n example of a dynamic situation possible when horsemanship is being A used to communicate with a horse in a social context. www.EliteEquestrian.us 49 tween human and horses, the performance that results can look human and behavior will be in sync, or one executes flawlessly the other’s request. An individual’s voluntary behavior is consciously operated and controlled by the individual it belongs to, and certainly involves making choices. The main mechanisms that make an individual’s behavior dynamic are these choices. The choice of the way we express our “self “ through behavior in horsemanship will influence the way horses will perceive us and will behave in return, creating a social sphere of life between a human and a horse. Some parts of behavior, like the ones exhibited under the influence of fear, escape the conscious choice of an individual, and are just the way nature provides for the survival of the individual. Thinking about influencing an individual’s unconscious behavior can be a very frustrating quest. In my opinion instincts are not like unconscious reactions, and their display should not be feared. I would rather put them in the realm of the natural behavior of horses. In fact, when displaying an instinctual action the horse behavior is not out of its control. An example of what I am talking about is when a mare keeps other horses away from her newborn foal. The mare is acting instinctually, but there is nothing unconscious about her action; in order to be effective, she needs to be very focused and controlled. Another example of an instinctual action is when a horse escapes from a predator that approaches him. The horse has to watch the direction from which the predator comes, and at the same time has to move to safety. This way of escaping is very different from when a horse escapes away from something that surprised him, scared him, or caused him pain. I experienced this last kind of behavior in my professional life, first when I rode in flat racing, and also when I restrained racehorses that were trained to get out of the starting gates by the way of fear and pain. As a consequence of such experience of being whipped during races, they also feared anything present in the area above them, and would bolt away even if a rider just opened its arms, which could look like an act of using the whip. One more example of how horses are aware of moving entities in the surrounding space came from working in a confined rectangular area, where the horse was moving at fast speed around the perimeter, while I was in the central space. I have seen people cutting the path, to stop horses while working like that, or in a round-penn. Attempting to cut the horse’s path, while the horse has no escape, is acting like a predator would. I tried to see what happens if, instead, I move away from the horse, and had the same result. I think that they saw my movement still aimed at cutting their path, but just on the opposite side, so they stopped to get away from me, avoiding to cross my path further down the perimeter. This action is definitely a controlled action, and actually implies some form of reasoning, which many people do not think horses are capable of doing! I am asking the horse to touch the ball using “body language”. The stallion executes what he understood. I asked for him to move away and while moving away he also reacts to my request. I approach the stallion to establish again a situation of trust, where the only meaning of trust is that the horse let me approach him.
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