Cultivate a Deeper Bond With Your Horse by Speaking Their Language

Owning a horse can be a very rewarding and enriching experience regardless of what you specifically plan on doing with the animal. Whether you intend to interact for work or for pleasure, you’ll enjoy this relationship even more if you manage to cultivate a deeper bond with your horse. There are a number of ways you can get your horse to trust you as you build this relationship. Let’s take a close look at some tips for streamlining the process.

See Your Horse as an Individual

Image source: Horsefulness Training

There are a lot of people who don’t see animals as intelligent beings. They seem to think that because animals can’t talk, they must not be able to understand anything. The truth is that horses are very intelligent creatures. You can help build a strong bond by treating your horse as an individual. Horses are extremely aware of their surroundings and tuned to the people who handle them. Always be gentle with them. Talk to them as you groom them, and show them that you care about how they are feeling. They will certainly be responsive.

Use Touch

Image source: Vaquera Ranch

Once you have worked with your horse for some time, you’ll find that your relationship will have grown much deeper. It takes countless hours of working together to attune your bodies to each other. This includes time spent grooming your horse, riding your horse, feeding it, cleaning the stall and all the other associated tasks. A horse that sees you have a gentle touch will soon learn to trust you. Keep stroking and patting, and continue to speak softly.

Become the Mother

Image source: Equestrian Movement

It takes a certain amount of leadership to properly train a horse. A horse’s actual mother is the first one to teach the foal the basics of being a horse and social etiquette. As you train your horse, you will be acting in the capacity of the mother. This will cultivate the horse’s trust and confidence in you. In essence, you want to mimic what a mare would do in order to create a special relationship with her foal.

To have a successful relationship with your horse, it is important that you work hard to create that deep bond. You should also do everything you can to protect them. A horse that doesn’t trust you will never obey you willingly. It will take a great deal of effort, but the result you’ll achieve will be a well-behaved and obedient horse. More importantly, the love you have for each other will truly be something special.

If you would like some help learning to speak your horse’s language to have a better connection with them, we can teach you! Check out our lessons here.