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Posted on 11/06/2005 3:33:39 PM PST by linkinpunk
The Times November 04, 2005
People love horses. the payback is that they will break your bones, your bank and your heart
By Simon Barnes
WHEN you enter the horsey life, you make a pact. Like a pact with the devil, but different. A pact with the angels, if you like. The deal is that you will find incomparable joy in the beauty and the wildness of the life. The payback is that horses will break your bones, your bank and your heart. This is a deal that people accept willingly, avidly. And with the shockingly public death of the great champion, Best Mate, this week, it is worth reflecting on the way the pact works.
The horse is a genius. A genius of evolution. Across the world, wild equids are under threat: the African and the Asian wild ass, the Grevy’s and the mountain zebra, Przewalski’s wild horse. But Equus caballus played a card that these other horsey creatures did not. They acquired an affinity for humans. They adopted the difficult and dangerous strategy of domestication.
Humans and horses established a relationship of mutual exploitation. Horses were domesticated for meat, for transport, for warfare, in ways that ranged from violation to worship. Either way, at least in survival terms, it worked for the horses. They got fed, sheltered, watered, protected. They bred, increased, thrived. It worked for countless millenniums.
Then came the tricky bit in the early part of the last century. Transport and warfare were mechanised and horses were no longer needed for purely practical tasks. But once again, horses performed an extraordinary evolutionary shift. They showed that if they were not needed for practical tasks, they could still fulfil a human need. Modern humans do not need horses for anything but pleasure and the horses have adapted and now give pleasure without stinting. Joy, quite literally, is the reason for the horse’s continued existence.
It is a strange business, and death and sadness are an inextricable part of it. That is because the whole business is based around love; and love is the greatest risk in the world. To love is to accept that loss will give you the deepest pain imaginable. Love, then, is also a pact.
To love an animal that has a shorter lifespan than your own is to make the possibility of loss a near certainty. Some scoffed yesterday that the fuss about Best Mate was over the top: only an animal, only a horse. This is to take an unrealistic view of love. People love their dogs, their cats, their horses. Love is not something we give only to humans. To lose a loved one cannot fail to bring grief. This is not to say that dogs and cats and horses are human, only that love is love.
There is a difference, one not always noted, between sentiment and sentimentality. But there is an important difference between horses and dogs, cats, hamsters and goldfish. The horse is the pet that can kill. This puts the relationship on an altogether different footing. I’ve had a couple of injuries this year, one from a fall, one from a kick. It happens.
It’s dangerous. It’s supposed to be dangerous. All the fussy procedure you find in the horsey world, particularly from such organisations as the British Horse Society, is designed to help you to deal with an inherently dangerous situation as safely as possible. That doesn’t make it safe: well, would we bother to do it if it was safe?
Every domestic animal has been selectively bred for docility. Except the horse. With the horse, the wildness has never been bred out. You can take the horse out of the wilderness, but — as a matter of deliberate policy — you do not attempt to take the wilderness out of the horse. You want a horse that runs and jumps, and these are wild matters.
Speed comes from the way a wild horse lives, the way a domestic horse still thinks. A horse will fly from danger and stick with the herd, and the top dog will want to be in front. Flat racing is a sport based on Darwinian principles: only the best get to breed, only the best get to become ancestors.
The enormous human response to horses and, by extension, to horsey sports, goes back to the nostalgia for wildness. I have spent extended periods in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia and friends often ask if I miss the life in the bush. I tell them that, at home, I have wildness all around me; and I find it in the hearts and the minds of my horses.
Life in the bush is hard and beautiful and uncompromising. The bush teems with life and therefore it also teems with death. In the bush, these matters are brought into sharp focus. The buffalo go down to drink and the lions are waiting. That is the way it is, and good.
The horsey life brings you something of the same clarity. Life is not something you take utterly for granted; death is not something you can avoid thinking about. Horses die. So do the people who choose to live around them. In one terrible year of 1999, five riders were killed in the sport of eventing.
A few weeks ago, my young horse understood for the first time that it was acceptable to gallop with a rider on her back. She put her head between her knees to express her delight at this and bucked and bucked, and I managed not only to stay on board but also to encourage her onward, so that she forgot about bucking and found as much joy in the gallop as I did.
But it is not the peak experiences that keep us involved in the horsey life. The point about Best Mate was not just that he won the Gold Cup three times. There is also a long story about foaling and nurture and daily involvement; a long story about his trainer’s attempt to understand that wild mind.
The horsey life is an unending journey to the limits of the human mind. It is an attempt to understand, not an alien culture or an alien religion or an alien race, but an alien species. The extraordinary and thrilling affinity between the radically different minds of humans and horses has rewarded both humans and horses for thousands of years.
Even in the 21st century, we turn to horses. No, let me rephrase that. Especially in the 21st century, we turn to horses. Our world is too tame, too comfortable, and our children grow up in shopping malls with childhoods circumscribed by paedophilia-phobia and the laws on health and safety. We are becoming a species cut off from all others, and it doesn’t feel good.
But when we associate with horses, we claim back something of our lost wildness, our lost wilderness. With horses, we are back in touch with our fellow animals. With horses, we become more truly human. The more we concrete over the world, the more horses such as Best Mate mean to people.
That's all right, so did the one's we owned and used for field work. Carbon monoxide does smell better.
I've found that alot of people who grew up with horses around them, don't care for them at all as adults.
I didn't get horses till I was 32, have had them now for 19 years, and can't imagine not having them around. When my children were growing up we had as many as 6 here, now since they have left home I'm down to 2. I wouldn't mind having just one, but I want one:)
Altho my kids don't remember not having horses, I never forced them to do anything with them. They didn't really start riding seriously till they were in their teens, and now they and their spouses all have horses. They do the rodeo stuff, ropeing, barrels, etc.
Sounds like from your post your horses were not for pleasure use. If they're not for pleasure, I can see were all the work would tend to get very old, and turn a person off having them.
Becky
I agree. I don't think horses forget anything. That can be good, but it can be bad too. Depends on the memory.
Becky
I think your's and my difference is mostly semantics. I'm committed to making sure my horses are well tended and treated humanely. I think our only difference is if a horse can't do what I want it to I'd have to sell it. I'm not sentimentally attached to any horse, as much as I am to the riding of the horse. My dogsand cat, I couldn't let anyone else have them. They wouldn't be happy, and that would bother me.
Becky
They don't really forget things, you're right.
They can get rusty, they can get uncoordinated at difficult tasks if they aren't kept sharp and in shape, but so can it's rider, and riders who are rusty give uncoordinated signals to his horse.
The fact is, with barrel racers and jumpers and other sports that are hard on horses, is that most of the top competitors ~don't~ train on these things in between competitions. Once the horse knows the pattern, or has demonstrated the confidence to jump the big jumps, to over-practice risks injury and boredom. The competition always risks injury, a risk they'll accept. To risk injury in extra practice is just a waste. The boredom of over-practice is not to be underestimated either. The bored horse isn't thinking of doing anything ~good~ ;~D
LOL! Isn't THAT the truth! Satan finds work for idle hooves and all that . . .
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It didn't say they'd always succeed, only that they'd fly.
Very sad picture.
I understand that, and don't see anything wrong with it:)
If you had gotten Cyn home tho and had her for several months and she hadn't worked so well for ecurbh, would you have sold her and tried again?
Lot's of times that can happen when people buy horses. Then what? That's where I have problems understanding why owners keep them.
Becky
Yep.... we wouldn't have kept Cyn if she couldn't have made a good horse for ecurbh. We don't yet have the place where we can keep too many of the polite horse-world's rejects :~D
Who hit John Kerry with a car?
OK, then the differences between us is just semantics:)
I've known several people who can't afford/ or don't have the room for many but will keep one that doesn't fill thier needs and so do without rather then sell, because of sentiment. I don't understand that.
Becky
I'll say one other thing: there's something magic about 'em. Learning to care for and ride a large animal like that is great for a kid. It's done wonders for my middle son. (Plus which, he's about the only boy in his horse class, among a bunch of cute and confident girls -- so that's an added bonus.)
I'm susceptible to falling into that trap, I know that. I'm a real sucker for the hard case no one else will love (like my pony). I just really try to avoid situations where I will hear about too many hard cases that really need mercy.
If Cyn had been found to have some behavioral issue that training would fix, we'd have invested in that. We'd figure, we've got this much $$ invested in her, if spending that much in a few months training would fix it, it's worth that... the money would be as well spent there as it would have been in selling her, potentially at a loss because of what we've learned, and searching for a better horse.
But if Cyn had lost ecurbh's confidence, that can be hard.... sometimes it's hard to get that back, and a fresh relationship with a new horse is better.
If Cyn had been found to have some defect that made her unuseable for anyone... some lameness issue that meant she wasn't really suffering in the paddock, but had some defect or weakness that would lead her to be hurt further by someone else or made her susceptible to being sent to the killers, that's where we'd be at risk of being trapped by her. We may end up there with Bay, if he needs to be retired but still enjoys life. I don't yet know how his end will play out.
The boys that rode and showed horses when I was in high school had their pickin's, I remember well :~D
I have to agree horses do not forget what the have been trained. Sometimes the rider allows the horse to get bad habits. Effectively bad training. Then it is so difficult to break them of those habits.
When you allow a horse to get away with bad manners then you have trained that horse to exhibit those bad manners.
However I disagree with the writers contention that wildness has not been bred out. We consistently breed only to horses of good temperment. Only if the horse has exceptional qualities that make him very valuable do we allow bad horses continued existence. So we continue to bred horses with good atheletic abilities and good sense
I ride TB's most of the time and prefer them as a breed. Can be sensible and very smart. My experinece with QH are that they are levelheaded and very stubborn. Once a QH learns a bad habit it is hell to break them of that. If a QH balks they can be as stubborn as a mule. TB's can be forced to do it Just have to know how much fear to engendered before a blow up occurs.
Arabs can be very nervy , allways jumping sideways and bouncing at the jig. Horrible if you have to go to the bathroom. But Arabs are smart and have great endurance and are very tough for their size.
Europeans warmbloods can be great . Draft crosses are getting common. Quiet temperment but once they get going it is like a freight train and really wear out the shoulders.
Horses are not pets . Animals that have useful purposes are not referred to as pets. That is the same for working dogs or falcons. Fox hounds are never called pets. Pets are for companionship. Like house cats. I have a couple. Been owned by cats. They jump in my laps and cry for food. Since they are fed ,they don't hunt much.
That is the difference between pets and working animals. If the animal has a job it is not a pet. If it doesn't than it can be classsified as a pet.
Mine are pets... They exist soley for my pleasure. Riding is my hobby, not a job. If my livelihood or level of competition depended on them, then maybe I'd classify them as working, but they don't work with me, they play with me. I'm committed to my old horse Bay for his life, even when and if he needs to be retired and no longer has the 'job' of taking me on trail rides.
I don't think it makes a difference what we call them, only that they are treated well and treated with discipline and respect. "Pet" to me, whether bird dog, show dog, horse, or the pony I don't have a job for doesn't mean they don't have to follow the rules.
Pets and working animals can be treated much the same. Perhaps if the animal is working it might get better care in some circumstances.
However a working animal when retired needs the same care and love from it's owner.
My mare is over 28 years old and still can jump and go on trail rides. Sometimes I have to use bute but that is it. I still don't think of her as a pet. Sematics aside, we are horse lovers. and horses are a hobby not my livlihood.
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