03/30/2024
What does it take to make a happy horse?
In a nutshell, a humans willingness to perceive the truth over their own feelings, to keep their mind open, and to work endlessly on themselves.
I could say it takes good forage, and a herd, and movement and all that, which is true- but that becomes entangled in the first bit.
Having good feed requires a human to learn exactly what kind of feed a horse needs, and to let go of old standing notions that don’t do a horse much good. This means having the backbone to go against what friends, family, the barn owner, whatever, are saying. Or learning to do research well, and not get tangled into advertising, ending up with 100 supplements. To not get emotionally wrapped up in trying to “buy love” with food, and get in the end an overfed, under nourished horse.
Being out in a herd is a doozy, because it requires many to let go of worry- worry that the horse will become hurt by other horses or by moving in the pasture like a horse will. Or worry of loss of control. Or losing “emotional closeness” with the horse, where a horse in a happy, functional herd, loses interest in coming out to the human who before was their only companion. It requires the human to let go of pride, worry, and ego, all in one swoop.
Movement is the biggest trigger of them all-
A scared horse needs to move, but a scared horse is usually attached to a scared person trying to restrict movement. You can see all that working on fear might bring up, but usually human fear trumps horse fear, and becomes the center of focus. It’s a rare human who can and will work on themselves and their fear to a point where they can actually support the horse.
So there you have it- forage, friends, and movement are all a horse needs- and yet, you can see how much they need us to change to give these three very simple needs: a tireless and unending devotion to working on our own weaknesses and shortcomings