22/02/2025
“You’re so lucky that your horse is easy” 🐴
It is common for people to feel frustrated by comments like this when they’ve put a lot of time and effort into getting things right for their horse. Statements like this are often used to explain away behavioural issues without having to look deeper. This horse is just difficult by nature and that one is easy and its nothing to do with any outside influence.
There can also be an air of status around having a more “difficult” horse, as if wrangling a rearing horse or sitting some bucks somehow makes you a better horse person.
“You’ve just got an easy cob you wouldn’t understand my sharp warmblood.”
When I was younger used to feel frustrated that some people didn’t take me seriously because I “only” had native ponies instead of bigger, flashier types. Of course different breeds may lean toward having certain personality traits, but often I think a lot of it is to do with the environment they tend to be in, especially during their developmental years.
Having now worked with probably 100s of horses in my life, there are breeds that come to mind that I find lean towards being more sensitive and reactive, I’m not going to tell you which ones as I don’t want to start discourse🥲, but I will tell you it definitely isn’t warmbloods or thoroughbreds.
The truth is our perception of an “easy” or “difficult” horse is so skewed. Just like us horses are a product of their environment. Many horses are living in a chronic state of high-stress. It is so normalised to keep horses in this way that we don’t learn to recognise these behaviours for what they are. Add to this wide-spread misinterpretation of behaviour leading to inappropriate high-stress training methods and on top of that many horses carrying around undiagnosed pain and discomfort. This is a great recipe for a “difficult” horse.
I’ll tell you why my horses are so “easy”.
🐴 I make sure their needs are met - My horses have freedom to express natural behaviour all day every day, this includes socialising, foraging, having comfortable places to sleep and feeling safe in their environment. They also have access to appropriate forage 24/7. Meeting needs goes way beyond just choosing stabling or turnout, it is down to the individual horse and environment and how we can make it work for them. What is your horse’s life like for the 20 + hours you aren’t with them?
🐴 I am a consistently safe person to be around - I don’t take out my frustration on my horses. If they get upset or stressed I stay calm and non-emotional about it. This takes work, it is normal and human to feel irritated, but if you want to be good around horses you have to work on it. Our horses are not going to be able to relax around us if we start yanking them around or shouting at them when we don’t like their behaviour. My horses now know that my behaviour is predictable and I am calm and safe to be around, they don’t need to be worried around me.
🐴 I take their feelings into account - I don’t expect my horses to behave like machines. Instead of being frustrated by their behaviour I see it as the communication it is. For example if its extremely windy and I can see my horse is really on edge, I may change my plans on the kind of training session we do that day instead of setting them up to fail.
🐴 I train with low-stress - I handle and train my horses with their emotional state in mind. I try my best to not get into situations that are going to cause my horses high stress and I keep training sessions easy and pleasant to create positive associations. The more you create positive associations, the better your horse will feel about training with you and you are much less likely to get any “difficult” behaviour.
🐴 I am very aware of how they use their bodies - I observe my horses and how they move as much as I can. I can recognise when they are finding things difficult and adjust accordingly. So many supposed “difficult” behaviours are caused by horses being pushed to do things they cannot physically do without causing themselves discomfort. Many horses are being ridden with a lot of tension and brace on top of compromised bodies. There is a whole other world with horses out there once we learn to recognise this. If your horse is being resistant its probably because he can’t do it, it is definitely not because he needs to be pushed harder.
🐴 I trust my horse’s opinion - Lastly, if my horse is telling me something is wrong, I believe him. It doesn’t matter how many different professionals are of the opinion he is “fine”. I do not ignore my horses and just crack on, I keep looking for people who will support me and we figure it out together. So many of my clients have tried so hard to listen to their horses and advocate for them only to be belittled and told their horse is just taking the mick out of them, anyone who is saying this does not understand horse behaviour, I don’t care how many qualifications they have.
You may be surprised at how many “difficult” horses become calm and “easy” if we can implement the above changes. The problem is sometimes those changes are very inconvenient for the human. 🐴
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