01/09/2023
Sadly we are So Behind on seeing pain and managing it in our equine freinds...Aren't we suppose to be more intelligent than they? Then why do we always ask them to come up to our level? Why can't we go down to theirs and figure out the cause and not just address the syptoms. Of course you can do a tack change and the symptoms visually go away. But you never figured out the why. We need to do better by them!
Riding through it.
Most riders can think back to a coach or trainer who was heavy handed and believed in riding a horse through it, or using increasing force to get their way with horses. Be it riding a horse harder to a jump after a refusal, or swapping out tack to exert force and control, to belittling the rider and saying they're not strong/tough enough on the horse and they're being "walked all over".
What these supposed coaches and trainers fail to understand is that coercion and force are not part of proper riding, neither is inflicting pain, physical or psychological. That all falls into another category which is miles away from compassionate, correct, proper riding.
When a horse is ridden through what some deem as bad behavior, we're telling the horse that we don't care about their physical and psychological well-being, and that they had just better do what they're told or face the consequences. If I were to swap out the horse for a child, or even a spouse, those same people would now say that it's abusive, but strangely enough it's not when it's inflicted on an animal.
That pinning of the ears, rooting at the bit, running away from the leg, biting at the girth, that is ALL communication. A horse can't exactly sit you down and have a chat about what's bothering them, so they communicate it in the only way they know how, and depend on us to listen.
