Pets or vehicle?

Hello friends,

I recently got lucky to ride a horse and one idea that instructor shared with the riders surprised me.
He said that when you ride a horse you have to treat it as a vehicle not a pet.

I never heard of this idea before, well, I don’t get to ride a horse that often, maybe it’s common.

I always thought that horses are so smart and can be compared with the dogs, dolphins and maybe cats.
In general those animals who love their owner and can save his/her lives if needed.

At the end of my ride I kind of understood why the instructor said that.
So when you just feed or pet your horse it’s a one thing, but when you ride it it’s another thing. When I was riding my horse and trying to treat it as friend it wasn’t listening to me and would do anything but do what I was telling him to do.

That’s how I realized, you can’t spoil your horse while you’re riding it, of course I’m talking about horses that we ride from time to time not those which we could keep as a long time pet. Those could turn into a friend, good pet, and be happy to please his/her owner.

What do you think? Do you agree or not?

Also I found out that I enjoy more walking and a little bit of loping but not so much trotting.

Thank you for reading!