Horses Are Not Robots - The Horse's Advocate Podcast #173

NOTE: There is a section about 1 minute long where it sounds different because I inserted a video of me driving my hands-free car. To see it, please watch this on YouTube.   We all know that horses are not robots. Robots are mechanisms that do not think; they simply execute programmed instructions. They are designed to perform tasks that humans are unable or unwilling to do themselves. Examples include robots working in hazardous areas such as deep water or toxic environments, or managing heavy lifting in factories.   Horses have often been used like robots, performing tasks humans cannot or will not do. This creates a dilemma: a horse is both a sentient being and a tool for work. When we train horses, we want them to perform complex tasks, but we also seek a true connection with them. Yet, few people excel at this connection. Why is that?   To work effectively with horses, humans must be programmed like robots—but traditional training methods rely on copying others' experiences instead of fostering individual understanding. Just as AI language models (such as Google, OpenAI, and Grok) repeat others' knowledge rather than create their own, this approach fails with horses and genuine connections. In this podcast, I explain a new paradigm: prioritize learning directly from your own experiences. As my wife says: become quiet, listen, and be in the moment.