How Horses Show Affection to Humans

hey everyone so today I wanted to talk about how you can recognize when your horse is showing affection before we get into the points make sure you like this video and subscribe to our channel for more weekly horse videos all right so I have five clear ways you can tell when your horse is showing affection and I'm also going to talk about some other things that you can recognize that US horse people usually think oh look they love me but in reality it's kind of bad behaviour so we're gonna talk about those things too so y'all can recognize those and correct those things so my first point for how a horse shows affection to a human is that they will come to you so how many of you walk out to your horses pasture you open the gate you start walking to your horse and your horses ears perk up towards you you can tell that they're watching you then they lift their head and they're looking at you and then maybe they'll take a few steps towards you at the end that is great because it shows that the horse recognizes you and that they want to come to you if you're worse takes off the other direction well they may not want to come to you alright so let's talk about why horses it will come to you in the first place where you know we're saying that they like your presence so one reason your horse may not come to you is because if they're used to just seeing you and you grab them and then you immediately go into working and a hard training session and then you just throw them back out that's not really enjoyable for the horse you know you gotta throw some things in there for them to enjoy so that they learn that your presence is good so let's say you grab your horse and you brush them and it's nice and then you don't ride but you're doing fun things to to engage your horse and then afterward you you know you scratch other horses scratches and you give them some treat see that I'm back out you know that's gonna be much more enjoyable for the horse compared to just being taken out anytime you want to work them and personally I'm fine especially with Tucker he's like this too if I'm going through a period where I just want to train train train it gets to the point where sometimes we'll go out in the field and he'll be like mm no way from me woman I do not want to work today so that's when I have to take a step back and be like okay I need to make this a fun and enjoyable experience for my horse too and I find out when I do that Tucker is way more willing to be around me and come to me and stuff like that so if you're struggling with maybe your horse likes to run away from you in the field or you know you just don't feel like you have that connection with them they're not acting like they're happy to see you that's a great place to start is just making things fun for them anytime you take them out any time they're with you you want to make things engaging and fun and enjoyable for them if you're always feeling stressed around your horse and frustrated the horse is gonna feel that too and then they're gonna be stressed and frustrated and then they're gonna just correlate you with stress and frustration so any time they see you they're like oh my gosh today is not my day you know and so just being aware of your mental space when working with your horse can go a long way and it can be really helpful for your horse in terms of just feeling better in your presence all right my next point I've kind of covered a little bit but another way of horse may show affection is by turning their head and their ears towards you this can be when you go to give them in the past year or it can be when you're working and training and doing some groundwork they may do this if you've ever watched a horse in the pasture with other horses like I know Tucker had this cute little pony who is his girlfriend for the longest time but he was always watching her you know that was his girlfriend his eyes rose on her his ears Roy's pricked towards her you know watching her every move so when I take my horse out and I'm doing some groundwork or training or I'm in the I'm pen or anything like that I want that same reaction I want them to be watching me and listening and seeing what I'm gonna do next you know we all know when you bring your horses food out and it's time to eat that horse is focused on that grain they're watching that grain their ears are pricked towards the grain so if your horse can have that same emotion towards you that's great because it means they're focused on you they're paying attention to you and they're also looking to you as somewhat of a leader to see your every move and to see what you're gonna do so even if I'm not asking my horse to do anything I want that focus on me so one way you can do that is just by playing games with your horse making it fun for them but also making it so that they have to pay attention and see what you're doing so that's why I would say ground work you know I love ground work I'm always gonna recommend that there's some great things you can do with ground work that's just getting your horse to focus but that's also fun for them to do if you want to have fun just go set up an obstacle course and lead your horse through it and just have them pay attention at every obstacle and it'll be fun for them and also help them focus and pay attention to you my next point on how a horse shows affection is that they're gonna follow you around like I was saying about checkers little pony girlfriend those two would follow each other around everywhere in the past year wherever one went the other would go so it's the same thing with your horse if your horse is willing to follow you around without a lien or anything that means they think of you as their buddy so once again the way you're gonna start to help your horse thinking that way is simply by spending time with your horse and making the experience good for them and so they can learn that your presence is nice and they want to be in your presence so I know a Tucker you know he can be a little standoffish but then I feel good because if I leave him in the area to graze and there's no one else around and I walk out of you he starts freaking out and so then when I step back in view he's like oh there she is and he'll come over to me and stuff like that and so just seeing what your horse does with your presence and then start just playing with them to see if they'll follow you around in the past year or maybe in the round pen and you can just make a game out of it and you know start stop zigzag or around obstacles and stuff like that so my next point for how horses show affection is that they follow your instructions so in a herd if a horse respects the alpha horse they will follow the horses instruction you know that alpha is their protection that also is their guide in the wild that alpha would find them food and water and so they have affection and they have respect for that horse so technically I want the same thing between money and Marquardt's and I want my horse to view me in that way they know I'm gonna provide for them they know they can trust me and they can look to me to protect them I'm going to horse things of you in this light then they're gonna follow your instructions if you think wild horse follows instructions and you think of a horse's character you know their prey animals a horse learns to follow the alphas instructions for their own good you know they're like well if I probably don't follow this horse instructions I'm probably gonna get eaten by a lion and the same thing it's like they learned that oh well this is gonna be safer for me to do by following you know my riders instructions rather than you know my usual response which would be to freak out but if I trust this person then I'm gonna trust them to get me out of this situation alive so since horses are herd animals they are always buying for dominant position they're always like I'm gonna be higher on the totem pole than this horse here and if you want your horse in the field you always notice there's one horse always at the bottom of the totem pole and they don't really like to be there and they'll probably try and pick on the other ones but other horses just put it down yeah I go back for that horse anyway so if you have a horse that is testing you they are testing you to see if you're the dominant one or if that horse is the dominant one and so if you have a horse that follows your instructions and they're not gonna test you and they're not gonna see what they can get away with then that means they have that respect for you as the leader you know as I mentioned every horse is gonna try and vie for that leader in that alpha position but don't get me wrong as herd animals they also love to be led you know that's in their nature to look to a leader and have that leader to provide for them so once again if a horse will follow your instructions well that means that they trust you as their leader and they have affection for you in that way alright my last point for how a horse may show affection towards you is that they're relaxed around you and this one is a huge one and should not go unnoticed so like mentioned earlier horses are prey which is funny because we are technically predator animals to them but if your words is relaxed around you that means that they have affection for you they know you and they trust you so I can't tell you how many horses I've worked with where in the beginning they were really untrusted and unsure and then you know a few weeks in they started to learn to trust me and they started to relax more and I could just tell them that their demeanor and the way they carry themselves that they were starting to trust me more and not see me as a threat so like I said earlier horses are prey animals so that means they're constantly gonna be looking for danger and so when they meet a new human that they're not familiar with they're gonna do the exact same thing and they're gonna be seeing is this person a threat or can I trust them and so that's why in the beginning if you've ever worked with a newer horse and you notice that they're kind of on edge or maybe your current horse is on edge with you it's because they haven't figured you out yet they haven't figured out whether your friend or foe and how you respond in this situation will determine that so that's why it's important to remain calm and patient and create a good atmosphere for your horse and be gentle with them so that they learned that you are not gonna hurt them and that they can be relaxed around you if a horse is relaxed around you they've determined that you're safe to be around so if you need to help your horse get to this place one thing I recommend is just like brushing your horse and petting them I find that if I pet my horse like up here above their eyes they get really sleepy and they'll just relax and just stuff like that showing that your touch is good I'm showing that you can be patient even kind of in a frustrating situation and horses learn most by repetition and so it's important to do these things over and over again and even just being in the presence of your horse like whether they're grazing and you're just sitting on a log even to them that is them getting to know you even if it doesn't seem like it even if they're just raising a few feet away from you and so those are some ways that you can help your horse relax around you some ways to notice if your horses relaxed around you is just to look at their posture do they seem uptight do their eyes seem wide and like untrusting and they're like oh my gosh or are they relaxed are they chewing usually when a horse chews that shows that they're relaxed these are all the things to look at for your horse do they their back leg when you brush them in or they're just like are they kind of bouncing around in the cross ties or stuff like that so those are things to be aware of to help you learn whether your horse is relaxed or not okay so now I want to talk about some behavior that even I think is cute and I think it's adorable when my horse does but it's not actually affection and I know this is gonna be controversial but do you consider when courts nuzzles your rubs or head on your bum see you with their head is that affection to me no that's not affection and I'll tell you a story to explain why I used to ride Tucker and when we would be done riding on take his bridle off and then I start walking back to the ring her back to his field and that stopped him to pet him and every time I did this he would hit me with his nose a little bit and just go like this and so I'm kind of would be like oh that's so cute he loves me you know and then they got to the point where one day I let him down to the gate to his pasture and instead of opening the gate run away and let him go I was just petting him and robbing him and he takes his head and he wants me in the face and that's when I realized no that's not actually affection he's just being impatient and wanted to go back into his field so real quick if a horse respects you they're gonna respect your personal space so that means they're not gonna bite you with their head so just be aware of this I know it's a thing that a lot of people think is cute and adorable which I do too but it's also disrespectful and it's the horse rushing you or you know they're invading your personal space and the thing is if you let this build like if your horse starts like with Tucker he would bump me with his nose and then one day he bump me with his head and I'm sure if I'd let it go on the next day he would have hit me with his shoulder and then maybe he would have run me over a little later and so it's just important to be aware of the reasoning behind Horace's actions and determining from their the best course of action okay so so far in this video we talked about how your horse shows affections now I want to cover what are some things you can do to help your horse see you in that light I've worked with a lot of people and I've heard often people will just say well I just don't think this horse likes me I don't think a horse can just not like someone I think that if you work at it you can build that relationship and then they can see you in a more positive light ok so what are some ways you can help your horse learn to love you well number one is obviously spend time with them with any relationship the way you learned love each other is by spending time together when I met my husband you know we spent time together in the beginning and then we're like oh let's get married then we spend more time together now because we're married so same thing with the horse if you want to help build that connection with your horse the best way to do it is to spend time with them horses learn by repetition so if they never see you how are they supposed to know that that's how they're supposed to feel about you so by you know having that consistent time where you go out to the barn spend time with your horse you can groom them that's a great thing to do just leading them around or just sitting in the pasture with them while they eat or just playing with them in the ring these are all great things you can do just to spend time with your horse we all think well I should spend a lot of time with my horse when I first get it because it doesn't know me and it needs to learn to build that connection with me but it's important that even after you've had that horse for a while that you're still spending time with them after a while you may be like oh well I don't have to go out see them and I'll just go out when I want to ride and then the horse is gonna be like well they only couldn't see me when they want to work you know and so it's important that you still make things fun for them and enjoyable for them so that they can still believe that your presence is good I've been doing this with Tucker lately and I'll just take him out and I've been giving them baths have been letting him eat some grass I play with him in the field and I brush him and I fly spray him because he hates bugs you know imagine if the only time I ever saw my husband he was asking me to do something and work that would not be fun and so it's the same thing with the horse if the only thing you do when you see them has asked them to work they're not gonna really see you in the best of light so you need to make sure you take the time to just be with them and have a good presence with them so I kind of touched on this point earlier but one way you can help your horse learn to love you is by always just checking your emotions when you're working with them and remember we want to maintain a calm environment for the horse horses pick up on our emotions incredibly well and it's through every subconscious little movement we make so if you're on your horse and you're getting frustrated but you're not a really aware of it but you are you make you them to do something a lot harsher than you need to or if you're anxious and stressed you may pinch with your knees and like tense up and they can feel that so it's important to make sure that you're staying patient and calm and making sure that your body is also communicating that to them as well because that's how they're gonna pick up on things like that and so I always tell people and what I always do is if I feel myself starting to get stressed out or anxious I just first of all remember to breathe deep because if you're stressed out you're probably not really breathing a lot so I breathe deep and I relax and I take a moment just to calm myself before I go on and I work with them more and so also just understanding why your horse is doing something so if a horse is doing something because they're scared the worst thing you can do in that situation is get frustrated with them and act more harshly you know with that they need a patient hand he's gonna show them that you don't need to be scared you know rather than someone who's gonna be like shape up you know so those are just soon as a be mindful of if you're always creating a negative environment for your horse they're gonna associate you with that and when they see you in the field coming to get them they're gonna be like no not today okay my last point for how you can help your horse learn to love you is to be a decisive leader so as I just mentioned my last point being a decisive leader is always maintaining the same composure you know staying calm staying patient with your horse even if it is a frustrating situation also giving the sites of queues you know you have to make up in your mind as the leader what's gonna happen next you can't be second-guessing yourself or be like well I don't know you know you need to figure out what's gonna happen to ask your horse to do it because confusion can just lead to stress on both your part and the horses part another thing about being a decisive leader is confidence yep to have the confidence and what you're asking the horse to do and confidence in yourself and in the horse and the horse can pick up on that and that can make them feel more confident we have a video on confidence actually that we just did and so you can go check it that video it's about how to be more confident as a horseback rider alright guys I hope this video was helpful to you and as always make sure you give this video a thumbs up and go subscribe to our channel for more weekly horse videos and I'll see you guys next week [Music]

Channel: Equine Helper

Views: 94,723

Rating: 4.9423242 out of 5

Keywords: how horses show affection to humans, how horses show affection

Id: JNLVxlVWLxo

Length: 17min 12sec (1032 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 09 2020