Chronicles of the Brown Horse

30/03/2023

28/03/2023

15 minutes of walking, people! Just hang with your peeps while you walk around the arena together and warm your pony up ❤️

06/02/2023

02/02/2023

22/01/2023

🚨 What's in your EMERGENCY KIT? 🚨
Part 1/2.

I put this together recently for my friends at Strides Horsemanship, and includes what should be in your basic emergency kit:

1) A sturdy, easily visible bag
2) Stethoscope (learn the basics of how to use this BEFORE your emergency).
3) Thermometer
4) Headlamp (because animals love to do stupid stuff in the dark! 🤦🏼‍♀️). I prefer this over a flashlight or your phone because it keeps both hands free. Make sure it's charged or you have extra batteries!
5) Non-staining wound ointment
6) Forceps
7) Bandage scissors
8) Bandage materials -- non stick pads, cotton padding, brown gauze, vetwrap, elastikon tape. I also recommend diapers or maxi pads as they are designed to soak up and stop fluid (aka blood).
9) Rags

You can get pretty far in a lot of scenarios with these supplies until you are able to get veterinary care. It also helps us to gather important information and offer pre-visit guidance over the phone.

🚨 Stay tuned for Part 2, what should be in your medical emergency kit! 🚨

12/01/2023

Some years ago, I published the training outline I tend to follow with the horses and ponies who eventually carry the Keystone brand. Not all go on to drive in a carriage, I should add. They have to show an aptitude in the ground driving training and dragging harrows and whatnot, first.

One of you was asking about it yesterday and after searching, I just couldn’t find it. The ol’ whiteboard reads as follows, with many horses’ names added and taken off, over the years:

• Catching
• Ties
• Pickets
• Hobbles
• Loads/Hauls
• Backs out of trailer
• Good for farrier
• Deworming ease
• Clipping
• Walks/Trots
• Lopes
• Locks onto a circle
• Stops
• Reining back
• Side-passing
• Leg-yielding
• Gates open/closed
• Neck-reining
• Rides out with company
• Rides out alone
• Water crossings
• Cow work
• Works flag/mech. cow
• Rope work
• Flags/slicker
• Ground driving
• Turnarounds
• Lead changes
• Drills/patterns
• Hauled out to lessons
• Bathing
• Parades
• First show
• First branding pen
• Ba****ck
• Sidesaddle
• Jumping a small course
• Hitched up/stone boat/harrows
• Driving in carriage

With my trusty whiteboard, I can see at a glance who and what, exactly, is needing attention… and it’s been a boon when answering questions from possible buyers. By the time a horse or pony has made his, or her, way through this list, I’ve got an animal of which I am very sure—and very proud!

Yes, we’ve had quite a few stars who have ticked off every. single. box. This was the Welsh Cob, Kilties Royal Edition.

20/10/2022

PREY OR PREDATOR?

Something that I heard many times over many years is the importance of the prey/predator relationship between humans and horses. It seems when the subject of horse behaviour comes up one of the first things that come to a lot of minds is the notion that the relationship between humans and horses is dominated by the relationship between a prey animal (horse) and a predator (human). This view seems to have shaped the approach to horse training of many people.

I can’t recall ever hearing or reading Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt, Harry Whitney, etc talk about the relationship between people and horses in terms of a prey/predator relationship. I don’t think these really good horse people ever thought of it in those terms and never gave it any importance. But since the early days of Parelli Natural Horsemanship, the idea that a horse’s concern about humans comes from a natural fear of predator species has gained popularity. I guess it is a testament to Pat’s influence in the popular horse world – whether good or bad. After Pat started espousing this idea other people got on the bandwagon and added weight to the topic. To my knowledge, there is no substantive work to show that horses view predator species as friends or foes. It is just a theory and not much more.

There is no doubt horses exhibit fear or worry to all types of new experiences, but to claim that it is because something can be categorized as prey or predator seems to me to be far-fetched and alien to how horses actually see the world.

I certainly don’t believe that the reason horses and people don’t always get along has anything to do with the idea that the human is a predator species and the horse is a prey-type species. Horses are often scared of kangaroos, ostriches, wombats, sheep, and deer yet these are not predatory species. They are herbivores. They do not hunt. They are just like horses, yet many horses are naturally fearful of them.

Likewise, many horses are not afraid of predators. I have never owned a horse that showed fear of my dogs. Even horses that are worried by people can be okay with dogs. Zebra (another prey equine species) can be grazing very relaxed even when lions are roaming around the herd. They only become afraid when the lions go into hunting mode. They are not afraid of lions, they are afraid of lions hunting.

The behaviour of a horse towards a human is not shaped by the fact that we eat meat. It’s shaped by the fact that sometimes we present ourselves to horses in a way that makes them feel fearful for their safety. Our energy, lack of clarity, and our intent is what makes them alarmed. A horse can feel the same way about a sheep even though sheep do not eat meat and are not natural predators (hunters). But a sheep can act aggressively towards a horse and make the horse fearful. I had a ram that would attack the horses and they became very wary of it. At feeding time that ram could move any of the horses away from their food without fuss.

I want to get across the idea that just because we have the physical characteristics of a predatory does not explain why our horses may be wary of us. I know a trainer who use to tell people not to look a horse in the eye because it would be interpreted as threatening. Another trainer would turn away from a horse to encourage “join up” with him in a round pen because he said to face squarely to a horse was to challenge him. This is all nonsense in my opinion.

It’s not what you do; it’s the way you do it. Horses don’t care if a human is a predator species. But they do care if we act like a predator. They judge us by our intent and not the way our eyes are set into our heads. They don’t see predators, they see predatory behaviour.

Photo: Who’s the predator now sucker?