Stajnia Połomia

01/11/2024

LE MESSAGE DES CHEVAUX
On dit souvent qu’on reproche aux autres ce qu’on a du mal à accepter chez nous-mêmes.

Je pense qu’avant même d’en arriver là, on demande au quotidien à nos chevaux de faire ce que nous ne faisons pas l’effort de faire nous-mêmes.
Nous attendons d’eux qu’ils soient calmes et posés alors que nous sommes nous-mêmes constamment stressés et agités.

Nous leur demandons d’être concentrés et connectés alors que nous sommes distraits par le moindre bruit, le moindre regard extérieur et que nous ne sommes même pas connectés à notre propre corps et conscients de nos propres gestes.

Nous attendons d’eux d’être parfaits parce que nous n’acceptons pas nos propres imperfections.

Nous attendons qu’ils nous donnent un amour inconditionnel, quand nous confondons l’amour avec le fait de donner des carottes et que nous passons la majorité de notre temps sur notre téléphone ou à papoter avec les autres cavaliers du club sans prêter attention à notre cheval, que nous lui donnons des surnoms dégradants et que nous ne lui montrons des marques d’amour que s’il nous a offert une séance que nous considérons bonne.

Nous attendons qu’ils nous donnent le meilleur d’eux-mêmes alors que nous sommes généralement trop fainéants pour sortir de notre zone de confort quand il s’agit de progresser, trop occupés à nous complaire dans la culpabilité, les raisons pour lesquelles nous n’y arriverons pas ou à craindre le regard des autres et les critiques qu’ils pourraient nous faire.

Je suis convaincu que les chevaux nous attendent.

Avec une patience infinie, ils attendent que nous soyons prêts à les écouter, et à les voir vraiment.

Ils sont porteurs d’un message d’une puissance inouïe et dont l’Humanité a terriblement besoin aujourd’hui.

Un message qui nous rappelle que nous avons un corps, un cœur et un potentiel immense auquel souvent nous ne croyons pas.

Qu’on les monte ou non, qu’on utilise une cordelette, des rênes, un mors ou un licol, si nous oublions de les voir, de les sentir et d’écouter ce qu’ils tentent de nous faire comprendre, nous aurons beau faire le plus beau des piaffés, ne jamais les perdre en liberté ou passer des heures à les regarder en prairie sous prétexte de ne pas vouloir les exploiter, nous passerons systématiquement à côté de l’essentiel et de ce qu’ils ont réellement à nous offrir.

Ce que chacun fait avec les chevaux, la discipline que nous choisissons ou ne choisissons pas, importe peu à mes yeux.

Ce qui compte, c’est le sens qu’on donne à cette relation, à ces exercices, à cette discipline, et ce qu’on est prêt à apprendre sur nous-mêmes en la pratiquant.

Pierre Beaupère.

Photo par Céline Bo****no - Photographe Équestre

29/10/2024

13/09/2024

The two pictured dressage riders demonstrate the one of the most egregious" changes in dressage over the past several decades. The left rider is balanced in shared unity of motion with his horse. His saddle is minimal and does not aid or restrict his position. By contrast, the modern dressage rider is leaning back with the help of a saddle with a high cantle and huge thigh blocks or knee rolls that allow her to lean back and use her body weight to increase her ability to apply greater rein pressure.

The visual difference between the riders is inescapable. One rider is relaxed and balanced while the other is unbalanced, "water skiing" off their horse's mouth with the help of a saddle that contains her imbalance. One rider works with their horse's energy while the other opposes their horse's energy with significant force.

Centuries old horsemanship is the distillation of the experience of thousands of riders with countless horses over centuries. This leaning back to enable riders to use their body weight to apply greater force to control their horses is not new. Because it is wrong, as evidenced by blue tongues and blood from horses' mouths, and because it is counter to true unity with one's horse, there has been a long standing rule of horsemanship to stop it. That rule states that riders should not be allowed to lean back more than 5 degrees behind vertical.

In our new commercial era of modern riding, each discipline has more or less created their own separate "horsemanship" with their own set of rules and standards. Many of these separate "horsemanships" have subordinated the protection of the horse in favor of fulfilling the expectations and desires of the riders. In this case of excessive rein pressure, abandoning the 5 degree rule gave modern dressage riders permission to use more physical force to impose on horses at the horse's expense and to their detriment.

Furthermore, abandonment of the 5 degree rule has required external supports in saddle design to deal with the rider's intentional imbalance when leaning back 10, 15 or even 20 degrees. Without the high cantles and giant thigh blocks, a rider leaning back past 5 degrees would likely fall off their horse.

This is one more example of how today's flawed riding that undermines the wellbeing of horses can be fixed. There is no need to ban certain bits and equipment. The need is to improve riding to the level that it is no longer destructive to horses.

If the 5 degree rule were to be reintroduced, riders would once again be required to ride in unified balance with and motion with their horses. This single change would greatly reduce the current level of excessive force applied to horses by simply making it much more difficult to develop the greater force levels that now cause the blood, blue tongues and the destructive hyperflexion.

A big part of these kinds of problems is that the well meaning advocates for the protection of horses are not educated enough to address the causes. Instead they address the symptoms related to equipment. Improved horsemanship is always the answer, and we have largely forgotten this.

16/08/2024

"New Home Syndrome"🤓

I am coining this term to bring recognition, respect, and understanding to what happens to horses when they move homes. This situation involves removing them from an environment and set of routines they have become familiar with, and placing them somewhere completely different with new people and different ways of doing things.

Why call it a syndrome?

Well, really it is! A syndrome is a term used to describe a set of symptoms that consistently occur together and can be tied to certain factors such as infections, genetic predispositions, conditions, or environmental influences. It is also used when the exact cause of the symptoms is not fully understood or when it is not connected with a well-defined disease. In this case, "New Home Syndrome" is connected to a horse being placed in a new home where its entire world changes, leading to psychological and physiological impacts. While it might be transient, the ramifications can be significant for both the horse and anyone handling or riding it.

Let me explain...

Think about how good it feels to get home after a busy day. How comfortable your favourite clothes are, how well you sleep in your own bed compared to a strange bed, and how you can really relax at home. This is because home is safe and familiar. At home, the part of you that keeps an eye out for potential danger turns down to a low setting. It does this because home is your safe place (and if it is not, this blog will also explain why a lack of a safe place is detrimental).

Therefore, the first symptom of horses experiencing "New Home Syndrome" is being unsettled, prone to anxiety, or difficult behaviour. If you have owned them before you moved them, you struggle to recognise your horse, feeling as if your horse has been replaced by a frustrating version. If the horse is new to you, you might wonder if you were conned, if the horse was drugged when you rode it, or if you were lied to about the horse's true nature.

A horse with "New Home Syndrome" will be a stressed version of itself, on high alert, with a drastically reduced ability to cope. Horses don't handle change like humans do. If you appreciate the comfort of your own home and how you can relax there, you should be able to understand what the horse is experiencing.

Respecting that horses interpret and process their environments differently from us helps in understanding why your horse is being frustrating and recognising that there is a good chance you were not lied to or that the horse was not drugged.

Horses have survived through evolution by being highly aware of their environments. Change is a significant challenge for them because they notice the slightest differences, not just visually but also through sound, smell, feel, and other senses. Humans generalise and categorise, making it easy for us to navigate familiar environments like shopping centres. Horses do not generalise in the same way; everything new is different to them, and they need proof of safety before they can habituate and feel secure. When their entire world changes, it is deeply stressful.

They struggle to sleep until they feel safe, leading to sleep deprivation and increased difficulty.

But there is more...

Not only do you find comfort in your home environment and your nervous system downregulates, but you also find comfort in routines. Routines are habits, and habits are easy. When a routine changes or something has to be navigated differently, things get difficult. For example, my local supermarket is undergoing renovations. After four years of shopping there, it is extremely frustrating to have to work out where everything is now. Every day it gets moved due to the store being refitted section by section. This annoyance is shared by other shoppers and even the staff.

So, consider the horse. Not only are they confronted with the challenge of figuring out whether they are safe in all aspects of their new home while being sleep deprived, but every single routine and encounter is different. Then, their owner or new owner starts getting critical and concerned because the horse suddenly seems untrained or difficult. The horse they thought they owned or bought is not meeting their expectations, leading to conflict, resistance, explosiveness, hypersensitivity, and frustration.

The horse acts as if it knows little because it is stressed and because the routines and habits it has learned have disappeared. If you are a new human for the horse, you feel, move, and communicate differently from what it is used to. The way you hold the reins, your body movements in the saddle, the position of your leg – every single routine of communication between horse and person is now different. I explain to people that when you get a new horse, you have to imprint yourself and your way of communicating onto the horse. You have to introduce yourself and take the time to spell out your cues so that they get to know you.

Therefore, when you move a horse to a new home or get a new horse, your horse will go through a phase called "New Home Syndrome," and it will be significant for them. Appreciating this helps them get through it because they are incredible and can succeed. The more you understand and help the horse learn it is safe in its new environment and navigate the new routines and habits you introduce, the faster "New Home Syndrome" will pass.
"New Home Syndrome" will be prevalent in a horse’s life until they have learned to trust the safety of the environment (and all that entails) and the humans they meet and interact with. With strategic and understanding approaches, this may take weeks, and their nervous systems will start downgrading their high alert status. However, for some horses, it can take a couple of years to fully feel at ease in their new home.

So, next time you move your horse or acquire a new horse and it starts behaving erratically or being difficult, it is not being "stupid", you might not have been lied to or the horse "drugged" - your horse is just experiencing an episode of understandable "New Home Syndrome." And you can help this.❤

I would be grateful if you could please share, this reality for horses needs to be better appreciated ❤
‼️When I say SHARE that does not mean plagiarise my work…it is seriously not cool to copy and paste these words and make out you have written it yourself‼️

13/05/2024

Kilka faktów o tym jak funkcjonuje koński mózg:
- mózg konia wysyła 6 razy mniej informacji do oka niż mózg człowieka. Czyli koń jest lepszy w postrzeganiu realnego świata i nie jest tak podatny na iluzję jak człowiek.
- konie mogą uczyć się i zapamiętywać złożone zadania, takie jak pokonywanie parkuru czy wykonywanie programu ujeżdżania, na zasadzie skojarzeń. Obserwacja to również ważny proces przez, który mogą uczyć się nowych zachowań.
- potrafią bardzo szybko i dokładnie przetwarzać informacje wizualne, co pozwala im unikać potencjalnych zagrożeń i z łatwością poruszać się po otoczeniu. Sygnał zarejestrowany w korze wzrokowej jest wysyłany bezpośrednio do kory motorycznej. U człowieka takie informacje są przekazywane, “po drodze”, do kory przedczołowej i tam analizowane.
- biorąc pod uwagę budowę anatomiczną mózgu konia można przyjąć, że węch jest jego najważniejszym zmysłem.
- słabo rozwinięta kategoryzacja percepcyjna: dla człowieka, jeden przedmiot widziany z różnych perspektyw pozostaje tym samym obiektem. Dla konia są to różne przedmioty.
- dostrzegają najmniejsze zmiany, których my nie zauważamy.
- konie nie mają kory przedczołowej, więc nie mogą “budować planów na przyszłość”, przygotowywać zemstę czy snuć sieć intryg.
- mózg przetwarza sygnały bólu w taki sposób, że jego próg jest dosyć wysoki. Oznacza to, że konie mogą nie wykazywać oczywistych oznak bólu, co utrudnia ich opiekunom wykrywanie i leczenie podstawowych problemów zdrowotnych.
- konie mają świetną pamięć i zapamiętują konkretnych ludzi, miejsca i przeżycia przez wiele lat.
- aby wchodzić w interakcje z innymi końmi w swoim stadzie, konie komunikują się niewerbalnie. Ich mózg może interpretować najmniejsze, subtelne zmiany w mowie ciała, wyrazie twarzy i wokalizacji.
- ciało migdałowe umożliwia koniowi doświadczanie emocji a brak kory przedczołowej “zapobiega” ich ocenianiu. Taka kombinacja powoduje, że koń odczuwa różne nastroje ale ich nie analizuje. Dlatego konie nadają się do uczenia ludzi np. asertywności.
- hipokamp to ​​część mózgu odpowiedzialna za uczenie się i zapamiętywanie, która jest dobrze rozwinięty u koni. Pozwala im to zapamiętywać nie tylko konkretne doświadczenia, ale także ogólne koncepcje i wzorce, które mogą zastosować w nowych sytuacjach.
- konie mają osobowość i indywidualne cechy, które są kształtowane przez ich doświadczenia, genetykę i środowisko, wszystko to znajduje odzwierciedlenie w funkcjonowaniu ich mózgu.

11/05/2024

Raja zafundowała nam trochę bezsennych nocy ale mała klaczka już się pojawiła 😊 Szczęśliwym tatusiem jest Un Nuage D'Osmoz! W tym roku zbieramy propozycje imion na literę O 😊