While this question may almost range into the field of anthropomorphization (ascribing human characteristics to an animal), your horse’s ‘happiness’ or being comfortable is probably of critical interest to you as his owner and rider.
You know your horse better than anyone – instinctively, you know immediately when something is amiss, even if you can’t immediately diagnose where the problem lies or what is causing it. We can put words to what you already know – how do you tell when your horse is happy? What is below may be considered a little controversial, but if you are truly honest with yourself, you may realize that there is lot of truth in what I am about to share.
A horse is not able to lie, to ‘act’ like he’s feeling comfortable, happy, or relaxed, when he’s not. Watch for the feedback your horse gives you and it’s easy to see what his state of mind is. We all know the usual signs; the eyes, the ears, the tail. In nature, the horse – a ‘flight’ animal – can run full out at a moment’s notice. There is no necessity for the thought process “Okay, I’m being chased by a wolf, I’m going to have to run fast in about 3 seconds, so perhaps I should warm up a bit so that I can go full tilt”. By that time, the horse would be lunch.
This is what has occasionally been paradoxical to me – in a saddle fit evaluation when riders are asked to show their horses under saddle, they usually have to warm up (sometimes for 30 minutes or more!) before they feel their horses are ready to perform and before they feel they’re ready to show the fitter how they move at all gaits. After seeing around 2,000 horses every year for the past 25 years or so we have come to the conclusion pretty quickly that this warm up is to be considered pretty much a ‘numbing’ up. Only after having been ridden to the point that the back doesn’t hurt anymore can the horse actually be asked to work the basic steps. What is wrong with this picture?
The current trend in riding, as in most other things, seems to be “going back to nature”. Read the full article here.
~ Jochen Schleese CMS, CSFT, CSE, courtesy of Saddlefit 4 Life
