07/25/2025
One of the biggest lies I think we're sold as young horsepeople (or old horsepeople, depending on when you join the party) is "that's just the way he is".
There's a training horse boarded quite near our farm that I've gone out to work with almost daily for the last two months or so. Recently I went out to work with her and happened to be riding at the same time as a young boarder. She had her horse on the lunge and was starting to saddle up as I was finishing my ride.
I couldn't help but notice her struggle. The mare circled and fussed and couldn't manage to stand still while she tried to saddle her. Over the course of more than fifteen minutes she struggled to get the horse tacked up, repeating "ho, whoa, ho girl" over and over as the horse wound around her. By the time I'd dismounted, untacked, hosed my horse off and returned her to her paddock, she still wasn't finished.
As I walked out to my truck, I paused at the gate and watched for a moment, debating as to whether to offer some assistance. I finally asked her if she would like some help.
"Oh, this is just the way she is" was her reply.
There was so much conviction behind those words. In her mind, she was simply stating fact. There were no alternatives. This was the way of the world and nothing was going to change that. Nothing COULD change that. It just...was.
There was a time when I also believed this was true - when I was told my lesson horse for the day or my personal horse was just quirky. That thing they did? That was just habit, just something they'd always done. Very often, the next words uttered were instructing me to either ignore it or somehow push the horse through it. Those things became part of the fabric of my understanding of that horse, the same way I knew that they were bay or a mare or a gelding or had front shoes. It just WAS, and there was no reason to question it.
Now, I question a LOT of things.
One of the brilliant things about horses is their ability to adapt. Indeed, this ability is much of what makes a horse a horse and not some other creature. Horses are constantly learning, figuring and molding to their caretakers, their routines, their environments and their handling. It is - to a large degree - why their domestication has been so successful. It is the reason why one person can have great success with a horse and another can barely lead it.
And yet, the idea that something a horse does "is just how they are" is still such a pervasive idea.
At this point I believe there is always a reason. Our empathy dictates whether or not we consider that there is a reason. Our curiosity determines whether or not we decide to go in search of that reason. Our ability factors in to our success in finding that reason. Our determination is linked to how far we go to figure out that reason.
But no matter how you slice it, there's always a reason.
