What does Natural Horsemanship mean to me?
For me Natural Horsemanship is all about the relationship and connection which you have with your horse, together as a partnership thinking along the lines of how the horse naturally comes to think. Horses are a herd animal and think as a unit or a “WE” where as humans think more along the lines of “I”. The horse understands us better when we think and act as a partnership. I work on building relationships between horses and human. By looking at Confidence, Communication and Leadership you can connect with and build a deeper relationship and understanding with horses.
- Confidence
I can help you gain more confidence in and around your horse. The more confident we are in ourselves and what we are capable of the more trust your horse will give to you. Horses read what is on the inside and can’t be fooled. If you feel anxious or fearful the horse knows this and will feel less confident in you and what you are asking. A horse always wants to feel safe and if he doesn’t feel safe with you he will look to himself or others around him to make him safe. - Communication
What are we actually communicating to our horse? On many occasions I hear people say “Why won’t he do what I want?” or “why did he do that?”. Most of the time the horse is doing exactly what we have asked for, we just haven’t realised that we haven’t been asking for what we actually wanted. We also need to look at what is the horse communicating to us and why. Horses communicate with us all the time and much of the smaller signs go unnoticed. - Leadership
Horses are family animals who live in herds. Within the hierarchy horses fall into three categories, Lead, Dominant and Passive. Horses look to the Leader for safety and direction. If we can behave like a Lead horse our horses feel safe and are more likely to want to spend time with us and play.
By putting all these elements together and relating them in a way the horse understands we can connect with them and build the relationship. The horse is very sensitive and can read what we are thinking and how we are feeling. By understanding and looking at our thoughts, the energy we carry in our bodies and the body movements we make, we can go even deeper into a relationship with them. Once connected and both happy around each other we can then ask things from the horse we may only have dreamed possible.