Walking with Prey Animals vs Walking with Predators

For the uninitiated, the contrast of walking with horses to taking a dog for a walk is as night is to day.

It’s commonly understood that a horse is a prey animal and a dog is a natural predator. As such, horses are hardwired to run away fast upon sensing a perceived threat to their safety. They’re acting against their survival instinct when they choose to stand by you in the face of something they sense might endanger their life. Perceived or real.

Being a natural born predator, a dog is hardwired to defend and attack. We humans use this inherent nature to serve and protect us. A domestic dog sees this as their job. 

What’s not commonly understood is that in taking a horse out in public, you become their protector if they give you the opportunity. With their size, power, intelligence and agility, what happens when a horse feels you’re not capable of keeping them safe? In the blink of an eye they’re out of there. There’s nothing any of us mere mortals can do to physically stop them from leaving, if they decide to go.

Horses are levelling. They don’t care whether you have experience or if they are the first horse you’ve ever met, nor what title you have, who you work for, whether you have a partner, what car you turn up in, or how you present yourself. 

Horses want to know one thing – can they trust you to keep them safe? Yes or No. Remember, it’s their answer that counts, not yours. 

When a horse shows you their answer is ‘yes’ the feeling is akin to “floating around on a cloud of privilege and joy” as one guest wrote to me following her first walksublime in Nov 2023.

Signing off with an excerpt below from an email I received following another guest’s first walk with us. Her postscript is powerful.

Mel McLaren, Founder
WalkSublime | Walking with Horses in nature™

“Having a dog in one’s life can teach you a lot about yourself and if you take the time to honestly connect it can be a very special bond indeed. A horse is that times 10! Because with a horse you are dealing with a very large animal with a natural flight, not fight, instinct. Being on the end of a horse lead as opposed to a dog lead is a much more confronting but ultimately a much more enriching experience. 

It demands more of your courage, observation, physical confidence, respect and self esteem. Which in turn leads to personal growth! What more could one ask for from an afternoon out walking in the sublime company of horses! 

P.S. I really wish I’d learnt to ‘walk’ before I learnt to ride.”

-Julienne, walking with Australian Brumby ‘Koszi’, May 2023