is borderline spiritually merging yourself with the horse consciousness —but you can’t even clean a horse’s feet or lead it into a pasture without some power to understand What It Is Like To Be A Horse, because a horse is a Giant Beast with strong instincts that can drive it to kill or maim in a heartbeat, and it’s the horse’s trust and confidence in you and by extension your trust and confidence in the horse that keeps you both safe.
So being a horse person seems to be 90% stuff like standing in the stall trying to telepathically Enter The Consciousness of the Horse to try to unlock why the horse is fucking scared shitless of mops
and subsequently to Understand the Deep Psychological Foundation of Horse Self-Confidence so as to create a Scenario where the horse can encounter a mop and feel empowered and strong rather than Murderously Terrified
@osedaxworm yeah i think the “why” comes into play when they’re trying to figure out what the common thread is in the set of related things that make the horse freak out
A lot of the people I was reading about had horses that came from previous owners and it seems like a long string of bad training practices in the past can leave the owner of a rescued horse with a LOT of work
The most wild thing about horse training to me is that the horses start to try and do it back if you telepathically Enter The Consciousness of the Horse correctly.
I acquired an abused and neglected horse a few months ago. She spent the earlier days of our interactions trying to bite me, kick me, run me over, and buck me off through any means necessary. I empathized with her. I was very gentle with her and showed her that I didn’t plan on bringing her any additional harm. She started letting me introduce her to people, and she even started letting the vets I brought in help her instead of trying to fight them.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked her to jump over a scary obstacle for the first time. She was really uncertain and kept checking in to make sure I thought it was fine, and when she realized that I was sure, she did the horse equivalent of saying, “well, okay, we can give it a shot since it seems like you really want to”. Lately when she’s unsure if something is okay, or when she doesn’t want to do something, she’s taken to simply stopping instead of bucking. I think she’s trying to take care of me. We still need to get through the stopping problem, but I’m beyond grateful to her for trying to keep me safe even when she’s feeling strong emotions.
The past few days, she’s spent a lot of time licking me from head to toe. Not even just my skin, but my clothes, too. This wouldn’t be super significant, except that I have a dissociative disorder, and I’ve been in and out for the past few days. It seems like she’s trying to keep me here.
If you try to understand the horses, they try to understand you. They’re truly unlike any other kind of animal I’ve worked with in how deeply they try to understand their people.
*gently holds this post* hornse…
Horses are deeply perceptive animals and to some degree understand human emotion and empathize with it. They do start to see you as their herd mate, their friend, their protector, and in return they will protect you in their own way.
I can sit outside on the ground in my field with my horses, and if I’m feeling happy and relaxed, they think, “Oh, our human is resting here. We will stand vigil.” And one will position themself over me. Others will stand watch. And the great thing is, if you take up the position of standing vigil among horses that trust you, they’ll say, “My human is here watching over me. I can rest now too.” And having a horse trust you enough to lie prone on the ground and sleep is a wonderful feeling.
Alternatively, they pick up when things are wrong too. If I am scared, you can believe they will be wary, which is why it’s so unbelievably important to work through fear rather than expressing it uncontrolled when you’re around a horse. They will respond how you do. They also can tell if I’m upset. Going back to the situation where I go out and sit in the field. I’ve done that a couple times while deeply upset. The horses that aren’t mine, that I don’t share as close of a bond with, are a little unnerved by it. They investigate, but ultimately are more worried. However, the horses that I do have a bond with have seen me and thought, “There’s something wrong with my human. They’re upset about something. I might be able to help.” Now, their version of helping is standing over me, chewing on my hair, pulling on my shoelaces, and chasing off other horses who try to investigate, but those are behaviors that tie back into me being part of their herd. Grooming, play, and protection. And again, getting a bond like that isn’t easy, but it is so worth it.
They’ll also try to eat your hair if they like you. That’s not relevant to this discussion it’s just really annoying.
It’s true. All of it.
I have had horses in my life for probably longer than a lot of people in this space have been on earth (I’m an elderly millennial). I also worked as a professional in the horse industry, with great hopes of being a US team rider, for over half my adult life. I gave up on that because not only did I realize that meeting that goal meant needing way more luck and money than I had (hard work literally means shit in elite sports, most of the time), but also because it dawned on me that I could not reach the level of success I thought I wanted and maintain the type of relationships I had developed with the horses I trained, rode, and cared for.
But all of the above? All of it is true. Horses are wildly empathetic. Extremely good judges of character (my first horse HATED my high school boyfriend. I should have listened way sooner). And they are so generous and enthusiastic to do things with you when you approach it with them the right way.
My horse I have now has been with me for almost 14 years. I bought him with hopes of him being my first real big time horse. He was (and still is) immensely talented and athletic. He is also extremely “vocal” with his opinions. He was infamous in his younger days, both from a blog I kept of our adventures and from stories I shared on a popular horse forum. He was (and still absolutely can be) a punk.
I always did my due diligence. I made sure the punk behavior wasn’t because he hurt or was confused or didn’t like what we were doing. I learned, pretty quickly that, no, he was happy, healthy, and loved his job. He just had to make his voice heard. And I gave him the freedom (within reason….kicking me was a bit too much) to express himself.
A few years into our life together I was hitting maximum burn out. I hated my job in the industry, I loved the sport but hated the professional game, and I needed something to change. One day, I was having a terrible day. A TERRIBLE day. I was supposed to be competing the next day, but when I swung my leg over his back for our usual pre-competition tune up, I didn’t have the bandwidth to do it. I was fried. Emotionally and mentally drained.
And he knew it. He gently carried me away from the barn, out of ear shot of clients and staff, and then I burst into tears, full body sobs. His ears swiveled around, his body softened, and he took over, taking us out into the fields and woods surrounding the farm. For 45 minutes, he carried me gently through the countryside he and I both loved. My sobs gradually quieted and my tears dried, and I slowly calmed down. And he took care of me the whole time. My little punk of a horse, who regularly spooked at butterflies and suspicious blades of grass, was gentle and kind to me. I think, in large part, because I’d always tried to be gentle and kind with him, giving him room to express his own emotions.
Our lives changed dramatically in the days following, but he has remained that same empathetic soul, who always seems to know when I need a chuckle, when I need 10 more seconds of his head pressed to my chest, when I need just one more whiff of his horsey smell. He always knows.
I love animals and I have been blessed to have a life full of them. I have had a heart dog, and my heart cat will probably be climbing into bed with me soon. But as dearly loved as these animals are to me, the horses are the ones that truly astound me with their intelligence and empathy.
