Georgio
New User
I totally agree with you...slapping a horse in anger or with agression is not ok. Looks like Linda is trying to get the horse to move his front end around (moving a horse sideways, backwards or disengage the hindquarters can help break the pattern of him wanting to run forwards, but you're not trying to 'make' him stand still...you're allowing him to move himself around in a way that's going cause the left side of the brain to kick in which is his thinking side, the right side is his instinctual side - flight/fight etc) The horse can't keep his feet still so she's trying to help him move around until he feels he can stop himself. You might see that she offers him the opportunity to move away from the rythmical pressure she's applying whilst moving her body towards him. The horse chose not to move (he had the choice to move) and so just like if you didn't move out of the way of something that's headed your way you're going to make contact with it. But the important thing here is that the horse was given the opportunity to do something aboout it...and it wasn't done with anger or agression.