The first time I heard the word anthropomorphism my first thought was probably, "what?" followed by "not me". But the truth is every animal lover does this to some extent. Anthropomorphism is a big word for what we all do when we attach human emotions and feelings to our animals. Come on, you've done it. You've looked at your dog and thought, he must thing I am really dumb. Or you've heard your horse nicker when it hears you coming and thought, "she loves me." Yeah, I think we have all done it. What we probably all don't realize is that animals operate on a little more basic level than we give them credit for. (And she nickers because she wants you to do what you do best, dispense food.)
I see this all the time on public forums and pages. People wondering what to do when their horse turns its butt at them, is aggressive at feeding time, pushes on them, runs them over, etc... The answer, in my book, is fairly simple and straight forward. Whack 'em. Before you all freak out and start calling me an animal abuser, let me point out some fairly obvious facts.
1. Horses are large animals. Very large. Like 10 times my size or more large. Even if I hit my horse as hard as I physically can, I'm not going to do much, if any, damage. Of course, if I get a whip or worse, some kind of shovel, etc... that would cause damage. But let's just recall that horses are huge.
2. Horses have big strong teeth, big strong hooves and big strong legs attached to those hooves. Imagine being punched by a body builder. Yeah, that's what getting kicked can feel like or worse. And being bit by a horse, it isn't like the snake bite your older brother gave you, I can tell you that. Horses CAN kill you. That's not an opinion, that's a fact. And sorry, but I'm a strong follower in Darwinism. If it is gonna be me or the horse, it's gonna be me.
3. Horses are herd animals. They use the herd to protect themselves. It is that survival thing again. Because of herd dynamics, there will be a herd leader. Why shouldn't that herd leader be me? In fact, people who have been working with horses a lot longer than I have will tell you that your horse WANTS you to be the leader.
Let me tell you a little story to help illustrate this last fact. If you follow this blog, you know a little bit about our herd. We have a yearling POA colt who is a little cuddle bug in Sully. We have Joker, the slightly sassy (to his herd anyway), 3 year old gelding POA. We have Kenya, who is a 2 year old Appaloosa and almost 15 hands tall, and we have Peach, a 6 year old POA mare. Lastly we have my favorite 3 year old mare, China - weighing in at the biggest and tallest of the crew. Herd dynamics might surprise you. You can probably guess that Sully is at the bottom of the herd, but he is also one of China's favorites. That's important. Next to Sully at the bottom of the herd is Kenya. Surprising as she is the second largest. But she is even intimidated by Joker whom she towers over. She puts on a show with him by pinning her ears and turning her butt, but she has learned that she has to be all talk because Joker is not. In fact, I'm pretty sure maybe even Sully is above her. Sully and Kenya fight for the bottom spot. So we have Sully/Kenya, and a step above them is Joker, but a step above him is Peach. I was pretty sure that Peach would be herd boss. She is very invested in where her next meal is going to come from and not afraid to let the others know that she NEEDS to eat first.
However, China is also a herd boss. She's the kind of gentle but firm leader every herd needs. She doesn't go out of her way to chase or beat anyone up, but she will keep you in line and she does get first dibs on the food. When we put Peach and China together, I assumed there would be a battle royal for the position of top dog. This battle took all of 3 seconds. Peach went after China, China turned around and double barreled (kicked her with both back feet) Peach and Peach threw in the towel.
What's my point? China has beat up every single horse/pony in the pasture at least once. They all thought they would test her when they first were added to the herd. From time to time they may have moved out of her way too slowly or thought they might try to eat some of her food and had to be reminded that she is boss. She warns them by pinning her ears and then reminds them more firmly with teeth and feet. I guess what I'm trying to say is, China has beat the crap out of them all. Multiple times. If you are in the "kill them with kindness" mentality of horse training, you would believe that they all hate her and avoid her. This is not true. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
When we take China out of her pasture they all whinny and try to follow her out. Even Peach, who has been separated from her a few weeks now, went crazy when I brought China past her stall. She whinnied and ran and pressed her nose to the bars trying to get one more glimpse of her best friend forever. Peach, who should have the highest disdain for the mare that stole her top spot. Joker whinnies nonstop from the pasture until we put China back. Last year, Coupe loved China so much that we had to separate them just so he could keep a thought in his head when around her. All of those she has put in their place, love her. They all love China.
What is my point? My point is this. Whack 'em. Demand their respect. You're not going to hurt them, maybe it will sting for a split second, but the thought that you are telling them who was boss lasts a lot longer. They are looking for a herd leader, you need to prove that you are worthy. If you allow them to walk all over you, why would they respect you? And if they can't trust you to get their respect, why would they trust you to protect them from that oh so scary plastic bag blowing around in the corner of the arena. Get their respect, push them around, show they you are the boss and watch the magic happen.
Those of you in the kill 'em with kindness and get their love club, they will love you when they respect you. Ask China what works for her. When Peach pinned her ears and turned her butt, China didn't wrap her in a cozy hug and pet her. China whacked her a good one. I love to snuggle on my ponies and show them how much I care, WHEN they are being good. (Sully has the most kissable nose ever.) But if he tries to run me over, he's getting whacked. Stop thinking that horse's have human emotions. Survival - that's what horse's are programmed for. Flight and calories are their two biggest concerns where survival is concerned. Once you learn and accept that fact, working with and training horses becomes so much more enjoyable for the human and the horse. If you want to train a horse, think like a horse, not a human.
No comments:
Post a Comment