I received an email from someone asking for suggestions on keeping her horse's attention. They said they deliberately keep their session to only a few minutes because their horse can't focus for more than a 5-10mins.
We deal daily with our horses exhibiting a vast array of behaviours. Some we want and some we don’t. We spend much of our time with our horses correcting or re-training the behaviours we don’t want.
When horses apply pressure to each other they are generally focused on directing movement and not on changing emotions. When a horse uses pressure to chase another horse away from the hay they are not concerned about the ill feelings it might create in the other horse.
When we see a horse come up to us in the paddock to be caught, is it Stockholm syndrome at work? When our horse shows a willing compliance to be ridden, shod, tied up, trailer loaded, etc, is it Stockholm syndrome at work?
We all know when horses meet for the first time they decide within moments to be friends or not. They go through the “introduction ritual” then they’ll either gallop off together or, one will chase the other away. I’ve seen it a thousand times.
