Your mental approach and attitude towards it is what's going to determine the extent of rapport you establish with your pony. He can't reach out to you on a mental plane, all reaching out has to come from you.
You need to operate on the fundamental concept that you must gain the horse's trust and confidence in you, but at the same time assert your control also. The pony must understand that in a functioning relationship between equals, you're the more equal. Once you have achieved that standing from your horse's viewpoint, your horse will turn to you when he requires help of any sort.
To achieve all this, you begin by attempting to understand as much of equine psychology as your are able to. Unless you understand what you are handling and the best way to handle it, you are not going to get far. Putting it simply, you need to know how to communicate with your pony. As your activities bear fruit, you'll become more knowing and accordingly more confident. And as your confidence grows, your horse's instinctive wariness around you'll fade. You pass the test and move from being an unknown and probably unpleasant entity to a known and trustworthy one.
A pony is herd orientated, and when you use that characteristic to build up your relationship with your pony with confidence and consistency, you will find that your horse starts to reciprocate these emotions. Horses have to be led, and your horse will enthusiastically accept your leader's role if you can convince him that you are going to take care of his needs and his security. Once he has accepted you, your horse will try and please you; he has now become part of your herd. A patient but relentless approach will help you build a really strong foundation for your relationship with your horse. A robust foundation makes for lifetime rapport. As with a herd of horses, your horse will stick to his place after you show it to him, he's going to pull his very own weight when required, and he'll do everything that you ask of him, within reason.
Introducing a new pony into an old herd or introducing a new homo sapien to an old horse involves the same process of understanding. It involves some maneuvering for position and some gentle jostling. It involves a bit of give and take involving new roles, new responsibilities. Once the new relationship is established to the satisfaction of all parties involved, life goes on. The new relationship may take a little time to solidify, but that's natural and there should be no impatience. A pony has a robust sense of social structure, and it is going to be very difficult to adapt to him, and far more crucial, to make him adjust to you, unless that social structure is respected and stuck to. Once again, the key is patience: any attempt to push a pony into a situation is going to finish up in defiance; what you want isn't defiance but acceptance.
Homo sapiens can reason, horses can't and so it is up to the human to reach out with the necessary initiatives.
You need to operate on the fundamental concept that you must gain the horse's trust and confidence in you, but at the same time assert your control also. The pony must understand that in a functioning relationship between equals, you're the more equal. Once you have achieved that standing from your horse's viewpoint, your horse will turn to you when he requires help of any sort.
To achieve all this, you begin by attempting to understand as much of equine psychology as your are able to. Unless you understand what you are handling and the best way to handle it, you are not going to get far. Putting it simply, you need to know how to communicate with your pony. As your activities bear fruit, you'll become more knowing and accordingly more confident. And as your confidence grows, your horse's instinctive wariness around you'll fade. You pass the test and move from being an unknown and probably unpleasant entity to a known and trustworthy one.
A pony is herd orientated, and when you use that characteristic to build up your relationship with your pony with confidence and consistency, you will find that your horse starts to reciprocate these emotions. Horses have to be led, and your horse will enthusiastically accept your leader's role if you can convince him that you are going to take care of his needs and his security. Once he has accepted you, your horse will try and please you; he has now become part of your herd. A patient but relentless approach will help you build a really strong foundation for your relationship with your horse. A robust foundation makes for lifetime rapport. As with a herd of horses, your horse will stick to his place after you show it to him, he's going to pull his very own weight when required, and he'll do everything that you ask of him, within reason.
Introducing a new pony into an old herd or introducing a new homo sapien to an old horse involves the same process of understanding. It involves some maneuvering for position and some gentle jostling. It involves a bit of give and take involving new roles, new responsibilities. Once the new relationship is established to the satisfaction of all parties involved, life goes on. The new relationship may take a little time to solidify, but that's natural and there should be no impatience. A pony has a robust sense of social structure, and it is going to be very difficult to adapt to him, and far more crucial, to make him adjust to you, unless that social structure is respected and stuck to. Once again, the key is patience: any attempt to push a pony into a situation is going to finish up in defiance; what you want isn't defiance but acceptance.
Homo sapiens can reason, horses can't and so it is up to the human to reach out with the necessary initiatives.
About the Author:
Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her
extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about farrier tools
extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about farrier tools
No comments:
Post a Comment