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It’s probably worth considering what type of “employer” you are

If you’re going to refer to what your Horse does for you as them “having a job,” then it’s probably worth consider considering what type of employer you are.

Because, if we are going to draw a parallel to distinctly human activities, such as working a job, let’s also look at what that job provides for the Horse.

“I buy them food and take care of them and shelter them.”

Wonderful. We’re not counting that because you chose to take on an animal that effectively requires you to be their dependent to survive.

Using this to try to justify what work you ask your Horse to do is akin to a parent acting like their child owes them something because they birthed them.

As soon as you choose to get an animal, you are signing up for the parts that come with taking care of the animal.

For humans, we have the choice to opt out of work.

If we exist in a toxic work environment, we can quit the job.

Most horses don’t have this option.

Their “bosses” can yell at them, hit them, withhold food and otherwise neglect their communication and needs.

If a human was treated this way in a workplace environment, it would be perceived as abusive and toxic.

Because it is.

So if, for your horse, you are the type of employer that feels entitled to their labour without offering anything in return, you are a toxic employer.

Your horse is in an abusive work environment.

We are not entitled to their labor.

In fact, I would argue that we are in a massive debt to horses for the labour that they have offered us over the course of centuries.

They have built entire civilizations for us. They have made the lives that we have today possible.

As a thank you, we should be becoming more considerate instead of more entitled.

If you are going to call yourself your horse’s “employer” be a good one, instead of the type that works them in a way that’s much more akin to forced labour.

It shouldn’t be so frowned upon to reward horses with things they want when they do things we want them to do.

That’s payment for a job, why are people so mad about it?

Anyways, the horse industry has a lot to answer to because let’s be blunt:

Horses aren’t the only ones who experience toxic work environments. Taking advantage of people and mistreating human employees is also rampant in this industry.

So, it’s time to do better.

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Curious about trying food in your horse training?
If elephants, tigers, and even hippos can learn complex husbandry behaviours with food… why not horses?

🐘 African Elephants: The largest land mammal, have been trained to take injections and many other husbandry behaviours through clicker training.

🐻 Bears: With a bite force of over 1,200 PSI, have been trained to have their teeth cleaned and to give hair and blood samples.

🐯 Tigers: With claws 4 inches long, have been trained to back up their tails into their handler for injections and to accept fly spray on their ears.

🦓 Zebras: Who can kill lions with a single kick, have been trained to voluntarily walk onto a scale, stand still, and get weighed.

🦛 Hippos: The world’s deadliest mammal, have been trained to have their teeth brushed and undergo dental checks.

🦧 Chimpanzees: With 5 times the arm strength of a human male, have been taught to get their temperature checked and teeth inspected.

🦒 Giraffes: The tallest mammal in the world, have been trained to have their hooves handled and trimmed.

These behaviours are taught by pairing a specific action with something the animal values, often food. This helps them understand exactly what’s being asked and makes participating in their own care a positive experience. Training begins with small, achievable steps and builds gradually to more complex skills.

In many cases, the first sessions are done in protected contact, where a safe barrier allows the animal to feel comfortable and the trainer to work without risk. This isn’t unique to zoos, most R+ horse trainers also start this way.

When training without protected contact, the first priority is not the behaviour, it’s teaching CALM, thoughtful interaction around food.

We have horses trained for liberty injections (intramuscular or subcutaneous without restraint), taking oral syringes, placing their hooves on stands, showing their teeth and allowing tongue/mouth handling for daily checks, accepting eye care, volunteering for bandage changes and wound treatment, and even asking for fly spray.

If these larger, stronger, and more dangerous animals can be trained safely with food, imagine what’s possible for your horse. 🐴✨

Want to see these behaviours in action? I’ve linked real-life examples in the first comment.

Inspired by Doggie Drawings by Lili Chin.

Horses are so much more than a furry 4-wheeler!

“I work for a living, so should my horse!”

This mindset is a toxic way that people project their own frustration with their lives onto their horses.

It is used to justify forcing horses who are clearly uncomfortable, stressed and anxious to do things on the basis that:

“They only have to work for 1 hour a day and then have their whole lives paid for!”

Meanwhile, many of these horses have the following to look forward to after their ride:

- A “luxury” stall with boarded up walls and no ability to interact with other horses. Standing in here for anywhere from 12 to 24 hours a day.

- Individual turnout with no ability to so much as touch noses with other horses.

- Often going hours a day without access to forage, putting them at risk of stomach ulcers.

The “paid for life” is often more comparable to a prison sentence than anything else.

And, with all that said, as humans who choose to seek out getting a horse, we do not to get to leverage the fact that we pay for their needs as a reason to force them to do things when they are struggling.

In choosing to get a horse, we take on the responsibility of ensuring that we are providing what they need to survive.

It is something we willingly take on, not something to complain about.

And it is something that is our job to do, whether we can use the horse for sport or not.

Anyone who has the impression that a horse needs to be physically useful for them in order to deserve them paying for the care should not have a horse.

Because, your willingness to cover your horses expenses, and provide their needs should exist whether you are riding them or not.

This very type of attitude is behind how discardable horses are.

It is very normalized for people to get rid of horses when they no longer serve the purpose of riding.

It is selfish, irresponsible, and unacceptable to normalize the idea that it is appropriate to no longer have horses hold any value when they cannot be ridden.

It is also egotistical and selfish to maintain the perspective that a Horse owes you something when you have ultimately chosen to get them.

If you value your horse more as a tool than you do as a companion, that will come out in how entitled you feel to using their body, even when they are telling you that they are mentally or physically not OK.

Your horse does not need to work a job in order to deserve the care that you provide.

They have always deserved it.

And it is pretty weird that you feel that this is a transactional relationship.

For the record, despite how unforgiving and cruel the world can be, you also deserve to have your needs met even when you cannot work.

So, perhaps this time we change the paradigm instead of enabling and normalizing harm.

For the love of the horse, know better do better! Don’t be afraid to advocate for your horse. Speak up, excuse yourself from lessons/situations if you need to. If you feel something is wrong, don’t let people gaslight you into feeling like you need to do it… your horse will thank you 💖🐎

A tough pill to swallow:

The majority of people who engage in abusive behavior likely aren’t even clocking their behaviour as abusive.

As many of us know, there are lots of people in the Horse industry that engage in harmful training practices.

Most of these people do not consider their actions harmful.

Does that erase the harm? No.

But, it paints a valuable picture.

Abuse exists with or without intent.

You can love a person or animal with all of your heart and still engaging physically or emotionally abusive behaviour without being aware of the fact that you are doing so.

Often times, our society paints a narrative that creates this illusion of the abuser as some villain-esque person who is doing terrible things intentionally for the purpose of causing pain.

This is seldom the case and it makes it really hard for victims to properly identify abuse when it is happening, and it also makes it harder for people to hold themselves accountable when they engage in harmful behavior.

Abuse does not only exist within a vacuum, where the perpetrator of it is doing so deliberately and with the knowledge that they are being abusive.

Most of the time it is done by people who have been taught that their behaviour is accepted in normal.

Most of the time, they will have excuses for their behaviour and justification for why it is fine.

They will downplay it. They will sanitize it. They will make excuses.

With horses we see this in:

“A human hitting a horse can’t possibly hurt them, they are way larger.”

“You need to do this for safety.”

“The horse is responding to this harsher bit because they like it better.”

There is no shortage of language used to create comfort towards methods that are reliant on leveraging discomfort for control.

I grew up being taught this type of mindset from the age of 4.

I became comfortable hitting horses and manhandling them to get what I wanted.

I wasn’t taught any alternatives to discouraging unwanted behavior other than using physical punishment.

This whole time, I loved horses and did not want to hurt them.

But, I consistently had this type of behaviour modelled to me by adults and I was consistently told it was OK.

For years, I couldn’t conceptualize an alternative.

I behaved abusively to horses, but I never would’ve identified myself as an abuser.

The same can be said about many many people within the industry.

Including people who will read posts like this, and believe that they have never been guilty of such behavior.

A lot of times, there is a mental block that leads to people attributing different traits to how the training methods they are using actually work.

Many people will use harsh equipment and believe that it is soft because they apply less pressure to it.

When, in reality, the Horse is just responding quicker with less pressure because the equipment itself amplifies the pressure.

This leads people to feeling like they are being gentle when they really aren’t.

So, TLDR:

An abuser is not an evil villain.

Anyone can engage in abusive behavior.

They can do so without realizing it. They can do so without malicious intent. They can do so while still experiencing the utmost love for those that they harm.

People can also cease engaging in harmful behaviour once they learn how to do better.

I am an example of that because I have made a lot of changes in how I show up for horses and a lot of the things that I now criticize are practises that I once believed in.

We don’t have to make harm our legacy.

But a huge part of avoiding that involves having the self reflection to admit when we have engaged in harm.

The term “abuse” tends to make people very defensive.

But, if we look at the actual definition of it, it is a a relevant descriptor when we are looking at a lot of harmful behaviour.

Whether intentional or not.

Humans have just taken this term and made it out to be something that is only applicable to the worst type types of villains that they can encounter, instead of a trait that any person can embody regardless of intent, if they don’t know better.

Having good intentions does not cancel out the impact of what your behaviour might have on another being.

This is why good intentions aren’t enough.

We also need to have an informed perspective on how our behaviour is impacting the animals that we train.

Top photo: me as a kid, probably around age 10 or 11, on my Arabian. He is wearing an incredibly thin twisted wire bit that most definitely hurt him. He was light and responsive in it because of the pain. I did not use it with the belief that it was hurting him, but it still hurt him. It was wrong. It was mistreating him. Regardless of intent.

Bottom photo: more recently with my horse Milo

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