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Trust can feel like one of the hardest parts of horsemanship to define. We know when it seems to be there. A horse relaxes in our presence. The communication feels easier. New questions become less threatening. Horse and rider begin to feel like partners instead of two individuals negotiating every step.
But how do we actually build it?
According to neuroscientist and horse trainer Janet Jones, the answer may be less mysterious than it seems. “A lot of the techniques for building trust boil down to various methods of creating predictability,” Jones said.
In other words, if you want your horse to trust you, start by becoming someone your horse can understand.
Horses Learn What Comes Next
Jones explains that consistency allows horses to predict human behavior. “We give them the same request, they give us the same result,” Jones said. “We do that many times. We do it the same way each time.”
Over time, the horse learns the pattern. The horse does not have to wonder whether the same aid will mean one thing today and another tomorrow. The rider becomes more readable. This is extremely important for young or green horses.
Jones advises against introducing unnecessary sudden surprises while a horse is still learning. The goal is not to make the horse’s entire world perfectly controlled. That would be impossible. The goal is to make the human part of that world more consistent.
“When a horse can predict your actions and reactions, and then you provide exactly what he predicted inside of his silent mind, you are beginning to establish trust with that horse,” she said.
The horse experiences a request and begins to know what will follow. Jones points to the relationship between prediction and a sense of control as part of that trust-building process. For a horse, that can make human interaction less uncertain.
Consider how confusing inconsistency can be from the horse’s point of view. A rider applies one aid one day and something slightly different the next. A behavior earns praise in one ride and correction in another. The horse gives the same response, but the human reaction changes. The horse cannot reliably predict what happens next.
Jones’ point is not that every rider must become mechanically identical from moment to moment. It is that consistency gives the horse a clearer framework for learning.
This is not limited to riding. Jones emphasizes that horses learn to predict our behavior on the ground as well as in the saddle. The same principle applies: repeated, consistent interactions help the horse understand what to expect from the human.
A rider may think of trust as something tested during a difficult ride, but the foundation is being built during ordinary moments long before that test arrives. Predictability accumulates, but so does unpredictability.
Trust Goes Both Ways
Jones’ discussion of trust comes from her relationship with her horse True, whose development forms part of the narrative in A Horse’s World. She describes her job as guiding him into the human world.
“I will take his domesticated mind and teach him human expectations little by little,” she writes. “Most of all, I will encourage him to learn to trust me, and at the same time, I will learn to trust him.”
Trust is not something the horse owes the human, but develops from both members of the partnership. The rider learns how the horse responds. The horse learns how the rider responds. Each becomes more predictable to the other, and that process takes time.
The goal is for the horse to encounter the same request and learn that a familiar response will lead to a familiar human reaction.
“It really boils down to this need for great consistency so that the animal can learn to predict what we’re going to do,” she said.
That makes trust less abstract. Rather than treating it as something that simply appears with enough time, riders can look at their own behavior and ask how understandable and predictable they are making themselves to the horse.
Ask Whether Your Horse Can Predict You
Riders often ask whether they trust their horses. It may be equally useful to ask whether our horses can trust us.
Are our aids reasonably consistent?
Are our reactions understandable?
Do we create unnecessary surprises?
Does the horse know what usually happens after a correct response?
Those questions shift trust from something we hope to receive into something we actively build. A horse may indeed make you earn his trust. According to Jones, one of the clearest ways to earn it is simply to become someone whose behavior makes sense.
To hear the full conversation with Janet Jones and Tonya Johnston, listen to episode 489 of The Plaidcast. Subscribe and follow The Plaidcast on your favorite podcast platform for more conversations from throughout our industry.
