To make a long story short, I did get him loaded but his contentment to stand in the hot sun rather than get on that trailer gave me some food for thought....
How many times have I heard people talk about how stubborn their horse can be when they are in a hurry? Suffice to say, I've heard that often, and why would that be?
Horses are certainly intuitive enough to know that we want them to hurry up. And I can see why humans would see resistance to that idea as being "stubborn". But is it really?
From the horse's point of view, they "hurry up" if it's not safe to stay where they are. Being flight animals, that's the best reason for moving fast. The second best reason may be play time, but when we're talking loading in a trailer or crossing a creek on a trail ride, play is not part of this conversation.
Seems to me that they horse is justified in thinking if the message we project is "hurry up" then the message they get is "something is amiss, it's not safe!". The question left for the horse to answer is: "What is not safe and how do I get to safety?"
"OH!" Thinks the horse, "You want me to walk inside that little box, but you told me it's not safe!" OR, "You want me to cross that creek, but you TOLD me it's not safe!"
Logically, I think if the horse trusted the human, at that moment, it would just do as asked. And maybe it would, but life isn't all black and white, there are shades of grey.
Even if the horse trusts the human in most cases, once we have tapped into that part of the horse brain that says "it's not safe", then we're fighting a battle we can't win because WE are telling the horse it's not safe. WE are offering the contradiction to them, and they have to figure out what to do about it, because we are sending mixed messages.
The contradiction is:
- The horse trusts me to give him good guidance and take care of him
- I'm telling him it's not safe because I'm telling him to hurry
- Where is safe? It's at home, but you want me to leave home?
- I'm getting upset, I increase the pressure and now he KNOWS it's not safe, I've just confirmed his resolve to put safety as his top priority.
So, in fact, by not loading or crossing the bridge, creek, or ravine, the horse IS following our lead. The problem is, what we projected to him isn't what we meant to project, and the message we gave isn't the directive we THINK he should be following.
Clear communication is the biggest conundrum in our relationship with animals. Did they understand the message we thought we projected? Or are they acting on the message we actually sent? (-;
