Well said
Kidostud
Posts: 307 Member
Horses live and thrive in wide range of environments, from the wilds of the Shetland Isles, the deserts of Arabia, the fjords of Scandinavia to the steppes of Mongolia. They do this with little or no intervention from humans, so why do we as horse owners feel the need to micromanage everything for them
We weigh out every morsel of food, add this potion and that supplement to make sure they have the ‘ideal’ balance, do we do this with our own diet, or our childrens? Scientist are still arguing about the ideal human diet, so why would they have nailed down the perfect equine diet?. Who does this for the horses in the wild, they do, or more correctly nature does but grazing and browsing on as many as 80 species of plants, to ensure a good nutritional/mineral mix. It is important that you create as diverse a mix of plant species in your pasture as possible to allow horses access to a balanced diet. When we have prepared this gastronomic delight we then cart it out to them in buckets or wheelbarrows or walk out in the wind and rain dole out vast quantities of hay (which is dried grass just in case you hadn’t realised) to your ‘natural’ track system?? . In the wild horse walk to get their own feed, although I am sure they would appreciate it being brought to them.
Then everytime the wind changes we put on the latest thermal/waterproof rug because commercial and peer pressure says we should. Or we lock them into our very expensive stables and create even more work for ourselves. We are not against rugs or stables, but we are against the inappropriate and overuse or both which seems to be the norm. Again in the wild, horses take themselves to and from sheltered areas when the need arises, we need to create sheltered areas, or use trees and bushes and allow our horses access to these areas when needed.
Finally we buy this gadget or that gadget to fixed alleged problems with our horses, or go along to a whole stream of training gurus all promising to give you the tools to sort out you and your special horse. Instead educate yourself into equine behaviour and why they do the things they do. It is possible to use their behaviour to benefit both us as owners and them as horses rather than fighting millions of year of behavioural evolution.
Keep things simple, horse owners have a knack of overcomplicating things. I am not saying we should let our horses just get on with it. We have chosen to include them in our lifestyle and we therefore have the responsibility to make sure that their needs are met. But we also have a responsibility to ourselves and just and importantly our families to make sure there is a balance to the time and energy and money we spend on our horses. And finally it is important to acknowledge and understand the role we play in the environment and we must take ownership of this and do all we can to enhance our environment rather than placing upon it unnecessary and unsustainable pressures.
It must be so difficult with all this tempting and often contradictory information out there but we say over and over again, when in doubt take everything back to basics and start from there. Education is the key to understanding how and why things work (or don’t work). We learn new things every day and the more we learn, the less we know but it is an exciting journey.
We weigh out every morsel of food, add this potion and that supplement to make sure they have the ‘ideal’ balance, do we do this with our own diet, or our childrens? Scientist are still arguing about the ideal human diet, so why would they have nailed down the perfect equine diet?. Who does this for the horses in the wild, they do, or more correctly nature does but grazing and browsing on as many as 80 species of plants, to ensure a good nutritional/mineral mix. It is important that you create as diverse a mix of plant species in your pasture as possible to allow horses access to a balanced diet. When we have prepared this gastronomic delight we then cart it out to them in buckets or wheelbarrows or walk out in the wind and rain dole out vast quantities of hay (which is dried grass just in case you hadn’t realised) to your ‘natural’ track system?? . In the wild horse walk to get their own feed, although I am sure they would appreciate it being brought to them.
Then everytime the wind changes we put on the latest thermal/waterproof rug because commercial and peer pressure says we should. Or we lock them into our very expensive stables and create even more work for ourselves. We are not against rugs or stables, but we are against the inappropriate and overuse or both which seems to be the norm. Again in the wild, horses take themselves to and from sheltered areas when the need arises, we need to create sheltered areas, or use trees and bushes and allow our horses access to these areas when needed.
Finally we buy this gadget or that gadget to fixed alleged problems with our horses, or go along to a whole stream of training gurus all promising to give you the tools to sort out you and your special horse. Instead educate yourself into equine behaviour and why they do the things they do. It is possible to use their behaviour to benefit both us as owners and them as horses rather than fighting millions of year of behavioural evolution.
Keep things simple, horse owners have a knack of overcomplicating things. I am not saying we should let our horses just get on with it. We have chosen to include them in our lifestyle and we therefore have the responsibility to make sure that their needs are met. But we also have a responsibility to ourselves and just and importantly our families to make sure there is a balance to the time and energy and money we spend on our horses. And finally it is important to acknowledge and understand the role we play in the environment and we must take ownership of this and do all we can to enhance our environment rather than placing upon it unnecessary and unsustainable pressures.
It must be so difficult with all this tempting and often contradictory information out there but we say over and over again, when in doubt take everything back to basics and start from there. Education is the key to understanding how and why things work (or don’t work). We learn new things every day and the more we learn, the less we know but it is an exciting journey.
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I saw the above post on Facebook and thought it was quite well said!0
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