22/03/2025
ANTHROPOMORPHISING
Why do we attribute human characteristics or behavior to a horse
One of the challenges I find in working with people is convincing them to stop anthropomorphizing horses, (attributing human characteristics to them).
Unfortunately, some people struggle to let go of this mindset, especially when other trainers and coaches continue to mislabel horses as lazy, stupid, flighty, or disrespectful; when, in reality, these behaviors are trained into the horse by the human.
The problem is further compounded when people acknowledge the correct understanding (such as recognizing that horses live in the moment) yet continue to train in ways that contradict this, like physically punishing a horse for refusing a jump, avoiding an obstacle, or not loading into a trailer.
Such actions have serious consequences. While horses have poor short term memory, they do possess a strong long term memory, which is often triggered by specific contexts. As a result, a horse that is punished for refusing out of fear, does not overcome the original problem, instead the horse learns to associate fear with punishment and thus associates the human with the original problem.
This leaves the horse not only with unresolved fear but also with additional anxiety about human interactions. A sad and unfair state for the horse to be in.
To add more weight to my words let me quote Tom from his book True Unity:
“I wish I could describe the picture to you of what I see in the horse as I look at him and watch him and try to see him as he is. A horse. I try not to think of him as anything other than a horse. In watching horses, I try to let them tell me what is going on within themselves. There are so many things to try to bring out. It's hard to get it separated and get it in order, so that people understand. When I say, I want the person to think of the horse as a horse, some people might think that isn't much, but I am trying to bring out that that horse is really, really something special in his own uniqueness. I'm trying to stress the importance of the horse, of really seeing that horse as a horse, of seeing what he is and his potential.”
