Many times we think of fear as bad so we tend to admire slogans such as “No Fear.”
But in reality, we should fear certain things and hopefully this motivates us to be sharper in those ways. Fear should help us prepare for winter, get a job, not run out of gas or avoid a crash. It can give us extra energy when we need it. Good fear helps us plan ahead and be more sharp and sensitive to a situation.
With horses, real fear motivates us to get more sensitive to our horses’ fears, so we know what to practice to help them be safer around others as well as ourselves. I see so many situations with horses where real fear is ignored, so horse owners panic (bad fear) instead when their horses encounter a fearful situation.
Those of us who believe God is good know a good fear of God helps us live truly courageously. Practically speaking, I believe the last four commandments of God are the courage ones. They put feet to the first six.
To practice real fear, I have to figure out where to start working on my horse’s fears that would be safe for both of us from the no murder commandment. If my horse is cold backed and bucks when I first saddle, it makes sense to use a simple homemade surcingle to practice with first.
Since repetition is the best teacher, it is the most important basic to replace bad fear with confidence. Repetition of stimulants to move as well as not move similar to the Simon Says game should help develop good fear in the horse as well as the human. I believe the perseverance practiced here is the same as the no adultery commandment.
Then I practice real fear by focusing on the do not steal dimension – that is mutual respect. I call it the Jesus Christ perspective (the boss man becomes a horse). This way to alleviate a horse’s fears is to get the horse focused on the human and the human focused on the horse. If we can fill the horse’s mind with enough of our requests, we will both tune in to each other to deal with the object of fear better. This is why I suggest that horse owners practice their forward, reverse, sideways, front end turn and hind end turn, as well as combinations thereof, like a dance or gymnast routine.
To help make this smooth, we want crystal clear communication (the do not lie commandment). We want to make sure we are keying into the horse’s body language as well as them to us. We want to show our horse an obvious go as well as stop body language. I call the go body language the show off look, and the stop body language the fetal position look.
I always remind people that we have at least three different languages that we use to talk to a horse as well as body language. They are pressure, rhythmic pressure and combination. They all help us team up to build confidence, conquer bad fear and exercise good fear.
Real Godly fear helps us develop the flexibility to not wish we were out of a situation (no covet), but instead deal with it using God’s tools hopefully and prayerfully God’s way.
Mike Daniels is a horsemanship trainer and barefoot trimming specialist from Raymondville, Mo.
Email: rlhorse58@yahoo.com
