17/05/2017
Hi Ya'll - who loves a challenge? I will be doing the 5X4 challenge with my mare Nala this month between now and when I head to the USA in June - who else is in?
I have been thinking about the ‘Love’ aspect of Love, Language and Leadership as referred to in the Parelli Program - what it means in relation to some trends that I have been seeing in the local horsemanship world. It seems to me that lots of us are doing a pretty great job about learning how horses communicate and then in turn trying to teach interact and communicate with them in more ethical ways BUT often we are not taking into account our horse’s physical limitations or fitness level when we ask things of them. I also seeing a lot of issues around transporting and floating horses that are not in the horse’s best interest. I am one to try and keep things positive but there are a few issues that I am consistently seeing at the moment that are not in line with the ‘love’ element of natural horsemanship that I wish to address.
1) Unfit horses getting asked to do way too much.
Have you ever been to the gym – not having gone for ages done a class and then been sore for a few days afterwards? I am guessing the answer may be yes – sure you have done a bit of incidental exercise here and there but not quite like that thrashing you gave yourself at the gym. After my first and only pump class I could hardly even sit on the toilet for a week!! This is what it must be like for our horses when we maybe do a light play or a little ride once or twice a week (a bit like us doing some light exercise like taking a walk) but then decide to go to a 3 day long intensive clinic where we play and ride them morning and afternoon. People might say yes but they are horses, designed to do X number of miles a day. I do agree but not with an often unbalanced load on their back and going in strait and curved lines not corners and circles which are harder on the horse’s bodys. When horses and humans build muscle it is because all the little muscle fibres tear and have to rebuild (super cool fact – don’t just take my word for it, check it out on Dr Google) – OUCH!
Bottom line is if we are expecting our horses to go out and do these intensive clinics or activities they need to be well prepared – by that I mean not one of two little rides a week but a gradual build up in exercise 4+ rides per week……
I’m not having a go a weekend or pleasure riders here, as long as they are taking it easy and doing light rides that are proportionate to their horses fitness then that is great :-D
People are often surprised to hear that provided my horses are sound they get played with and ridden most days (Well Cloud is more of a pet and a kids horse due to his hip problems but the Warmbloods work pretty hard). I just quietly get out there, do my thing and develop the horses as best as I can which leads me to my next though – that horses need to move and work in a posture that is good for their health.
2) Horses being consistently worked online or under saddle with poor body posture
I understand that we all have to start somewhere and learning to ride and handle horses can be a bit messy. We have horses in our learning journey that are sacrificial lambs that put up with our learning and fumbles along the way (huge thank you Strider
