Principle #1- Horse-Man-Ship is Natural

Horse-Man-Ship is three words linked together. It’s a horse and a human going willingly together.
In this regard, it’s important to understand that the horse is the prey animal, he’s driven by three things major instincts
1) To be perceptive to danger

2) To fly from fear

3) To be gregarious
He is a born coward, a born claustrophobic, and a born “full-throttle-aholic” by various degrees. Why we say “various degrees” is because some horses are more sensitive to each other. Some are more claustrophobic, some can stand confinement better than others. With regard to horses, full-throttle-aholic means the horse reacts first, thinks second. He runs from fear at full speed, and only looks behind when he thinks he’s safe.
When a horse gets his foot caught in a fence, because he is a born coward and a born claustrophobic, he doesn’t just calmly think, “Oh darn, my foot is caught.” Instead, the horse panics. He doesn’t think logically, and he automatically goes into full-throttle. Trying to escape his entrapment any way he can, even if he hurts himself in the process. Although, some horses are quieter and less panicky than others. They are all born with their own degree of sensitivity.

When someone buys a horse, he mistakenly thinks he owns the horse – heart, body, soul – and that the animal should succumb to his wishes. A horse is an individual, simply not just a possession. He has wants and needs, too. He wants to become comfortable, and as long as you can prove to him that you’re not a predator, he’ll be comfortable. It’s so important to understand the humans are the horses biological enemy. Most people get upset when their horses act like prey animals. And most horses get upset when their human acts like a predator, not a partner. People who think like people (and not horses) think when the horse acts like a prey animal, they are being ‘naughty’.

Horses are recognized as prey animals because of three distinct characteristics:

1) They smell like what they eat, grass.

2) Their eyes are set on the sides of their heads, which means they have bilateral vision. (This gives them great peripheral vision and the ability to see predators sneaking up behind them. It also gives them the disadvantage of not having great depth perception).

3) As a prey animal, the horse is perceptive to danger, people, places, changes, and things.

People are easily identified as predators because of three major characteristics:

1) Humans smell like what they eat. Meat.

2) Humans have eyes in front of their heads. We have great depth perception and the ability to focus on a moving object.

3) The human is sometimes not perceptive to danger, people, places, changes, and things.

When horsemanship happens, we become half horse and our horse becomes half human. Our job as the leader is to get him to be braver, less claustrophobic, and less of a full-throttle-aholic. In other words, for Natural Horsemanship to truly happen, the horse must want to become a Horse-Man first.