Understanding Animal Behavior

Yesterday I had to come to grips with the fact that I had reached a crisis point in my chickenmanship. I was sowing some seed in a pasture and one of my roosters was following me and eating the grain as it hit the ground.

Of course, I was shocked at this behavior and I tried to determine how I had failed in my chicken training. I did not want the chicken to eat the seed and, I was crushed that the chicken cared so little about my feelings that it just proceeded to eat the seed, even encroaching on my space as it did so. I worked to get out of my self pity mode in order to look at it from the rooster's point of view to determine how I had caused the failure in our relationship.

Obviously I had not put enough time into the chicken's training. I had not considered whether the bird was right or left gizzarded. Only then did I realize that the rooster seemed to jerk his head a bit as he moved around. Shame flooded my veins when I realized that I had never once had a fully licensed avian chiropractor out to give him a spinal adjustment.

Then I considered my failure to build trust in the bird. I had left that poor animal in a state where he was not certain that he could count on me to provide him with food. He was working hard to make me see my failure to satisfy his need to know that he could trust me to provide for his every whim.

I went deeper and considered my selfishness in planting seed in that pasture. I knew that I wanted grass there, but had I ever stopped to check and see if the chickens might want to use the entire eight acres for a dust bath? Sadly, I came to realize I was not placing the interests of the chickens above my selfish interests.

Then I stopped to consider the fact that I might be pushing the rooster too fast in his training. I had never allowed him to have time to just be a little chick. Worst of all, and it hurts to put this in print, I had tried to cut corners and save money on his training by only purchasing the first thirty seven tapes on proper chicken human interaction. I tried to wing it without the last seventy four tapes in the series.

It was only at that point that I discovered a fundamental flaw in all of my analysis.

I had forgotten that he was a chicken and that eating grain from the ground was what they naturally do.

If there was only some way to apply that insight to horses. One could save a fortune on books, tapes,, videos, training devices, classes, clinics, supplements, equine hypnotists, equine life coaches, equine fashion consultants.......

But obviously that cannot the done. If it could people would not be spending all of that money on something as fundamentally simple as communication.


(Here is s picture of a Spanish mustang mare that will likely join our program very soon. I mean, after I ask the chickens if it will be ok with them.)