Hello, and welcome to my natural humanship blog. Do you love your human? Do you find that the prevailing methods of training just don’t sit well with you? Then you’ve come to the right place. In this blog I will tell you about the latest behavioural studies and how you can use this information to build a better relationship with your human.
OK then, let’s get started!
One of the most important things to understand when training a human is what they truly want. Many horses assume that humans want the same things we want, e.g. the safety of a herd and good grazing. This would certainly make sense – after all, it applies to almost every mammal on this planet in some form or another, but there we encounter our first misconception.
Never assume that humans make any kind of sense!
Now, many horses who work with humans will tell you that this is a sign of their inherent stupidity, but I beg to differ. Humans are possibly almost as intelligent as we are (as hard as that may be to believe.) No, I am of the opinion that humans simply have a different way of thinking. Yes, they can be highly irrational, but with the right approach they can be trained to behave in a sensible manner. Which brings us back to the previous question: what do humans want most of all, if not safety and food? The answer is simple:
More than anything else, humans want to sit on things!
At first this may seem exceedingly bizarre, but please take a minute to think about it. Just how hard must it be for them, balancing their entire bodyweight on their hind legs all the time? And yet not only do we expect them to do this, but we also make them carry bales of hay and (hopefully heavy) feed bowls for us. Be honest now: did you take your humans’ ability to do these things with ease for granted? Did you ever get cross if your dinner didn’t arrive as speedily as you wanted? Did you ever step on your humans’ foot to make it see the advantages of moving more quickly?
If you did, don’t be too downhearted. Humans forget these things very quickly if you treat them right. Over the coming months I aim to show you how you can use your humans’ need to sit on things to build a better relationship. For this week I would like you to watch your human closely: When does it sit down? When does it get up and walk, or even run? Observe and try to think of reasons why your human might have chosen its current action. Believe me, it will make sense later on!