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.)

A 2010 Post revisted: Last One Out Close the Door and Turn Out the Light...

This post shows that sometimes a blog can be real two way communication. At the time I wrote this post I meant it 100% and had strongly held the belief for years. However, I know Dianne to be a very keen mind and her comment caused me to go look for someone out there that may have been writing lyrics with meaning . The search lead me to Gram Parsons, Steve Earle, Townes Va Zandt, Blaze Foley, and Levon Helm. It also lead me to do something that I never though that I would do--write lyrics and keep them.

For years I had written lyrics, gotten them the way I wanted them and then promptly threw them away. I genuinely felt that if a song was worth writing A.P. Carter would have written it and composing lyrics gave me an uncomfortable feeling of hubris. Now I do not mind putting down a word or two.

Hit this link for my earlier thoughts on the matter.  Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Last One Out Close the Door and Turn Out the Light...: A.P. Carter died before I was a year old. I was 19 when Maybelle Carter died and it was the first time that I just skipped class at Will...

A View from a Year Ago: The Next Step

We have moved forward in the past year. A summer of illness slowed things down but hit this link to an old post to see where we are going with the Gwaltney Colonial Frontier  Farm.Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: The Next Step: We are about to begin our step by step process to create our replicated homestead circa 1670. We will start on the Smoke house in the nex...

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Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Training With Raw Power and Domination: I am not averse to flexing. I believe in being modest and humble unless modesty and humility reach the point of dishonesty. Then they bec...

When I Was Twenty-One, It Was a Very Good Year (March 2009)

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: When I Was Twenty-One, It Was a Very Good Year: I wish every mustang owner, of every type of mustang, would quit acting like house slaves. For those not familiar with the term, house sla...