Our Rights With Horses

We do not own the rights to a horses body. We never have, and we never will. We do not own the right to push them around, control them, or bully them. We do not have the right to hop on them whenever we please. Horses are free, wild spirits that we will never have the right to break. They are not robots, they are living beings with feelings. They have the right to object and say no to us.

Lilo is nothing less than my best friend and my protector. I did not earn this amazing honor of friendship by pushing or hitting him, or controlling his every move. I earned this honor by treating him as nothing less than what he is to me, a best friend. I have put my whole heart and all of my effort into creating the relationship that we share now. I have done everything that I can to make him feel at his best. To make him feel safe, happy, and healthy. A best friend wouldn't push another best friend around or use forcefulness and coercions to accomplish a selfish task. No, best friends love each other will all of their hearts, they protect each other, and they put each other first, always. Acceptance and understanding are huge keys to a relationship of harmony with a horse. You must see the world from their point of view -- once you can do that, you begin to understand them in ways that you never thought you could.

My Opinion on Breaking Horses

I do not believe in "training" horses. I do not believe in "breaking" horses. I do not believe in these things because horses do not need to be trained or broken. What do we "train" horses to do? Have a person on their back? That does not take training, that takes trust. Do we train them to trot, canter, back up, collect, switch leads, turn left or right? No, we do not. Everything that we try to teach horses, they already know how to do. Horses know how to jump a 3 foot fence. They know how to do a flying lead change. They know how to do a sliding stop. Sure, we teach them the cues for these actions, and we show the horses when we want them to perform them. But, I can hardly call this training. It does not take training to jump onto a horses back and ask for them to gallop, and it does not take training to get them to stop bucking or rearing. 

When you hear the word "horse", what comes to your mind? For me, I think of freedom, strength, and spirit. We all know that horses are naturally wild and free animals, so why would we ever want to break that beautiful spirit? It is just like a slave giving into another human's power because they know that they'll never be able to fight back and win. No horse should ever be treated like a slave, or feel like one!

I believe that to become a true team, and to be in harmony with a horse, all that it takes is love, trust, freedom, acceptance, and the willingness to listen. 

Now that I listen to Lilo and give him a voice in what we do, he is confident, and has never been happier.

Types of Riding

There are many disciplines in the horse world, as well as many types of riding within those disciplines. A few examples of disciplines are: western riding, english riding, vaulting, and saddleseat. Some examples of types of riding are: western pleasure, show jumping, dressage, and reining. 

Reining - reining is a type of western riding in which the rider has the horse perform patterns of spinning, stopping, and circling. The whole performance is at a steady canter. 

An example of reining.

Show jumping - show jumping is a type of english riding (competition) in which the rider guides the horse over various jumps that are set up in a certain way. 

An example of show jumping.

Dressage - dressage is an equestrian sport or an "art" in which the horse is trained and ridden and develops balance, flexibility and obedience. 

An example of dressage.

Almost every equestrian discipline has competitions involved, unless it is for pleasure or the type of riding is for other peoples enjoyment, such as trail riding. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this weeks blog post :)

Body Language

On today's post, I will be explaining different types of body signs from horses, and what they mean. 

Body language is how horses communicate. It is their main language. Another language that they use is energy, but today I will focus more on body language. 

In everything a horse does, there will be body language. Whether they are eating, sleeping, running, or being ridden, you will always be able to see what they are saying. 

Different body signs include: pinned ears, flared nostrils, swishing tail, ears forward, showing of white in the eye, body direction, etc. 

Pinned ears - when a horse pins his ears, he is most likely telling another horse to "back off". It is very likely that you will see this behavior at feeding time. The most dominant horse will get the first choice of food, and will push around the others for more. Other behaviors associated with this include kicking and biting.

Here is an example of a horse pinning his/her  ears.

Forward ears - a horse with his ears forward is most likely alert, aware, or interested in something. It is like a human staring at something that is scary or weird with wide eyes. 

Here is an example of a horse with his/her ears forward. 

Yawning - many people make the mistake of saying that when a horse yawns, he is tired. This is not the case! When a horse yawns, it usually means that they are content and relaxed in a situation, or they are releasing stress, therefore, they would be stressed. If you are brushing a horse, and he yawns, he is most likely relaxed, and if you and the horse face a stressful situation, and he yawns, he is most likely stressed. 

Here is an example of a horse that is yawning.

Ears to the side - when a horse has his ears to the side, he is most likely relaxed. This ear position can easily be mistaken for pinned ears, but it really is the exact opposite. This ear position is a relaxed, content, or "happy" position. 

Here is an example of a relaxed horse with his/her ears to the side.

For more information on body language, here are a few websites:
http://www.equisearch.com/article/how-to-read-your-horses-body-language-8577
http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-keeping/horse-body-language.aspx
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/10866/translating-equine-body-language

I will write more posts on body language in the future, but for now, this is it! Thanks for reading!