Should I have any hard rules or boundaries that I expect all my horses to adhere to behaviorally on the ground or under saddle?
I'm not the queen of rules and boundaries. I love the back-and-forward of ask-suggest-play with horses. I like horses to feel clever, and I want to tell them they are getting it right - not wrong. I also have a little bit of a naive belief in my own invulnerability and a traditional kiwi "She'll be right mate" attitude to safety. I don't exactly follow rules well myself either.
But I've been talking to a handful of horsepeople I admire who are able to do both - experimentally play with their horses without an agenda in one situation, then set and enforce clear boundaries and rules in another situation. Everyone has a slightly different list of non negotiables. Everyone's list seems to be largely dictated by the context in which in they keep, train and ride their horses. Everyone states safety as the number one reason for the rules they set.
I repeated a mantra to myself for a while that the only person I have to justify my horsemanship to is my horse. I think that was a really important mantra for me at the time because it really helped me peal away from a lot of traditional mindsets and a fear of judgement from others.
However I'm now a few years on, very self assured in my own weirdness and surrounded by a kaleidoscope of other weirdos. So I'm ready to flex that mantra a little. I still need to justify my horsemanship to my horse - but I think I also need to be able to justify my horsemanship to my family, my friends, people I share the grounds with, people I ride alongside, my horses herdmates and myself. Especially when it comes to safety.
I'm thinking Zoes draft list of non negotiables will be something like this - Horses need to be able to lead safely, including stopping safely, standing safely and being lead by other people. - Horses need to be able to be trimmed, vetted and recieve other essential healthcare - Any horse I intend to ride needs to be able to stop on request, and stay stopped long enough for me to dismount safely.
This feels so weird to write down. Like What am I, a Cop? Enforcing Rules? Ugh. Not Punk. But I do think I'm better off thinking this through and committing to a short list, than chopping and changing and existing as an amorphous Free Love! blob.
I also think I'll have a lot more successful if I start renaming "rules" and "non negotiables" to "Skills that need to be practiced often, with clarity, so we can expect them to work consistently even in trying situations because they are important for safety and welfare" which is a lot harder to say but is a much more accurate description of what we want to occur :D