“give fits” was referring to the Trainers, who were incredibly frustrated, not the horse.
“rude” describes the behavior, not the intention. The act of walking over a human being is not normally described as being “polite”. It’s a vernacular.
Returning to the trailer, these are all similar trailers and I had not brought a trailer that he had ever seen. There was no reason for him to fear this trailer any more or less than any of the previous trailers. I should add that from the moment I got this horse, I never had any issue getting him on any trailer.
I did not teach him trailer loading, and I’m just not magical.
So, let’s go back to his longing behavior. Same horse. When longed for the first time after a long time off, he kicks at me, the same handler. I growl, and tap him with the whip. I don’t beat him. He’s still not afraid of me (clearly, same beast that gallops toward me), and in theory I haven’t lost any trust on the longe. I doubt that my tap with the whip is enough to overcome pain (and he’s never been truly beaten with a longe whip). He goes forward. Next longing session, even if it’s quite a few days later, he does NOT exhibit this behavior. Did the pain go away if it existed? No. Quite impossible. I’d believe that if it were a day later, but not several days later. Did my tap outweigh any possible pain? No. Also not probable. I suppose I’m nothing if not consistent, but this is ALSO a consistent behavior. If he’s off for more than a few months, this happens. Every single time. Then the following longing he’s perfect.
I cannot make that fit with your overly simplistic explanation. If he would do it again a few days later, I could say sure, easier to kick out than go forward, but he does not. By the third time longing after returning to work, he’s back to voice commands only.
You didn’t address horse number two. I’ll bring him up again because I found his behavior fascinating.
Horse number two was an experienced Morgan lesson horse. Gave many lessons to people of all ages. To beginners he would trot around happily. Canter away, flopping at the reins, pulling on his mouth, and he was just fine. For an advanced rider, he was also perfect. For an intermediate rider who was beyond the flopping canter stage but had not yet learned inside leg to outside rein, he would park himself in the corner of the ring and refuse to move until they had asked for the turn correctly.
If he were better for the beginner and worse for the advanced, I’d suspect pain in contact or in working correctly. But he wasn’t. He was only “bad” for the intermediate riders. And again, this was a horse who gave lessons to riders of all ages.
This was also the horse that one day walked over to me and pressed his lips against my forehead for a very long time. Very inexplicable behavior. No biting, licking, or other shenanigans, just pressing. And he stood there for a good 2 minutes. Then he walked away. Never did it again.
Now, for a small element of woo, I suffer from a condition called Bradycardia in which my heart beats slowly. I’ve often wondered whether there are some horses who find this lack of intensity comforting, even as I react predictably like a “normal” trainer. I tend to calm reactive horses, even when I’m not feeling so very calm myself, but it’s because my heart rate (unless I’m truly having a panic attack, which hasn’t happened in awhile) is very slow even when I’m nervous.
A sideline, whether you call it trust or you call it respect really honestly doesn’t matter. I’m not sure that “trust” is any less of a human emotion than “respect”. What it means is that the horse behaves differently for one than for another.
