Horses are prey animals and therefore will mask signs of pain and discomfort. This is an evolutionary advantage as a predator will often pick on sick or lame prey as they are easier targets and therefore more chance of a meal…! As predators ourselves we don’t relate to this need and therefore we don’t pay close enough attention to the subtle signs our horses and ponies are showing. Sue Dyson has recently brought out a brilliant tool (24 behaviours) to help us really listen to our horses via their behaviour – if you haven’t already, I would recommend watching the film and learning these 24 behaviours so that you can start to notice them yourself.

So why do we see so many behaviours which show horses in pain or discomfort?

(If you don’t believe that this is the case then take a look at some of these research papers as a starting point: A review of equine welfare in equestrian sports; How happy are equine athletes?; Conflict behaviours in dressage; Conflict behaviours in show jumping)

I don’t have the answer for you, but I think it poses at interesting question. An acquaintance of mine was once told by a coach that, “she would never make it as a professional rider at the top levels of competition because she likes horses too much”. An intriguing observation. I think the reasoning behind this is that the more you like horses the less likely you are to push them hard enough to make it at the top levels. Needless to say, some of the professional riders who also heard her say this were understandably a little defensive. However, sometimes I see this in myself – I have done a fair bit of eventing with my horses but together we have never gone further than the lower levels of British Eventing. The reasons behind this are different for each horse: one was already 15 when I started competing her and prior to this she had been a trail riding horse; one had some minor back problems and so had a substantial amount of time off whilst I investigated these issues; and one simply decided she no longer wanted to go at the beginning of the cross country course. This latter issue of my mare napping at the beginning of the course I believe is a lack of confidence rather than any physical problem and I will try to work through it with her. BUT (and this is the important bit for me) if we can’t get to a place where she is happy and willing to set off on a course without coercion then we just won’t do it. She still loves to jump – maybe we’ll take up show jumping instead. My point is that it is important to me that my horse has a choice in what they do. I read a quote about consent the other day: “It is not consent unless there is a choice. A ‘yes’ doesn’t mean anything unless saying ‘no’ is a safe and comfortable option available.”

I don’t know about you, but I want my horses to consent to spending time with me, to consent to jumping and to consent to being ridden.

To be able to get this consent from them, ‘no’ has to be a safe and comfortable option for them. This is why I always try to offer my horses a choice in their learning and training.

Are we giving them a safe and comfortable option to say ‘no’?