Does Your Horse Trust You With Their Body

Does your horse trust you enough with their body?

What we ask of our horses physically, be this from a ground handling or ridden perspective, is a world away from what they would naturally do and quite often what they are not functionally prepared for.

Yet, for many individuals the access to the horses body feels like it is a right.

For some there is an expectation that the horse should be somewhere between compliment and submissive, taking out of the equation any form of consent, or consent to varying degree; in a humans comparative context, this could take a darker and unsavoury tone.

The horses body does not come with a right.

The horses body comes with a responsibility.

That responsibility requires us to understand the implications of working with the horses body, to enhance and influence, with the emotional availability and physical readiness that the horse needs.

Mind and body do not exist outside of eachother.

During the past few months I have seen a high number of horses of varying backgrounds to aid with their hoof-handling, providing much thought to this conversation about the agency and safety a horse requires to truly allow a handler or professional in.

A horse can present and offer, or a horse can comply; the two are distinctly different.

A common observation of mine has been not so much about ‘what or why’ the foot is handled but by ‘who and how’.

This can be applied to all contexts working with the body.

The horse seeks safety, and I can think of no greater threat to the horse than their body being mis-handled, contorted and forced to bend to a humans will, having all agency removed and placed in a position most vulnerable.

Sure, there is much we as owners and professional can do to ensure equines are calm, confident and comfortable, from tactile work to enhancing balance, but the hands that reach must match intention of the person behind them, or all else will faulter.

The horse reads energy and intention before a hand will ever made contact.

Working with the body is a conversation of constant feedback, and to do so effectively, the body must be able to say yes.

In Buddhist teaching the human body is seen as sacred, as the temple, and whether it is ours or theirs, we have a duty to honour the body in the way that it needs.