09/24/2026
Trust can feel like one of the hardest parts of horsemanship to define. We know when it seems to be there. A horse relaxes in our presence. The communication feels easier. New questions become less threatening. Horse and rider begin to feel like partners instead of two individuals negotiating every step.
But how do we actually build it?
According to neuroscientist and horse trainer Janet Jones, the answer may be less mysterious than it seems. “A lot of the techniques for building trust boil down to various methods of creating predictability,” Jones said.
In other words, if you want your horse to trust you, start by becoming someone your horse can understand.
Jones explains that consistency allows horses to predict human behavior. “We give them the same request, they give us the same result,” Jones said. “We do that many times. We do it the same way each time.”
Over time, the horse learns the pattern. The horse does not have to wonder whether the same aid will mean one thing today and another tomorrow. The rider becomes more readable. This is extremely important for young or green horses.
Jones advises against introducing unnecessary sudden surprises while a horse is still learning. The goal is not to make the horse’s entire world perfectly controlled. That would be impossible. The goal is to make the human part of that world more consistent.
“When a horse can predict your actions and reactions, and then you provide exactly what he predicted inside of his silent mind, you are beginning to establish trust with that horse,” she said.
The horse experiences a request and begins to know what will follow. Jones points to the relationship between prediction and a sense of control as part of that trust-building process. For a horse, that can make human interaction less uncertain.
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