When Good Manners Matter Most

A painfully swollen eye

Some benefits of teaching your horse good manners are obvious. He is safer and easier for everyone to handle, which prompts people to treat him more kindly, and significantly increases his odds of a good home if some day you can’t care for him. The point sometimes overlooked is that good manners significantly reduce a horse’s stress. He knows what is expected of him, is comfortable doing it, and needn’t anticipate people being frustrated, angry, or rough with him. These benefits are most obvious when something goes wrong. In the photo above, Bronzz shows a "pain face", left ear held lower because the pain of the swollen eye is on the left side of his face. He had the same expression when he had a toothache.

Bronzz stands still for a warm compress

When Bronzz’s eye swelled shut, he not only let me treat it, he came to me for help, standing quietly with his swollen eye almost touching my coat so I would understand what was wrong. He stood quietly while I held a warm compress on it, and again when I gave him the banamine the vet prescribed (next photo). And again when I pried his eye open to put ointment on it. No halter needed. You can see the lowered left ear in this photo, too. I am wearing rubber gloves because it was too cold to get my hands wet.

Banamine does not taste good

Reliably good manners don’t come from drilling for obedience. When a horse is frightened or in pain, his self-preservation instincts can override training unless he trusts that you are looking out for him. Reliably good manners come from 2 things.
1. Teach him what is expected, and maintain those expectations consistently.
2. Show him that you are a Protector Leader he can trust to keep him safe, not a dominant leader focused on obedience. There is a myth that if we are “too nice” or too concerned about a horse’s emotions, he will become rude and dangerous. Not so. Nothing makes a horse more reliable than good training combined with the empathy that earns his trust. How to be Protector Leader who earns trust and cooperation is the subject of "What Horses Really Want", available on Amazon or directly from the publisher.
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