Have you ever compared a picture of a domesticated horse to one of her wild counter-parts?
Can you tell which horse is wild and which isn’t at first glance?
I can easily spot a picture of a wild horse. There’s a different look about them that’s not superficial or defeated and doesn’t cry “my spirit is gone.”
Just because a horse is domesticated, doesn’t give humans the right to strip them of their dignity and spirit for personal gain.
So, you may ask, why have horses in the first place if we’re not going to do anything with them? Or you may say, it’s common knowledge that you put horses in stalls, metal shoes on their hooves, and give them buckets of sweet feed.
It’s unfortunate that what most consider common knowledge about horses goes completely against their nature.”
What isn’t common knowledge is horse keeping naturally – that which lines up with a horse’s true nature – like they would live in the wild.
“Like they would live in the wild” is a foreign concept for most people.
The reason the concept is foreign is because humans have decided that horses must conform to the human’s environment.
A valid question is, “Horses are adaptable, so why wouldn’t you want them to adapt to the human’s environment?”
Playing devil’s advocate – you do want them to adapt. However, you don’t want them to adapt in such a way that degrades their health, well-being, dignity, and spirit, nor do you want to deprive them of a life of quality and longevity.
This type of counter-productive adaptation is the most dangerous threat to your horse’s health.
The best way to understand natural horse care is this:
Treat a horse like a horse not how humans think a horse should be treated.”
In order to adhere to this key principle, you must first understand your horse from her point of view.
Natural horse care is a subject that is simple, yet foreign, to most. That’s why it’s usually – at first – misunderstood and it’s difficult to grasp the principles that give your horse every opportunity to thrive.
Once you understand the principles of natural horse care, you can begin to gradually incorporate and adjust to those concepts. Over time, you’ll take the concepts I share with you and create a natural horse care program that lines up with your goals and your core values.
You may find that some of these concepts work for you and some don’t, but as you make those decisions, keep in mind that they do work for your horse.
Keep it soulful,
Stephanie Krahl
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Photo credit – original photo modified in size and to include the Soulful Equine name and URL
“Counter productive adaptation,” what an important phrase and rich topic.
It immediately called to mind the popular work of canine psychologist Cesar Milan. In virtually every case of a troubled canine there has been a failure by humans to make productive adaptations based on the nature of the animal. Or the humans have made mal adaptations in their own lives. Either way the animal is negatively impacted.
Stephanie, your work is so important for both equines and those willing to learn.
Hi GT, thanks for sharing and for your kind words. As far as counter productive adaptation, I see the most damage done to horses from not only a mental standpoint but especially physical.
A common pattern is that people try to apply human characteristics (thoughts and actions) to animals. These perceptions usually influence how people care for and interact with animals. Usually this type of behavior is destructive for the animal(s) in their care. Therefore, when it comes to the highly adaptable horse, they will adapt to an unhealthy situation or environment.
I never understand how all other aspects of animal welfare have changed with the times, as we learn about animal behaviour. Chickens are mostly no longer kept in crates to lay eggs, but are free range, zoo animals are no longer kept in small cages but given large enclosures here they can express their natural behviour and yet for the majority of horses and certainly in the professional side of things nothing has changed for centuries. They are still kept in cages that we call stalls, have iron shoes nailed on to their feet (if you tried to do that to oxen now a days like they used to do in medieval times it would be classed as barbaric!), they are beaten on a regular basis (yet we no longer whip any other animal to make it behave the way we want), and they have bits put in their mouths to make them perform as wanted (rings through the noses of bulls and pigs is now considered cruel as a method of control!).
So why are horses different, I think it is because they don’t react like other animals, they just submit to our abuse and slowly die inside, those that do react are classed as dangerous and usually destroyed. The real difference between wild horses and domestic ones is that most domestic horses kept ‘traditionally’ are dead or dying inside and I find that very very sad.
Articles like this are going a long way to helping people see that there is another way and hopefully one day all horses will be given the chance to live and not just survive.