For the Horse's Good

   For many horse owners, a horse is thought of as a good friend. Unfortunately, for most of those same horse owners, that idea of a horse being a "friend" is taken to such an extreme as to create a great deal of rude, and often dangerous, behaviour. 
   While the relationship between  a horse his owner can be made into a willing partnership, this is not achieved by treating the horse like a little pet or by coddling him. It is not at all that horses are mean, it is just that they are much larger than us and they have a different set of values and a different style of communicating. If you are trying to communicate with your horse merely through "affection" or "love", you are probably speaking your own language, or a Disney language, rather than speaking a language the horse can actually understand. 
   If you want to be able to have a truly loving, willing partnership with your horse, it behooves you to learn the horse's language. This means get with a good horseman and learn from him. If you truly love your horse, see that he is trained well and, more importantly, see to it that you yourself are trained well.

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