Honesty

'Honesty'

Black Pearl Horses blog #1

I’ve been catching myself lately referring to a horse’s progress as a level of honesty so I thought this was a good subject to explore with you all as my first step into the realm of blogging.

I get a lot of special cases coming through the gate, some explosively aggressive or nervous and others completely shut down and unresponsive while the methods I use for each horse can vary wildly there is one big landmark moment I look for to mark my success with each and everyone.

That is the moment the horse chooses to volunteer their emotional state to me and by that I mean they choose to tell me something is bothering them rather then feeling they have to handle the burden on their own. This doesn’t mean everything is sunshine and buttercups sometimes when a horse is being honest for the first time it can mean a shut down horse exploding or a nervous horse stopping and freezing up but no one ever said honesty can’t hurt.

The magic comes when the horse offers you this first sliver of honesty and realises for possibly the first time you’re not going to ignore them or become outraged instead you reply with an even temper and open heart. Gradually this loud, fearful honesty turns to open, sometimes imperfect, communication and from there into trust and the bond we all dream of.

This train of thought leads me to a conclusion I often press to my students. Respond to your horses! Horses are very open talkative creatures. They don’t want to own you or control you they just want to know what the hell you want from them! I have found even the most layman horseperson can feel when their horse is trying to tell them something, they may not know what but they can feel the intention. Too often we’re taught to ignore or shrug off this feeling. I find this does a great disservice to riders and horses, you may not know what your horse is asking but by reponding you can help the horse to understand what you expect.