somewhere back in his history, some human was so obsessed with ego that spurs were used violently enough to leave more than eighty scars in his sides. There is simply no acceptable excuse for that sort of treatment of another living being.
Either Skeeter didn’t like what he was doing and had to be forced to do it with extreme spurring or he hadn’t been well trained and therefore didn’t understand what he was doing well enough to do it without injury.
From the day he arrived at our place, watching his expressions has tickled me to laughter. He loves his new life, but his scrunched eyebrows and big questioning eyes seem to belie a fear that any minute he might be awakened from a spectacular dream.
He won’t be. That’s our promise to Skeeter.
He joined the herd in our natural pasture, and for a while he seemed to not know what to do with all the space. He would just stand around, bug-eyed, and watch the others. Eventually he assimilated, but he still seems to be amazed that life can be so good. And we’ll not take that away from any of them.
“But ugh, being in a natural pasture 24/7, they stay so
dirty.
”
“Horses do like to roll.”
“I like my horses clean.”
That conversation actually happened. What was best for the horse was of no concern. What the human liked was the issue.
There’s a photo of a stalled horse in
Horse & Rider
magazine. Below the photo is this headline: I AM CONFINED…THEREFORE I AM AT RISK. The subhead: “Confinement-related stress can cause stomach ulcers in your horse—in just 5 days.” It’s an ad promoting medication for the ulcers. Not a word about eliminating the source of the stress or any discussion about other health problems that could be caused from a stress so tormenting that it produces stomach ulcers.
That same stress, according to Dr. Katherine Houpt, a leading animal behaviorist at Cornell University, in an interview in the same magazine, is responsible for virtually all of the so-called stall vices. Pawing, weaving, head bobbing, stall kicking, cribbing, wind sucking, wood chewing, and tongue lolling are all a direct result of the horse’s not being out with the herd, moving around, munching most of the time, with lots of roughage in his diet. Getting the horse out of the stall is all it takes. According to Dr. Houpt, these “vices” have never been observed in horses who live as mother nature intended. Considering the number of products being advertised to “solve” these problems, one has to offer kudos to
Horse & Rider
for having the courage to even publish such an article.
Humans trim their horses’ coats in winter to keep them
looking good
for the show ring. This undermines the horse’s ability to protect himself from the cold. Wearing blankets does the same thing. As does living in an enclosed barn, especially a climate-controlled barn. Yet this is the lifestyle of the majority of horses in the United States. Such accommodations, usually a small stall, also remove the horse’s ability to fulfill his need to move, which affects his feet, circulation, immune system, and general health, as mentioned earlier. And it takes him away from the herd, which causes more stress. And makes him unhappy. And, as you’ve also read before, often leaves him standing in his own urine and poop, which also adversely affects his feet, circulation, immune system, and general health.
And so it goes.
Humans have the most extraordinary ability in the world to rationalize.
When Dr. Matt came by to do the vet check on Skeeter, he was wielding a huge oval-shaped stone, much larger than a softball. It looked like a rock out of our pasture…but it was out of a horse. A horse who had been fed a diet of 100 percent alfalfa. Alfalfa is not grass hay; it is a legume, and alfalfa grown in the southwestern part of the United States is very high in magnesium and calcium, the building blocks of stones. Per pound, there is actually four times the amount of calcium in our alfalfa
Either Skeeter didn’t like what he was doing and had to be forced to do it with extreme spurring or he hadn’t been well trained and therefore didn’t understand what he was doing well enough to do it without injury.
From the day he arrived at our place, watching his expressions has tickled me to laughter. He loves his new life, but his scrunched eyebrows and big questioning eyes seem to belie a fear that any minute he might be awakened from a spectacular dream.
He won’t be. That’s our promise to Skeeter.
He joined the herd in our natural pasture, and for a while he seemed to not know what to do with all the space. He would just stand around, bug-eyed, and watch the others. Eventually he assimilated, but he still seems to be amazed that life can be so good. And we’ll not take that away from any of them.
“But ugh, being in a natural pasture 24/7, they stay so
dirty.
”
“Horses do like to roll.”
“I like my horses clean.”
That conversation actually happened. What was best for the horse was of no concern. What the human liked was the issue.
There’s a photo of a stalled horse in
Horse & Rider
magazine. Below the photo is this headline: I AM CONFINED…THEREFORE I AM AT RISK. The subhead: “Confinement-related stress can cause stomach ulcers in your horse—in just 5 days.” It’s an ad promoting medication for the ulcers. Not a word about eliminating the source of the stress or any discussion about other health problems that could be caused from a stress so tormenting that it produces stomach ulcers.
That same stress, according to Dr. Katherine Houpt, a leading animal behaviorist at Cornell University, in an interview in the same magazine, is responsible for virtually all of the so-called stall vices. Pawing, weaving, head bobbing, stall kicking, cribbing, wind sucking, wood chewing, and tongue lolling are all a direct result of the horse’s not being out with the herd, moving around, munching most of the time, with lots of roughage in his diet. Getting the horse out of the stall is all it takes. According to Dr. Houpt, these “vices” have never been observed in horses who live as mother nature intended. Considering the number of products being advertised to “solve” these problems, one has to offer kudos to
Horse & Rider
for having the courage to even publish such an article.
Humans trim their horses’ coats in winter to keep them
looking good
for the show ring. This undermines the horse’s ability to protect himself from the cold. Wearing blankets does the same thing. As does living in an enclosed barn, especially a climate-controlled barn. Yet this is the lifestyle of the majority of horses in the United States. Such accommodations, usually a small stall, also remove the horse’s ability to fulfill his need to move, which affects his feet, circulation, immune system, and general health, as mentioned earlier. And it takes him away from the herd, which causes more stress. And makes him unhappy. And, as you’ve also read before, often leaves him standing in his own urine and poop, which also adversely affects his feet, circulation, immune system, and general health.
And so it goes.
Humans have the most extraordinary ability in the world to rationalize.
When Dr. Matt came by to do the vet check on Skeeter, he was wielding a huge oval-shaped stone, much larger than a softball. It looked like a rock out of our pasture…but it was out of a horse. A horse who had been fed a diet of 100 percent alfalfa. Alfalfa is not grass hay; it is a legume, and alfalfa grown in the southwestern part of the United States is very high in magnesium and calcium, the building blocks of stones. Per pound, there is actually four times the amount of calcium in our alfalfa
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