I have been passionate about horses and had them in my life since I was a child, but it was one very tricky horse who I can now say I had the privilege to own but at the time didn’t feel that way, who started my journey into wanting to understand horses inside out and what their behaviour was telling us. Molly was hard work. I had that knot in my stomach when I knew I had to handle her, never knew what ride we would have, literally kissed the ground when I got off after most rides and cried many frustrated tears. I felt that I just had to put up with it, this was my horse, my responsibility and this was ‘just her’. I felt totally alone even though so many people offered their opinions like ‘she’s playing you up’, ‘you need to be firmer with her’ and so on. I didn’t feel that though, I knew I was missing something, didn’t understand what she was trying to tell me and so I threw myself into researching and learning about horse behaviour and over time I realised what Molly needed and where I had gone wrong, what I had misunderstood about her.

What I did take from my experience with Molly was that I absolutely did not want anyone else to feel like this about their horses and on further investigation was shocked and saddened at just how many horse owners do what I had done – literally kiss the floor when they get back from a ride, avoid certain activities so that they don’t have to deal with their horses, but worst of all just accept that this is the way their horses are and that’s that!

I have studied horses’ behaviour very closely for many years now, developing a real understanding of how these amazing creatures communicate and what their natural behaviours are telling us. We often misunderstand them as they are so different from us – we are predators, they are predated, but what we do have in common is the desire for a harmonious relationship.

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Horses

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