Building Trust with Your Horse

Photo by Shannon Pifko

Perhaps one of the advantages of being a more mature rider is the possibility of more time with your horses.  Maybe your kids are grown or you have more flexibility at work, but many folks get back into horses in middle age because they have more time to become involved in this expensive pastime.  That time is the asset you need to build trust with your horse.

The nice thing about building trust is that you can do it without special equipment or instruction.  You don't need to ride your horse like a professional.  All you need to do is spend quality time with your horse.  If you have the opportunity to feed your horse, that frequent contact while feeding builds trust.  Taking extra time to groom your horse, trim your horse's feet, bathe your horse, or work with your horse on a lead builds trust.  Riding in new venues and challenging situations can also build trust if your horse senses that you are confident in those situations and you sense that your horse will not try to take advantage of you.  It's my experience that doctoring your horse through illness and injury also builds trust.

Trust is not an "on" or "off" status.  It's something that develops slowly over time.  It is your horse's confidence that you will take care of him or her, and your confidence that your horse will not look for opportunities to hurt you.  Trust is a horse's sense of assurance that you will not put him or her into a situation that the horse can't handle -- jumping too large an obstacle, trailering your horse carelessly, roping a big cow from a bad angle, running a barrel pattern in bad footing, or trail riding across dangerous terrain.

Trust is something to be cherished and nurtured in our relationship with our horses.  It encourages our horses to "try" for us when other horses might quit, and it makes us confident that our horse will not refuse the larger jump or bolt when a bear runs out of the forest in front of us.  It also helps the horse understand when we need help to get something done.

I hope that you and your horse are building trust in each other.  Spending quality time is a good way to do it! The next couple of posts will discuss some examples of trusting relationships, and I hope that you'll share some of your own stories of trust on this blog.