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Yes, not all are the same. Each horse is an individual BUT each one is also created upon a blueprint of survival. I probably have you beat in the "years" department .. been working and living with horses for almost 40 years so I, too, have seen many come and go. Once I fully embraced the behavioral base of Equus caballus I was able to understand and thus enter into a much deeper "relationship" with each horse I meet. I am an Equine Professional so meet alot of horses. The "behavioral base" of which I've written here doesn't change from horse to horse to horse BUT, the individual sensitivities and reactives do change with each horse. As you said, "you need to be able to read the signs". ... of each individual.
And yes, I, too, have seen the two extremes from beatings to pleadings and neither one works because the human is reacting according to human behaviors and not from the viewpoint of the horse. There are always REASONS for a horse's behavior ... horses's do not waste either physical nor mental energy. Humans do alot of both. ;) We also have to realize even more deeply that we are NOT horses, we are outpowered and outsized tremendously and even though our little "beatings" such as kicking or punching or hitting may not physically harm the horse, the harm it does to the psyche of the animal is far worse. This type of human behavior is also based on "fear" ... fear of being out of control. RARELY, if the human is understanding of true equine behavior, will a human be attacked by a horse in a life threatening situation in which case one needs to do WHATEVER to remain safe! In my years I've only met 3 horses who I had to physically counter attack and all I can say is I damned lucky I'm still alive. *MY* survival instinct kicked in and I thought of nothing else BUT surviving! Did I physically damage the horse? Not a chance. Did I change the horses' thinking ... nope; not while MY thinking was in survival. Was I able to go back and work with and teach the horses with a different mind set than that of 'survival'? With two, yes and they are wonderful horses now. The third is almost at the point of being irredeemable with its present owners and will probably end up being put down, fairly. The horse is not a healthy animal mentally. 3 in the course of almost 40 years.
>>>Horses are horses but they are not all the same (just like people) some horses are very kind and some are nasty... it not always what a human has done to them! You can see it in their eyes and I have seen many horses come and go over the years and can tell if it's their true nature or if it's happened from bad handling. Same as not all murders have had a bad upbringing as a child .. some are just evil!<<<
