10/10/2022
Sometimes it's not ulcers.
Sometimes it's not kissing spine.
Sometimes it's not EPM.
Sometimes it's not the bit.
Sometimes it's not the saddle.
Sometimes it's not the trainer.
Sometimes it's the fact you're a crazy human who continues to anthropomorphise these behaviours and insist that it couldn’t possibly be a pain related issue or anything related to you.
Sometimes it’s the fact that your horse was designed for the purpose of moving 20+ kilometres per day with their head down grazing and is now confined to a box stall and fed up on high energy grain whilst going without hay for hours each day, creating a sore tummy and a greater likelihood of having ulcers as a domestic horse than not in addition to being chronically understimulated and largely unable to exercise unless they have a human on their back playing puppeteer.
Sometimes it's the fact that you dress your horse in a variety of equipment with the purpose of restricting the movement of their mouth (flash) or creating more leverage for you to be able to ride and direct them easier by using a number of different harsher bits or gadgets like draw reins. This effectively removes any ability for quiet communication, so when your horse can’t take it anymore, they must get louder.
Sometimes it’s the fact that way too many unqualified trainers play saddle fitter and tell students their tack fits when it actually does not.
Sometimes it's the fact that your horse absolutely adores running away from you because it is one of the few things that brings them relief from the otherwise high pressure, high stress lifestyle that can be rides, especially when their communication of stress and/or discomfort is being labelled as personality and otherwise viewed through an anthropomorphic lens.
Sometimes it's the fact that you think your horse will wait for you while you mount or dismount but your horse is chronically stressed and cannot fathom the idea of standing still for a couple of seconds while they’re in fight or flight mode so they instead use the opportunity for relief by moving.
Sometimes it's the fact that the majority of the stress and avoidance behaviours we see ARE correlated with mental and/or physical discomfort and have shown consistent correlation in extensive equine behaviours studies.
Sometimes it’s the fact that we have a 70-90% rate of stomach ulceration in domesticated horses so your horse is more likely to have them than not.
Sometimes, the issue is that we as humans are really great at denying anything that would push us to self reflect and see the gravity of what is an industry wide issue of ignoring the horse and then when they finally get loud so we have to notice, blaming their loud behaviours once again on them.
Horses do not lie, their behaviour is honest. Humans, on the other hand, DO lie. Especially to themselves. To protect from having to sit information that is hard to hear.
It’s taking the easy way out to anthropomorphise your horse. But, I can promise you that if you actually put the time, money and belief into diagnostic work, you will have a very good chance of finding out what physical issue is causing their behaviour. Many who claim it can’t be pain related just don’t actually put the work in to find out because the real truth is often expensive and could be painful. For years, I avoided the truth for the same reason, all without knowing that was why.
If you learn to look for the reason behind their unwanted behaviour instead of just looking at the behaviour at face value, you also may find what situations, equipment and other factors contribute to it.
If you consider ruling out pain first and honestly looking at your horse’s living situation from a welfare standpoint, you may just realize how often pain and inadequate management cause behavioural issues, because these factors are behind the vast majority of issues we run into with horses.
After all, I thought it was “never the horse’s fault” or are we just saying that to sound good?
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