Confidence not dominance

Another great article by a fellow blogger.  It really helped me understand the psyche of horses.  I can see how Rachael uses this in her training.  My barn family uses it in our day to day interactions with the horses.  Good stuff, worth the read.

“Affiliation, not dominance, is what results in leadership, and true leadership, not dominance, is the relationship that we want to achieve with our horses.”

“Both mares would patiently wait their turns for water — not because the foals were dominant to them but because they deferred to the foals’ desire for water and youthful ignorance of the very concept of dominance.”  This explains Warlock’s status in the herd.

” We can then experience genuine self-esteem and the associated feelings of accomplishment, confidence, success, and achievement. Our horses will see us as agreeable friends and leaders, rather than intimidating dictators, and they will willingly defer to and cooperate with us. We should not be trying to achieve status through dominance. Our goal should be to achieve status through prestige. Dominance earns fear, not respect. Prestige earns trust, respect, deference, and cooperation, and it is the status of a true leader. True leadership, not dominance, should be the relationship that we strive to achieve with our horses.”