How Stupid Do You Think Horses Are?
This article challenges us to trust our horses' innate intelligence. It questions the common training mindset of 'making' a horse do something, exploring why our interference often creates problems. Discover why the best approach is often to do the minimum necessary and then get out of their way, allowing the horse to be the true teacher.
The Kjrsos Experience ~ Is trusting the horse to be the teacher.
Article Summary
This article challenges our fundamental assumptions about equine intelligence and our role as trainers. It asks a powerful question: Do we trust our horses to know their own bodies? We explore the idea that horses are perfectly capable of rebalancing themselves and that our constant interference often creates the very problems we're trying to solve.
Discover why the most effective training philosophy is often to do the minimum necessary and then get out of the way. The full text is a call to shift our perspective from being a director to being a facilitator, allowing the horse to become the teacher and unlocking a more harmonious partnership.
Read More From the Article...
What is wrong with getting on a horse and saying go without giving detailed instructions? Or do we really think the horse knows nothing about his own body and how to move it.
I am not sure what I am feeling. Am I sad, mad, frustrated, exasperated or disappointed? In Us.
Thinking we are so brilliant and they are so stupid.
Watching a video on long and low doing some extra research on what happens to the muscles in the neck and I'm, I'm... I don't know what I am. But I am struck with how this rider believes that her horses knows absolutely nothing!!!
And to be honest, that makes me angry.
The trainer doesn't spend a single second asking herself what she might learn from the horses that she is with.
Instead, she has a program in mind and the horses, one after the other, are to comply, with absolutely no access to saying, "You know, maybe... just maybe, we should be doing something differently. It sure would make things easier for me."
The rider is nice enough. She uses lots of treats. Believes in reward-based training. She is very patient. Admitting this isn't necessarily easy for the horses.
Can I take a moment to point out that the horses have been walking, trotting, cantering for their entire lives, so I think they know what to do. "But... but," you might be saying, "Not with a human on their back."
That is absolutely true.
But let me ask you a few questions.
How good do you think the horse is at rebalancing?
Take a moment before you continue... before you ask and answer this first question. Taking time to consider the implications of any thoughts that come to mind.
A gopher hole. An unexpected rock. A cougar roars. Another stallion lashes out with both hind legs. Survival depends not only on being fast but to be quick to rebalance as necessary to stay alive.
Don't you think they are smart enough to rebalance themselves as necessary after we climb onboard?
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To our horses, to each other, to the earth and to all living things.
The Kjrsos Experience ~ Is trusting the horse to be the teacher.