So, I’ve been teaching a friend how to be safe around horses lately, and I just saw a post on here about being amazed by animals feeling safe enough to sleep near you… I’ve been training practicing natural horsemanship for over a decade, and it made me want to make a list of a few basic things some people might not know or think about when it comes to being safe around horses and making them feel safe around you:
Blinking and licking are good signs of thinking, relaxed horses – if they are not doing this, they are not calm – they’re terrified and possibly a bit catatonic. Horses who are like this and keep getting pushed are the horses who spook/buck/explode and people say, “it came out of no where!” No, it did not – you just weren’t really listening.
Horses have tri-focal vision. The bottom, middle, and top of their eyes focus at different distances. The top part of the eye is for things that are close-up, which is why horses typically lower their heads to look at you and/or inspect you with one eye when you’re near them. When a horse is looking through the middle of its eye, then it can see what’s going on around it, while the bottom of the eye is the far-sighted portion of the eye. Horses that fight to lift their head when approaching a jump are trying to judge the distance between them and the obstacle (so, let them).
Cock a foot (i.e. shift your weight more on one side) when chillin’ – this a relaxed, friendly posture when you’re not asking anything of them (they do this themselves all the time).
Don’t stare them down if you can help it – predators do this. We have forward facing eyes for depth perception; prey animals do not as their eyes are on the sides of their head. Humans are predators. They don’t know you won’t decide to eat them at some point. Just because you haven’t eaten them yet, doesn’t mean you can’t later. Anyone getting stared down by a mountain lion would feel uncomfortable.
Don’t approach them dead-on. Again, their eyes are off to the side rather than forward-facing like a predator. Predators approach in direct lines. Horses meander, so approach them with your body and path at more of an angle, if possible.
Don’t pat them - stroke them instead. Horses like feeling safe and comfortable. Dogs and other predators like higher-energy rough praise. Horses do not appreciate a pat in the same way that a dog might.
I could go on for a very long time, but basically, if you stop and consider how your actions as a predator may be interpreted to a prey animal and adjust to accommodate that, then you’ll have a horse that will be calmer and more inclined to trust you. I am constantly floored by the fact that a prey animal, such as a horse, can feel comfortable enough to let a predator on its back. I’d say they do it like it’s no big whoop, but it IS a big whoop. That’s like allowing a cougar on your back (they kill you by attacking your neck, so that’s a very vulnerable position) and being, like, “this is fine.”
That is so humbling and amazing to me.
