Do horses adapt to their rider's personality?

Question

~ex.~ say you were mean there for your horse would "turn" mean or what if i was really nice, would my horse "turn" nice?

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Answer 1

If you treat your horse badly, or in a mean way, yes he/she will not have respect for you, therefore seeming "mean". Whereas if you were kind, yet still disciplining him/her your horse would view you as a leader, and want to follow. You set examples for your horse- and he will respond naturally. Ex. If you were mean to someone, you should expect that in return. But if you are nice to someone, you expect them to be kind to you. I hope that clears things up!

Answer 2

The two aspects of a person't personality that a horse will react to are calmness and confidence.  As a previous responder noted horses are timid animals and just want to feel safe.  If the rider is calm and acts confident, the horse will feel safer and is more likely to behave.  Horses can sense a lot of what a rider is feeling.  So, if you are scared of a particular jump, the horse is likely to think there is a reason to be scared and refuse it.  While if you act confident, there is more of a chance the horse will go jump it without a problem.  This is not to say that if you act calm and confident, the horse is always going to behave.  Horses get scared of things we don't even notice and some horses just have more mellow personalities than others.

Answer 3

well pretty much wat sophialo.... said, but like i have a horse that we bought from a sale who was BADLY abused. now she nows that we arent going to hurt her cuz we have had her for several years but if you make any fast movement it scares her to death. this is very sad but when we first got her she was scared of the slightest movement. i remember the first day we had her my dad walked up to her to pet her and she was so scared that she peed on herself. it was so sad. but ya it just depends on how you treat the horse. if you are always mean and beating it and stuff its most likely going to be scared, if you are nice to it and treat it with respect then they will most likely do the same for you. you want to be sure tho not to baby the horse tho. to learn more about horses go to achievable horsemanship.com. (my dad is a horse trainer,......and a mx racer!!!!)

Answer 4

Horses who have been abused are dangerous and need to be handled by only the most experienced handlers.  Each horse has its own personality, just like people do.  But for the most part, a horse just wants to feel safe, so it will do what it needs to if it feels threatened.  The are big, majestic animals and they should be treated with dignity and as I said, one must be experienced..  Finally, they are not ,and never should be treated as pets.  They are so much more than that.

Answer 5

A horse will not be nice just because you are. If it is unhappy what ever is causing it will need to be fixed before he/she will respond. They will however remember if a particular person/jockey was mean to them and not race well or be very moody.  I know about race horses more than domestic but I think it would be similar.