Conscious Connections
For me, training horses is more than just teaching them how to respond to you; it’s a collaboration between the horse’s natural instincts and the human’s desire for control.
Submission ≠ Control.
Traditional methods of training horses require the horses to push themselves through their natural fear response until they’ve reached a state of complete dissociation. This learned helplessness doesn’t mean the horse is actually listening to us, it means they have succumbed to their fear response to the point of disconnecting from themselves - and from us.
So, how do we approach training differently?
Natural Horsemanship is the umbrella term that trainers have been using to describe a more holistic, collaborative, and integrative approach to equine training that puts an emphasis on the horse’s experience and willingness to participate in the experience. We take into account all of the environmental, physical, and mental factors of the horse that is showing up in the session and adapt our expectations and methods accordingly. This means that we, the trainers, must learn how to regulate our own emotions, expectations, and desires so that we are never forcing the horse to do something but rather encouraging them to want to work with us.
When you choose to work with me on training your horse, I prioritize the relationship between you and your horse above all else. You will be equally involved in the process, rather than leaving me to train your horse and then hand over the reins without any communication about why and how I’ve been working with them.