05/24/2026
It needs to be said more. Stop assuming, stop making excuses. WORK through the problem.
✋🏼 Stop Putting Labels On Your Horse 🛑
This horse was abused. This horse has trauma. This horse was a rescue.
It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t.
When we put these labels on horses we treat them differently, we can’t help it. We restrict what we need to do to help them because we want to tip toe around their “story”.
They have lived. Life is stress. Life can be traumatic. It doesn’t need to continue to be their story. It doesn’t need to define them (OR US)!
Work with the horse you have today, in front of you, with those worried triangle eyes, reluctance to look at you, terrified of the saddle or ropes, the one who suddenly kicks out when surprised. Wait…
That sounds like a fresh wild mustang who hasn’t been abused because he hasn’t even been touched yet.
Here’s the thing. You cannot know a horses’s story unless you lived it with them. You are just guessing based on behavior and that behavior very well could just be how that horse has always reacted to things. You are ASSuming, and we all know that saying. I have known horses since birth that you would think got beat everyday with how they are reactive to certain things. It was just who they are.
Stop assigning labels. Just work with the horse in front of you. Assigning labels gives you permission to not do what needs to be done. It gives you an excuse for your lack of progression or your own personal fears. It gives you an out when things get tough and you need to learn a new approach or change what obviously isn’t working. It LIMITS you which in turn limits how you can help that horse.
There is absolutely nothing you can do about a horse’s past. You can only influence the now. Focus on the now. Leave the labels, and the reason you are clinging to them, behind.
Your horse will thank you.