Let’s start by defining what I mean by good ground manners. The No. 1 thing is that your horse respects your space and learns to react to your body language. That comes from establishing that you are the leader and your horse is the follower.
If your horse respects your space, he’s not going to knock into you, rub on you, nip you, etc. Way too often, horse owners ascribe human emotions to these behaviors and consider them fun, playful signs of affection from their horses.
Although there may be affection involved, a horse that does any of those behaviors actually considers himself the boss and the leader, or at least an equal, to his human. With that hierarchy in the relationship, the stage is set for physical danger to the handler and for confusing messages between horse and human.
There’s nothing wrong with me loving on my horse, so long as I do that by stepping into his space. It’s not good for the horse to come into mine. If I let him do that, I give up my role as the leader.
Once a horse starts to treat you as an equal or a follower, it’s a slippery slope. One day he nips at you, and you think he’s playing. Then he rubs you, and you think he’s still playing. Then he comes up and knocks you in the chest or head. Where does it end? One day, you’re going to get hurt, and then it’s not OK.
Or at home you let him “play” on you, but on a show day in your clean white breeches, it’s suddenly not OK for him to rub on you and you get
