One of the reasons that people love horses so much is due to how alike they are to us. They’re intelligent, thoughtful, and have their own pleasures and fears. When getting a new horse, it’s not uncommon for the animal to be difficult to get along with at first, often because it has its own set of fears and anxieties.
The mark of a good horse trainer, on top of being able to train their animals, is also knowing how effectively form a bond, one that focuses on trust. Here we will look at various methods of creating trust between a trainer and a horse.
1. Grooming
Grooming is essential to ensuring that a horse is clean and healthy. Along with this, it can also provide a great means of passively bonding with the animal. By cleaning it and making sure it’s free of any parasites and insects, the horse will slowly begin to equate the practise and the trainer with feeling safe and looked after.
It’s even common among horses, where they will often nibble on one another in an exercise that’s known as allogrooming. It doesn’t take long for the horse to start looking forward to the time spend grooming, and it’s a great way of quickly building up a relationship of trust.
2. Treats
Much like dogs – or even people – horses are great lovers of treats. It may take some time to learn exactly what kind of treat a horse loves the most, but once a trainer knows, they can use this to their advantage, giving the horse treats every now and again.
Once again, the horse will start to realise that their trainer is a way of attaining their favourite treats and will begin trusting them over time. It’s important to keep in mind that the horse should not receive treats too often, especially if they are not that healthy; but every now and again is perfectly fine.
3. Patience
A strong bond cannot be formed in an instant; it’s something that takes time, sometimes even months. The horse needs to create its own from of trust over a period of time, and if the trainer attempts to rush the process, they might end with an animal that’s anything but trusting, making it much more difficult to create bonds in the long-term.
This can mean giving the animal time and space and enjoying online casino Kenya games in the interim, especially in the beginning, but it’s a sure sign that progress is being made when it comes to the trainer on its own accord rather than being forced.
4. Avoid Physical Force
There’s almost no reason to ever use physical horse in order to discipline a horse. It can be tempting, especially when it’s behaving badly, but much like dogs, horses respond better to positive reinforcement rather than being physically hurt.
Negative reinforcement only teaches them how to behave in certain situations, rather than dealing with the behavioural problems that may be the source of the issues.