21/10/2026
My horses are allowed to pin their ears at me.
And, I hate the fact that this is a controversial statement to make in the Horse world.
Ear position is one of many crucial forms of communication for horses and ear pinning serves as a means of communicating discomfort.
The notion that it is an unacceptable behaviour effectively tells the horse that they are not allowed to communicate when they are uncomfortable.
I understand where it comes from. A lot of people think that ear pinning is the precursor to more dangerous behaviors like kicking, biting or charging.
And it CAN be.
But, rather than punishing the warning signal, people need to be asking themselves why their horse feels the need to escalate to aggression in the first place.
Almost every single situation, I see where ear pinning is followed by escalation, it is because people have failed to listen to the Horse and have continued to pressure the Horse through discomfort, stress, and anxiety.
And in these cases, the fault lies with the person, not the Horse.
It is absolutely absurd to expect any living being to repeatedly work through stress, chronic anxiety, and pain without showing any objectionable behaviors.
The fact that horses are expected to be constantly obedient, no matter how people make them feel, and no matter how they feel internally, is a grave injustice.
The fact that the only forms of communication that people often view as acceptable are ones that are tied into obedience, and following through with the demands of the person speaks volumes.
Communication from horses is almost never acceptable if it causes any disruption towards the goals of the human.
This industry loves classing the relationship between Horse and humans as a partnership.
But, the sad reality is that if we actually unpack the dynamic of most Horse human relationships, they are far more close in their resemblance to abusive relationships.
A relationship where one half of the “partnership” can never communicate discomfort, is always expected to be obedient and is never expected to escalate their behaviour when ignored is a dictatorship.
A partnership involves communication on both sides. It involves communication even when one side is saying something that the other side might not want to hear.
If your horse is escalating to biting and kicking you, that is a sign that there is something very wrong.
And the fault will always lie with you, the human, not the horse.
Because, ultimately, we are the ones who have demands to ask of the Horse. We are the ones who have chosen to work with flight animals. We are the ones who have a wealth of information at our disposal through the Internet, our personal connections, and more.
So, rather than normalizing the idea of hitting horses for communicating their discomfort, let’s start normalizing people being accountable for how they create discomfort and leverage pain, stress and fear for compliance.
If you create a relational dynamic where the horse has to get louder to be heard, you are the one who has asked to be kicked or bitten.
Getting mad at horses for pinning their ears is like taking the battery out of the smoke alarm.
It does not resolve the problem, it merely takes away the earlier sign of its existence.
When you actually listen to your horse’s earlier communication, they don’t need to escalate.
If the only behaviours you allow your animals to display are the ones that are in line with YOUR desires and YOUR wants, that’s not a partnership.
It’s a coercively controlling relationship that needs to be thoroughly examined instead of justified.
Getting mad at your horse for honestly showing you how they feel does not change how they feel internally. It just teaches them that you’re not a safe person to communicate with.
