05/20/2025
This is so true! We strive to have a great relationship and open communication with our horses so they feel like they have a voice and are allowed to talk to us. Trust and rapport will give you more control than any halter ever could!
Why no halter?
This is something I am asked all the time. Someone sees me working through something with a horse and they ask, "Why no halter?" "Wouldn't it be easier with a halter?" "Wouldn't it be easier in a smaller pen?", or something along those lines. And I fully understand this train of thought - we are all taught that restraining or restricting horses when they are learning makes it easier for them - or at least us. So why no halter?
Rarely does a horse come into my care because everything is going well in their lives, usually they are struggling with something.
And more often than not, those horses are packing around trauma - and that trauma usually stems from a history of a lack of control over what happens to them. A lack of consent.
They have been conditioned to obedience at all cost to them. And usually, that loss of autonomy, that coerced or forced obedience came hand in hand with restraint.
"Just get him in a corner" "In a smaller pen he's good" "we just tie him up to saddle" "He just needs more bit" "If he's rode in more contact he behaves" "He needs the flash" "We tie a leg up" or "once you catch him he's fine" - and all such similar things.
The obedience came at the cost of liberty, and as such the horses are conditioned to submit to anything that's asked of them regardless of whether or not they are willing - regardless of whether or not they are comfortable with it.
Science would call this "Learned Helplessness".
One of the most powerful things we can do for a horse in this situation - or even for horses without trauma where we want to make sure we don't create some - is to give them back choice. Give them a safe and comfortable option to say "no". And for horses that have been conditioned that restraint=obedience one of the best ways to allow them to find that choice again is to remove all restraint.
Open space, no halter.
It is a bit like having a romantic partner: if they wouldn't allow you to do something to them when they aren't restrained, you shouldn't do it to them when they are.
So why no halter?
So he has the best chance at saying “no”.
