Active participation versus passive acceptance

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How much does your horse really know about the equipment you put on him or her? Are they free to explore and play with halters, ropes, hoof picks, brushes? Saddles? Or are those your things that only you get to play with so that your horse's acceptance of them is based on learned responses rather than true familiarity? Perhaps you have trained your horse to touch and pick up things on cue. Perhaps you've never really thought about it.

In this video, cognitive ethologist Dr. Francesco De Giorgio explains why he wants horses to be owners and co-owners of the equipment we use around them. And what this means for how horses and other animals, including humans, end up interacting with the world around us.