A Change in Tone

There is another horse blog known for its tone and that tone is not one that I want to project. Today, for the third time in my life I looked at portions of that blog. I thought about the tone of my comments about conventional horse care in my last post. They were too harsh. There is no education in an insult and I hope to educate. I will work to keep my comments more positive.

By the way, this is my Corolla stallion, Trade Wind. He is a great trail horse and Secotan may have his little one this summer, making that foal the second pure Corolla born in the off site breeding program.

Being Loved to Death

Ignorance on the part of owners is at the root of most of the problems that horses face today. Too many well meaning horse owners think that obesity is a trait to be desired in horses. The horrible phrase used of halter competition horses the "Fat is the best color" embodies this ignorance. It is sad how many people think that it is cruel to refrain from feeding a fat horse "just a little can of grain."
Nearly as sad is the sight of so many horses who wear shoes "to protect their hooves" when the reality is that their hooves need to be protected from shoes. But surely nothing can be worse than the warm, comfortable stall. We punish humans by confining them in 8x12 prison cells, yet many, if not most, think that a stable is not only good for a horse, but is an absolute necessity. Every time I hear that horrible phrase, "turnout", I know that I am about to hear about a horse who is being abused by being kept confined in a stall for at least a portion of the day and allowed to be turned out to a more normal existence only for a portion of that day. For horses we call this horrid environment, full stable board. For humans we call it maximum security prison.
If you think that your horse loves his stable, just open the door and step back and see what decision he makes.
Lastly, and granted this is the hardest choice to make, but the decision to kill a horse is all too often spun into an act of love. I am not talking about horse slaughter, though it does sicken me to hear supposed horse lovers endorsing horse slaughter as a way to prevent neglect and abuse. I refer to those who demonstrate their love for horses by insisting that every horse going through a rough time should be put down to put it out of its misery. UNDERSTAND, I AM NOT REFERRING TO A PERSON WHO LOVES A HORSE THAT IS TRULY SUFFERING FROM AN INCURABLE HEALTH PROBLEM. I know of such a person who has been going through that horrible situation recently. I feel for her and there is no aspect of the horse-human relationship as painful as what she has been going through.
Instead, I refer to those who view horses as disposable and seek to prove how much they love horses, or all animals in general, by insisting that those who are infirm to the point that their infirmity is obvious be quickly, humanely killed.
Valor is a Corolla mare who was in such horrible condition that she had to be removed from the wild this spring. I do not know what her original health problem was, though I suspect that she had developed an infection from giving birth. Nursing her foal pulled her down even more. She had a heavy worm infestation which certainly resulted from the debilitation of her immune system by what ever brought her into this downward spiral. She was covered by engorged ticks as I had never seen any horse so infested. She was the most emaciated living creature that I had ever seen. She hobbled about with a hip so devoid of flesh and connective tissue that the hip did not support her. When I first saw her she did not seem to have the power to raise her head.
But she had the power to graze and if she wanted to fight to live I was not going to get in her way. Good hay, a range of wormers, minerals, and metamucil with several months of patience restored her. I have not seen her in a few months. After she regained her health she returned to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund to await adoption. Some lucky adopter will get a Corolla mare that is halter broke and tough as raw hide. I admire survivors and few horses have survived greater tests than Valor.
I knew of another Corolla whose health was not the best. He had to be removed from the wild, mainly because of his propensity to escape the sanctuary and get in the highway. A "horse lover" who saw him vehemently insisted that he be euthanized because he was "old and hungry."
That is him in the picture above, four months later. If any of you ever find me old and hungry, do not have me put down. Go get me a hot dog and some Geritol and I will be just fine.
Again, I know that there are times that the horrible decision to end equine suffering must be made and I am not criticizing those who have made that decision. I only wish that there were fewer people out there who "love" horses to death.

Horses Only Die

Confused folks. They say that I do not get to do anything else because I have to spend all my time with the horses. The reality is that I do not have to do anything else because I get to spend all of my time with the horses. I feel sorry for people who have never learned to enter a horse's world and spend time there. It is a wonderful place characterized by immutable closeness. Being part of the herd far surpasses being part of any club. My horses sometimes bite me and kick me, but the pain is so mild as to be best called discomfort. I certainly cannot be considered suffering and never approaches agony. The only pain, the only suffering, and the only agony occurs when they die. That is the only way they hurt me. Horses only die.

A Work to Be Done

Kids need horses. "Surplus" horses need homes. When we train kids in natural horsemanship we put the two together. The need for a national steering committee to promote the teaching of natural horsemanship to kids could not be clearer.
Registries, trainers, writers, and equine organizations need to set aside their perceived individual self interests to work together to promote a program that is in the interest of all horses and kids.
The sky is the limit. The kids in the photograph above worked with me during the summer of 2007 to start several colts, wild horse, and even a donkey. Through their work we trained eight equines to the degree that each was ridden on trails through the woods by the end of the summer. This was accomplished without a single buck with a rider on board. Not only was no one bucked off, no horse bucked with a rider.
Now for the point that the horse industry needs to understand. Only one of these kids came from a horse owning family. However, of the kids pictured seven are now horse owners.
Kids need horses. "Surplus" horses need homes. THE HORSE INDUSTRY NEEDS TO SELL HORSES. Teaching natural horsemanship to kids solves all three problems and continuing with business as usual insures that not one of these problems will be solved.

If I Could Write a Book...

Oh yeah, I did. Last weekend I prepared to take a Corolla stallion to show off at a horse expo and do a book signing. To my surprise, I discovered that I had sold all but one of the ones that I had at home. The book, entitled, "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them: Learning from Wild Horses and Small Children", has been very well received by readers. I plan to order another printing tonight, but one can order a copy now by hitting the link on our web site, www.msindianhorses.com.
I guess that all books have a story behind them, but this one came into being in a bit of an unusual way. For years I have been asked at my clinics if I had a book available. I never found the time to write a book, but I did have some essays and articles that I had not yet published that could form the core of a book. Though instructional, those essays tended to be lighted hearted and humorous. I slowly pecked along at building a book around those writings.
Then I found out my mother was dieing. I began to write at a furious pace. I wanted to have the manuscript together for her to read. I finished the draft just before she died. She was too weak to read any of it. My wife offered to read some of it to her but by then the pain medicine made it too difficult for her to concentrate enough to have it read to her.
She never got to hear a word of it. After the funeral I looked over my short manuscript and realized how little it said about what was special about the relationship that I try to teach my little riders to have with their horses. I wrote much more. I expected to weave the new portions seamlessly into the manuscript, but it did not flow as I expected.
Before the final copy went off to the publisher I realized the problem. Nothing that I wrote after my mother died was light hearted or humorous. Nor was it depressing. It simply said what I felt about--about kids, about horses, and about the elusive pursuit of happiness that my life had been. It is more honest than men usually are with themselves and, like my mustangs,it was just what I wanted, whether anyone else liked it or not.
If I wrote it today there are a few things that I would change. Some felt that I was too hard on the "established horse world." I was not hard enough, particularly on horse snobs. Another flaw was my insistence that stallions should not be gelded. I now recognize the value of geldings. At the time I wrote the book my bias in favor of stallions was misplaced.
Though it may sound a bit brash, I have always considered false modesty but be just another form of dishonesty. With that said, this is a good book.