When arguing or discussing or debating a point, it always seems that the point always comes back to '' but horses in the wild'', or ''i will slap my horse as a reprimand, because in the wild they do it''. I'm sure you get the idea.
Okay, so here is my question; ( bare with me, I will get to the point)I have 5 cats, all of whom are fairly young, they are aged between 16 months to nearly 3 years, and have had them all since 6-10 weeks old. We have quite a large garden and backing onto it, is acres and acres of orchard, full of rabbits, pigeons, mice, shrews etc, now, cats, being cats, love to play and catch these animals, and we regularly get, once a week, our cats bring up a deceased rabbit or deceased pigeon, and I seem to always get the delight of clearing up in the morning, as I'm the first one up. Now, this morning, my cat was trying to catch a pigeon in the garden, and missed. It got me thinking- ever since I've had the cats, they've always chased animals- like they are playing with string, but, they have never eaten them. One of my cats has eaten a bird before, but apart from that, they very rarely seem to eat their catch. Now in the wild, they would most definitely chase after it. In fact, my cats are all ( bar one) quite small and get hares double their size. They seem to have no fear of catching something their size or bigger!!!
However, when they are around us, or small children- or even in the house with my guinea pig, they do not batter an eyelid, they quite contently sleep next to Boo and they seem to be happy as larry sleeping on our laps, or ignoring my hair dangling in front of them, ( well when they were babies this was not the case!!!). So, my cats seem to respond to different things differently, they will kill, but they will not eat as though they were in the wild. They also respond to us as humans, and my guinea pig, in the domestic environment a lot differently.
Right, let me try and get to the point.So, the common excuse as to why one will get rough with a horse, is because they do it in the wild. But nearly ALL of our horses, have not been bought up in the true wilderness, they obviously have horse instincts, it's carved into their minds, but they are not truly wild animals and even with their own herds, don't behave how you would see true horses. The set up is too domesticated, as herds are generally more mixed, they are generally smaller and there are geldings apposed to stallions ( generally).So, is it right to treat horses, how they would be treated in the wild? They are not as inclined to behaving in particular ways, because they have been bought up in a domestic environment since the word go, they do learn life lessons, but really, are much tamer, much quieter etc.
Do we seek to 'horses in the wild' as an excuse- a poor one, to justify behaviour ( our behaviour) and our own. Do we seem to have a habit of using the word too much and so we end up using it to excuse and justify our behaviour.?
So, do we as horse trainers have to find an equal balance as to how they behave in the wild to how they behave in a domestic environment? My cats do not see me as their next bit of prey, nor does Shadow see me as a field companion, he does not play with me like he does his friends, he behaves differently around me than he does a horse, so do we WANT to be treated how a horse does? If we begin to start treating our horses, how another one would in the wild, do we run the risk of endangering ourselves and our role as trainers and risk getting treated like a horse, in order to be accepted in the herd?''
Right; so how do we tackle this? Is it a good response to justify actions? I'm in no way slating that these techniques are wrong at all, but should we be very careful to tread carefully on this subject. Horses of course, will go down to their inner routes, especially when in a herd/field environment, however, 99% of horses have been bought up in a domestic environment- even if turned out and left alone as a foal, they are generally bought up by domesticated horses. Like in the wild, if a horse sees a dog, or a person or something which is generally incorporated to their everyday routine, they would be inclined to the flight response. But in a domestic environment, they become desensitised to the stimulus- they accept it and do not see it as a major threat- if at all. So, should we allow ourselves to kick, punish and dominate as a horse would in the wild? Is this seen as fair, or should we know better and begin to seek a more enlightened approach?
