Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

Some horses will do anything in order to run away when they are afraid and others stop and won’t go forward. 

The recent clinic in Canberra is responsible for a slightly different perspective for me about these horses who stop when they are afraid.  (By the way, great clinic!)  This type of behaviour is also called a ‘short horse’. 

My granddaughter Bree’s pony, Blondie (our Cremello miniature) is one of these horses.  I realised some time ago that that was what makes her a perfect kid’s first pony.  When Blondie gets afraid, she stops.  When she’s terrified, she freezes.  So the chances of Bree getting hurt if her pony gets a fright are greatly reduced.

Robyn, the organiser of the Canberra clinic is an excellent horsewoman, a great rider and trainer, who used to specialise in preparing and bomb-proofing Connemara’s as ponies for children.  (Robyn is so gentle and so competent, that I would happily use her personally.) She brought along a beautiful Connemara gelding, Mackstar, who she is rehabilitating and described him as “having had the stop belted out of him.” 

And that’s exactly what happens to sooo… many of these horses that are perfect for kids and for beginners – these horses who stop when they are afraid and thus greatly reduce the risk of these beginners getting hurt. 

They are kicked or whacked or Phase 4’d or whatever terminology you like to use to describe forcing a horse to go forward. 

They have force applied to their fear or confusion – which increases their fear or confusion. And in Mackie’s case, that force was applied to the extent that he became a neurotic mess dangerously terrified of just about everything.

What these horses are doing when they stop or don’t go forward freely, is following their instincts, either genetically inherited like with the Connemara breed or maybe just learned as a generous behaviour to protect their rider – to stop or not go forward freely when they are afraid.

It had a big impact on me, because I’d never heard it expressed that way before.  “Mackie had had the stop belted out of him” … 

We call them stubborn, we call them resistant, we call them all kinds of names that reflect our frustration at them not moving forward freely and they are just either genetically built or generous enough to have developed a behaviour that slows them down or stops them when they are afraid. 

We kick them or tell the kids to “kick them on”, “drive them on”, cos’ that’s what we were taught to do by people who simply didn’t know a better way to do it.  Us human beings whack ‘em with whips and sticks and ropes and give that whacking all kinds of pretty names to make that fact easier for us to deal with. 

And every time we do that, we are kicking or whipping a horse whose generous nature has them slowing down or stopping when they afraid – a behaviour that specially protects the beginner rider.

 Mackie is one of the lucky ones.  Robyn has gone to huge lengths with the Zen Connection work to help him release old trauma and she is patiently laying in a foundation of confidence.  On the clinic, she had her first rides on him, his charming little ears swivelling around softly.

So, if you have had to kick, whip or even smack your horse a little (you’ll get no judgement from me because I have done all these things in the past) and now that you’ve read this you don’t want to do it that way any more, then how can you change?

Zen Connection with Horses, with its book and audio lessons, is an awesome way to change it.  The audio lessons take you step by step how you can connect to your horse’s mind so that you can understand their fear and your own nerves, how you can help them and yourself to release old fear and trauma and how to teach something without force or fear.  Click here to read more about the book.

It comes with my personal “love this book or get your money back” guarantee.