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- Herausgeber: tredition
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
Your horse is testing you", "You can't let the horse win", "You have to be the lead animal for your horse," and many similar phrases are still on everyone's lips and minds, believed, taken to heart when dealing with horses, and passed on to others. But are they really true? What exactly is your horse testing? And what does it want to win? This book sheds light on these and other questions and encourages you to take a closer look.
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Seitenzahl: 83
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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“Your horse is testing you“
and other myths and misconceptions from the world of horses and riders.
An eye opener.
© 2023 Daniela Vögele
Cover design by: Daniela Vögele
(www.vertrauenstattdominanz.de)
ISBN Softcover: 978-3-347-96829-5
ISBN E-Book: 978-3-347-96830-1
Printing and distribution on behalf of :
tredition GmbH, An der Strusbek 10, 22926
Ahrensburg, Germany.
The work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. The author is responsible for the contents. Any exploitation is prohibited without the written consent of the author. Publication and distribution are done on behalf of, to be reached at: tredition GmbH, Department "Imprint Service", An der Strusbek 10, 22926 Ahrensburg, German
Preface
In December 2022, I asked followers via my social media channels to send me phrases about horses that are often said and heard in the equestrian and horse world.
Phrases, that have determined how horses are evaluated and treated for many, many years and that have caused countless misunderstandings and pain too.
Phrases that are still passed on and believed.
My idea was to create an Advent calendar and shed new light on one of these phrases each for 24 days.
My activities on social media are moderate, I'm not completely friends with them, possibly because I easily feel overloaded by the number and frequency of contributions. The amount of contributions tends to irritate me rather than inspire me, although I am aware that on social media a certain over presence is necessary to be noticed at all.
I, however, am one of those people who tend to lose interest when confronted with five rows of cereals in the supermarket… But I do feel an inner urge to help animals, especially horses, who are so subtle and wise and who are seldomly heard and, above all, understood.
Hence, I decided to publish this little book and I hope that it will travel far, reach more people and contribute to a change in interacting with horses.
Not only from my professional practice and experience have I realised that, if you want to help horses, you have to help people first.
With this book I do not claim to be understood as the voice of the horses.
Horses speak for themselves and in this they are very authentic and genuine at all times.
Rather, I want to inspire people to look more closely, to learn to listen and to understand their animals, and perhaps even to help them open up to learning a lot about themselves in the process.
Once people start to listen and understand, the first step is taken and horses and their humans can embark together on new inspiring and sometimes even enlightening paths.
Together they can find their individual ways of doing things together, learn to trust each other and connect with each other in a mindful, empathetic and appreciative way.
Even though opinions on training, horse health, riding styles, etc. differ greatly, I believe, that all horse people have one thing in common:
The love for their animals.
May this love be the door to more understanding for horses.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
1. "You Have to be the Boss with Your Horse."
2. “Food Reward Has No Place in the Horsehuman Relationship/ Never Feed from the Hand, Otherwise the Horse Will Lose Respect.”
3. "You Decide When Your Horse Puts Its Hoof Down".
4. "You Must Not Show Your Horse That You are Afraid."
5. "If the Horse is Worked Properly, Four Hours Turnout on a Paddock a Day are Enough."
6. "A Horse Needs a Job."
7. "The Horse Must Not Rub Its Head against You Because That is Disrespectful."
8. "Your Horse is Taking the Mickey!"
9. "Oh, a Smack like That is Okay! They Treat Each Other Much Worse."
10. "He's Always Been like That".
11. "Assert Yourself for Once! Increase the Pressure If He Doesn't Respond! You Can't Let Him Win."
12. "You Have to Ride over the Fear."
13. "A Horse is Not Allowed to Say No."
14. "Mixed Herd Keeping Does Not Work".
15. "Don't Let Him Get Away with It or He'll Learn It for the Next Time."
16. "The Horse Has to Function."
17. "Horses Need to be Ridden Every Day."
18. „Your Horse is Testing You.“
19. “Horses Have the Intelligence of a 3-Year-Old Child”/ “A Horse Should Have Learned What It Needs to be Able to Do by the Age of 7, after That It is Too Late.”
20. "The Horse is Imagining Things".
21. “Horses Must be Broken in at the Age of 3 Years.”
22. "The Horse Must Respect the Human".
23. "Well, He Has to Go through This."
24. "The Horse Must Know the Boundaries of the Human".
Epilogue
"Your horse is testing you"
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
Epilogue
"Your horse is testing you"
Cover
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1
"You have to be the boss with your horse."
I have not met a single horse person, who has never heard, or who has not learnt, that you have to be the alpha animal for your horse, the leader, the boss.
As will be shown in the course of this book, this misconception is the basis and the reason for many more misunderstandings between horse and human and for much frustration on both sides too.
The boss, leader or alpha animal theory takes the supposedly natural behaviour of horses as its basis.
It was thought that observations of horses had shown that in a herd, there is an alpha or leader animal that tells the other horses what to do.
In other words, a horse that has the voice that all other horses follow and that they always give way to.
This theory was disproved quite a while ago and it has been found that the behaviour on which this theory is based has only been observed in horses in captivity and when resources are scarce. That is, when there is too little space/too many horses in too small a space, not enough food or feeding places, no permanently stable herd community and other disturbing factors that can lead to aggression within a group of horses.
You could perhaps compare it to living in a big city, where there are too many people, where the atmosphere is charged and the stress level is increased.
This means, that for decades, we have used unnatural horse behaviour as a model, behaviour which horses only show in managed lifestyles that are unfavourable for them. We were told that communication would work if we behaved like a dominant leader.
By communication we understood that the horse should understand what we ask, that it receives, understands and carries out our commands and not what communication should actually be: the exchange between two beings; between sender and receiver, whereby both sender and receiver are and should always be both within a communication.
Horses are by nature very peace-loving and social beings and they like to connect. Preferably to one or several other horses but also to the human, as long as the human is trustworthy and reliable and they like to be with them.
Every horse has one or more tasks in its herd. These result from the respective abilities that a horse brings with it.
The horse that other horses follow most willingly is the horse that is most experienced and thus enjoys the trust of the other horses. This does not mean, however, that a less experienced horse of the herd cannot make a suggestion or that all horses follow the most trustworthy horse in each and every situation.
A herd leader is not characterised by brusque, dominant behaviour and constant control. He is reliable and the other horses trust it.
We were told to be dominant and sometimes rough with our horses in order to enforce what we want from them or to prevent them from doing something we don't want and which could be or become dangerous. We learnt that we need to control the horses to keep us and the horse safe.
Dominance and control were supposed to give us the safety we wanted and needed when interacting with the horse.
And behind all this, sits this one feeling: fear. Fear of losing control.
