Giving Good Ears and Both Eyes:

Getting the best expression from your horse

Please see this link to view the video for this: https://www.facebook.com/NaturalHorseNZ/videos/273928045017068/

Have you ever noticed that it's always about the little things, that can add up to being big problems if left unchecked with horses?

So, let’s talk about your horse or pony’s expression towards you….as this is probably one of the most important little things that can quickly build up to be a big deal and the wrecker of relationships.

So much so, that one of my favourite sayings when I’m working with people with their problematic horses is that MUTINY STARTS WITH EXPRESSION.

How the horse looks at the owner, especially on the approach, so often goes unchecked and even unnoticed.

However, it’s such a critical component of the relationship between horses and humans as it sets the tone for everything else.

Unfortunately, I hear all the time that the horse did this unwanted behaviour, seemingly out of nowhere, which is very rare indeed, because in the vast majority of cases when we backtrack to investigate the reasons for unwanted and undesirable behaviour in equines, we see that the horse started this behaviour by how he was looking at the owner and how the owner was allowing that to happen and not reprimanding the horse for their negative expression.

Now, just to be very clear please to everybody, at no time do I ever advocate the use of punishment in any way, shape, or form towards horses as there should not ever be any verbal scolding, smacking or hitting at any time, as all that will do is leave for a very confused and scared horse, which can lead to aggression.

Therefore, please DO NOT DO THAT with horses, as it really doesn’t work.

The way to reprimand a horse in a language they understand, and how I would deal with it if a horse showed me some grumpy backwards ears or only gave me 1 eye is that I would either back them up until I got 2 good ears and eyes, to then release my energy off of them or ask them to move their feet or shoo the horse away by using either my energy, body language or perhaps the energy created by a rope or a carrot stick, been twirled around in the air to get the horse to move away from me, which is often an enough to change your horse's expression for the better as that says to the horse that the negative behaviour will not be tolerated.

I hope this helps you to check the little things, like two good eyes and ears, to help you get a better relationship with your equine friend.