I wonder just how much one really cares about how a horse thinks about things. How important is it for a smooth relationship to consider how they think? I look around at how most people relate to their horses and I see a very one sided relationship....and it ain't on the horse's side.
People today are very much like people have always been and use horses for work, pleasure...whatever. They use them but don't get to really know or consider what makes a horse want to work for humans in a willing manner. Most folks just want to get right to the use of them without caring about the long, slow work to build a lifelong partner built on trust.
Horses are mainly used, not understood. I was disappointed recently to watch someone in the sport of Combined Driving "use" their horse to satisfy their own personal agenda for speed and glory. Instead of learning by building on speed with their horse, they pulled out all the stops and went as fast as they could shove the horse, costing them by rolling the carriage and thus ending their day's sport. They stood around looking embarrassed while others tended the horse that had been pulled off his feet by the overturned carriage. I think if they thought they could, they would have re-hooked and continued. I felt really bad for the horse as I could see how in future, this horse would probably fail, either mentally or physically.
This is the sad reality for many horses in sport. It is not admirable, to me, to see competitors come back with new horses year after year. Burn 'em up, then spit them out.
