By: Aprylsnow
Do you ever wonder about the stories you have read and the movies you have seen that portray this amazing bond between humans and horses and if they are real? Did the Black Stallion really bond with his young admirer to the point that the stallion saved his life when a cobra was about to bite the young boy? How about Flicka? Did the horse bond with the human and learn to trust so deeply even in grave danger and fright? Does anyone remember the series Fury? A young boy befriended a wild stallion that only he could tame and handle. When you look at your own horse do you feel that the bond goes both ways? You adore and trust your horse, but does he exhibit the same in return? Not all horses come from the same type of background, nor do people, but should this stop either from forming a deep bond and understanding beyond the spoken and trained commands?
What a huge controversial topic. There are so many factors involved in the delicate relationship between horses and humans. First, horses view humans as a predator on instinct. For thousands of years horses have been a source of meat for early human survival, so the bond is delicate. Then on top of that the language barrier can make understanding each other very difficult. This is without including the various backgrounds horse and humans have behind them. A very strong bond can be formed between horse and human with a lot of patience, understanding and lots of quality time. The portrayals in some of these horse movies and books can actually be established. The reason I say this is because I have experienced it first hand. A bond so deep that the movies cannot compare.
If you have a horse that you wish was as close to you as horses and their caretakers are in the movies then ask yourself a few questions.
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Do you spend leisure and play time with your horse?
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Do you honestly understand why horses do what they do naturally? Do you know his personality?
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Do you simply observe your horse from a distance watching every move he makes and then analyze why he did what he did?
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Do you practice gentle, but firm handling with your horse?
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Do you stay patient when things don't always go as planned?
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Do you positively reinforce good behavior?
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Are you careless when around your horse? Do you attempt to protect your horse from danger when you are together?
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Do you practice acting like your horse? This helps breakdown the language barrier and is a serious question.
You may understand how some of these points can assist with bonding, but others may seem oblivious. Some steps cannot be taken without the other first or the horse may become frightened.
When you spend time playing with your horse you become a friend and companion not just a rider. The horse sees you more as a member of the herd and if he already knows you are dominant this is not a problem nor an opportunity for the horse to try to dominate you. If you have taken time to thoroughly understand horse behavior then you can tell what play time is like. Like play time, simply spending leisure time with your horse can be very effective. Walk and graze with your horse. Move around the pasture as he does. You are immediately becoming part of the herd and with time the two of you move with each other. He moves and you do and you move and he follows. During this time you really don't want to be hanging on the horse, but instead you are just present. This is a good time to observe the horse also.
Observe your horse from a distance where you can see how he moves, his body language, the paths that he follows and if he is with other horses how he interacts with them. Close observation can tell you so much about a horse if you know what to look for. Research horse behavior and analyze the behavior you see and how you can mimic behaviors that you want to see or mimic behavior that creates a positive reaction in the horse. There is so much to learn about how a horse behaves naturally, it may seem endless. Most importantly is that you truly understand why a horse does what it does and how to make a response positive or offer security.
When you are handling a horse you want to be consistent. You do not want to be abrupt or flighty. Being flighty is going to cause your horse to react the same way and spook easily. If you are steady, calm and firm your horse will look to you as an indicator. For example in a herd environment if one horse gets spooked they all do without truly knowing the impending danger, but they know that one of the other herd members recognized danger so there must be danger. Of all the points listed this may be the hardest to instill. It takes time for the horse to trust your instincts to lead him, but when he trusts your instincts rather than trained to behave he is much less likely to panic if you are not.
Patience is truly a virtue when it comes to working with horses. If you lose your temper or show frustration even the slightest bit the horse will sense it and become nervous or react negatively. If you even think that you are becoming frustrated walk away from the situation before you do something that will frighten the horse. Horses have very good long term memory and they will remember these bad experiences. Positive reinforcement is under-rated when dealing with a 1000 lb. animal. If your horse does not understand what you are asking over and over again, think about what is going wrong and when he finally does understand or demonstrates that he is trying to understand pour on the praises. Long term memory in horses goes both ways and he will remember that he did something good and will try to please you.
Never be careless around your horse. Don't dangle ropes or walk a horse into what may appear to be a hazardous situation allowing him to get hurt. If you allow him to get hurt then he will not fully trust you to lead him safely. I am by no means saying you can always prevent injury to your horse, but you can help prevent situations that may make your horse distrustful. Some examples are not dangling a lead line when walking your horse so he can get caught up in it and trip or step on the lead and jerk his own head. If you ask your horse to cross water don't ask him to cross on very rocky or slippery surfaces if you do not absolutely have to. This is important in training and as the horse gets used to more simple situations he will then trust you to move onto more difficult scenarios without fear. When walking your horse under low hanging branches don't let the branches swing back and smack the horse. Make sure the horse is clear of the branch and let it go easy.
Act like your horse. This is my favorite and most intriguing. It may seem silly and difficult, but some actions are quite simple to do and your horse takes notice. After closely observing what your horse does you can imitate it and communicate in a way that he clearly understands. This is a more advanced level after you have practiced the other points listed. What can you do like a horse you may ask? Horses have a very wide range of expressions and when you imitate they understand, but practice makes perfect so practice your actions on your own before doing them with your horse. Sometimes you will see your horse relaxing and stretch a hind leg out behind him for a moment. Being relaxed enough to stand around and stretch promotes the feeling of relaxation. So practice calmly and quietly standing and stretch one of your legs out behind you. It does not need to be far off the ground, but it does need to feel relaxing to you and the horse will see and sense this and feel at ease because he knows you are at ease. Shaking your head like a horse shakes his head after he gets up from rolling is another relaxed action, but you must observe closely so that your horse does not misinterpret any of the actions you display for him. Horses will often rub against one another for grooming and if you don't mind getting really close with your horse it is fun and you will start to feel like a horse. Calmly approach your horse and sidle up to his neck facing the same direction as your horse and gently rub your head and shoulder against his neck and shoulder almost in a cuddly kind of way. Snorting is a good one also. Learn to snort and blow like your horse. You can also combine actions such as shaking your head like a horse that just got up and snort or blow just as a horse would when he is simply blowing dust from his nose. Some noises you cannot make the same by doing it exactly the same way he does, so you may have to compromise. When using audible sounds it is much more important that the appropriate sound is created rather than what you had to do to create it.
Audible imitation is by far the most exciting to me. It can be very difficult to imitate and whinnies carry so many different meanings that you really need to be cautious about what you are communicating. A nicker is a little easier to establish and is well known for gentle happy exchanges. Since explaining how to whinny is virtually impossible in writing I will simply try to explain where the noise comes from when you do it. The nicker comes from the lower back of your throat and your nasal cavity on the roof of your mouth, that is where you will feel the the sound (vibrations) coming from. The whinny is deep in the back of your throat and can be straining so don't over do it practicing. My preferred whinny is simply the call to ask “where are you?”. Whinny from a long distance within reason or out of your horse's sight. When your horse answers you will know he understood your call. Nuzzling is another. The list is endless, but ALWAYS be careful when attempting to imitate so you do not create a negative reaction and cause the horse to become aggressive. Audible imitation is a fairly long process to learn and takes a lot of patience and listening on your part.
Now you ask why is all this playing, handling and communication so important? Many reasons. You will learn to understand your horse like you never have before and he will learn to trust you and see you not so much as a predator, but one of his kind in a positive manner. When you develop such a strong bond your horse and human relationship will improve greatly. In order to provide a better understanding of why this bonding is so important I will tell you one of my experiences even though it may sound a bit tall.
Many years ago as a 12 year old my father purchased a 7 month old stud colt for my graduation from pony to horse. I spent endless hours, days and weeks with the youngster. We ran together in the fields, we shook our heads and whinnied to each other. We formed such a strong bond that I could not tell where he ended and I began. As time went on I noticed little things that told me we had a very deep bond from seeing my actions and observing his reactions. In early spring of his 4th year he and my older mare escaped the pasture and trailed over to an old leased out pasture. I thought a few minutes of grazing there would be fine but it turned into near tragedy.
I was working on the other side of the barn and the horses were out of sight about an eighth of a mile away when I felt a wave of fear for the horses overwhelm me. Immediately I ran around the barn toward where I could see the horses and when I got to the edge of the yard I could see my 4 year old horse trotting up through the field straight toward me. Then horror struck. As he trotted I could seeing blood spurting out of the front of his hock. The blood spurted so far it passed his front leg when it extended forward. I was horrified. The first thoughts that ran through my head were he is likely frightened and therefore may be hard to catch and then I would have to halter and tie him before I could attempt to stop the bleeding and he would die, but what happened in reality was so far from what I was thinking. He came straight to me and stopped. In my panic I screamed to my mother who was in the house. She came out and saw what was happening and ran to get cloth for me to use as a tourniquet. She threw the cloth to me from the front porch and I immediately began to tourniquet my horse's leg while she called our veterinarian. Pressure and release, pressure and release. All the while my horse never moved a muscle except to put his injured leg in the resting position. Completely halter-less he just stood there.
In the meantime, my mother called the vet, but he was on another emergency and it would be at least an hour before he would get here. At that moment I thought the veterinarian would never arrive in time, because every time I released the tourniquet blood soaked the cloth or squirted out and I had no idea how long he had been bleeding. Finally, I heard the vet driving in the road. The veterinarian sedated my horse, cleaned the wound and clamped the severed artery. Then he began stitching. It took several internal stitches to put the artery back together and 18 stitches just to close the torn skin. The veterinarian said my horse had lost a great deal of blood, but not enough to need a transfusion or cause any damage from a lack of blood supply. He was going to be alright. I remember very clearly leading my horse to the barn to put him in a stall, but the rest of that day is completely blank. I think the shock of it all once it was over made me lose some of my memory, because I remember the incident like it was yesterday and I remember all the days of healing afterwards. However, I don't remember my blood soaked clothes and hands and I don't remember how cold it really was that March day, but I know from being told it was very cold. I only see the flashbacks of me trying to save the love of my life and to be quite frank, I am in tears remembering it now and that was almost 30 years ago.
To this day the only explanation I can find to explain how it all played out so smoothly is because my horse trusted me fully and some how knew to come find me when he got hurt. As for me recognizing the incident from such a long distance and out of sight comes from the close bond he and I shared where the beginning of him and the end of me blended into one. I don't just ride a horse, I become part of my horse. I don't know any other way to be around horses. Not all bonds are the same and deep bonding takes a lot of time and may never reach its full extent.
Emergencies are a very good reason to form a solid bond with your horse. It saved my horse's life and could save yours too. A solid bond does not only help your horse, but it can help you too. Horses are capable of many wonderful expressions of loyalty, trust and friendship and believe it or not horses can save the lives of their owners.
