All my life I’ve heard people throw a temper tantrum at a horse because “he knew better” or “he should know better because he has done this a million times.”

But of course, the truth is that if he knew better he would have done better. He didn’t know better.

There is a difference between a horse “knowing” an answer and a horse “trying” an answer. For example, a horse may “know” to standstill when an owner mounts from the ground on the left side. But the horse may only “try” to stand still when the owner mounts from the right side.

To me, a horse knowing something means it has absolute confidence in both the meaning of the question we pose and the answer we are looking for. Therefore, for a horse to “know better”, there are two sides to consider. The first is did we present our question perfectly? The second is has the question been asked with enough clarity and repetition for the horse to have learned the answer sufficiently well? Irrespective of which part has been lacking, the failure to “know better” is not the fault of the horse.

People sometimes get cranky with a horse for stuff he does because we think “he should know better” or “he knows not to do that.” But if he knew better he would not do it. He doesn’t know better. We failed in our clarity to help him know better.