How To Stay In The AI Saddle

AI lessons from the horse world to help you go from managing chaos to reining-in a powerful partner.

The Problem With Smart Partners

My farrier knows I work in AI. While he was trimming my mare, he said:

"I know this good ol' boy who only works cattle from his 4x4. He says, 'Horses think. That means they can decide to kill you! My 4x4 doesn't think on its own — it only does what I tell it.'"

Fair point. Horses think — sometimes against us. But that brain also gives them:

• • A self-preservation instinct (they don't want to leap off a cliff)
• • Sensory perception that makes my puny human senses look useless
• • Strength, speed, and agility I definitely do not have
• • Instincts honed by nature

Just like a horse can injure you — 65,000+ ER visits related to horses each year — AI can absolutely cause unintended harm. But with the right guardrails? Horses are incredible partners. So is AI.

The same principles that make horses safe and effective partners also make AI governance an element that speeds your AI strategy and boosts results.

The secret is three governance pillars:

Environment → Training → Controls (Horse Safety 101 → AI Safety 101)

Let's break those down.

1️⃣ Clean Environments: Fencing In Knowledge

Horses are hooved toddlers: curious, fearless, and chaos-prone. So you remove anything they can turn into a trip to the vet:

• • Barbed wire
• • Stray nails
• • Tractor attachments
• • Feed bags that turn into horse-eating monsters

You fence in the safe areas and guide them with halters.

AI is no different.

If you let an AI roam the entire internet? It will find the equivalent of barbed wire… and swallow it.

That's what happened with Microsoft's experimental chatbot Tay in 2016. Tay learned from whatever people threw at it on social media. Within a day, users exploited it and Tay started spewing hate — not exactly the intended outcome.

So in AI governance terms:

Clean pasture = safer performance.

2️⃣ Training: Intentional Shaping of Behavior

The safest horses are trained with clear purpose:

• Vision → What role should this horse play?
• Baby steps → One small success at a time
• Tools → Lead ropes, flags, spray bottles, praise

I once had a gelding terrified of water hoses.

Spray bottle → gentle hose mist → full bath → victory. Training prepares him for real-world safety.

AI is the same — just digital.

Unguided AI can:

• • Hallucinate (confidently provide wrong info)
• • Reinforce harmful stereotypes
• • Encourage dangerous behavior (there was a tragic Belgian case in 2023 where a person died after harmful guidance from a chatbot lacking safety protocols)
• • Leak private or proprietary data

Data that reflects the right values leads to behavior that protects humans — and your business.

You get the behavior you train — or fail to train.

3️⃣ Controls: Defense in Depth

Even the best-trained horse still gets a halter. And a saddle. And fences. And sometimes stocks.

Because… prevention > apologies.

Other crucial controls for AI:

• • Zero-trust access (not every agent gets the gate code)
• • Prompt injection defenses (no strangers whispering bad ideas)
• • Data exfiltration protections (no barn doors left unlocked)
• • Cost controls (because compute isn't hay-cheap)

Governance ensures you're not relying on luck — or good behavior — and is what keeps you in the saddle.

Pick the Right Horse (or Model)

Horse breeds have specialties:

• Quarter Horses → sprinting, cutting, reacting fast
• Arabians → endurance and stamina
• Draft Horses → power and reliability
• Ponies → chaos goblins in fluffy disguise

AI models have lanes too:

• Claude → complex reasoning + careful detail
• ChatGPT → creativity + communication
• Grok → up-to-date information + science
• Manus / enterprise models → deep data workflows

Wrong job + wrong model = you're eating dirt.

For Business Leaders: Who's Holding the Lead Rope?

AI governance isn't an IT side quest. It's a leadership responsibility.

Executives must:

• • Define the purpose and boundaries of every AI deployment
• • Assign accountability for outcomes and risk
• • Invest in controls and continuous monitoring
• • Demand safety as a feature — not a "later" add-on

Put simply:

If AI can impact humans, leaders must direct and protect humans.

Horses run free when no one leads them. So does AI.

Final Takeaway - Governance Is Your Tack Room

AI is powerful. Fast. Sometimes unpredictable.

But so are horses — and we've partnered with them for centuries.

To keep your AI from bucking you off:

• • Create clean environments
• • Provide intentional training
• • Maintain layered controls

Skip any one of these, and you're either bucked off — or chasing a rogue bot through the digital equivalent of the neighbor's alfalfa field.

Govern well. Ride safe. And may your AI never spook at a plastic bag.