Today I was trying to explain to a client why her pony thought it was acceptable to occasionally bite, to mutually groom her and to take hold of his lead rein. Now, she is in the rocket industry and frequently goes out to the Middle East to do business. There can't be a much greater cultural difference in the human world between a white English woman and a United Arab Emirates man (except perhaps a Saudi male) and their cultural beliefs about what is and isn't acceptable in terms of gender and roles. Nevertheless, both parties are able to use their diplomacy, nous and business sense to set aside those differences so that they can successfully do business together without offending each other.
In horsey culture it IS quite acceptable to bite, to mutually groom and to take hold of things with your teeth whereas in our human culture, unless you are, er, into that kind of thing, it isn't. We are in the fortunate position of being able to impose a lot of our culture on our horses but should always be aware that we are culturally different.
This afternoon it was off to see Annie again and to see what progress she had made over the last month. She is now leading really well and likes to match her owner pace for pace. Altogether a much more relaxed and confident partnership. We started on some desensitisation work which will hopefully reduce her fear of humans even further.
