Astounding Horses

Please see this video at World’s End Farm This and That.

So I was going to post in the comments but I couldn’t because my post got too long.

This is a really neat video of a very special horse. I used to work for someone who also had a horse like this one. He was able to teach the horse to fetch and also retrieve when he hunted pheasant. Brilliant, really, for the hunter. He could sit on his horse all day and never get down.

The horse could also open a cooler, grab a soda, bring it to you and go back and shut the cooler. Because I worked for the horse’s owner, I have seen it with my own eyes many many times. It is not fake! So I believe the horse in the video.

As a trainer, I’ve almost never had the luxury of just messing around with a horse in the way of tricks and things that have nothing to do with riding/manners. If someone is paying me, it would actually be wrong of me to spend my customer’s training dollars trying to teach a horse to fetch (unless that’s what was asked for). Not only that, I wouldn’t have much to show in the way of useful training results.

There WAS ONE horse that I was able to play with a little bit, he was owned by my boss, who was the business partner of my other boss (with the astounding horse). I could get him to chase something I threw (he thought that was great fun) but he wouldn’t hold it in is mouth long enough to bring it back. He would fiddle with it and then when I called him back he would drop it. He would come back to me, follow me to the stick, chase after it when I threw it again and promptly return without it. Over and over again.

It was very cute. I only spent a couple days on this, just to see where we could go.

It is a very rare horse that can be trained in this manner. I think these horses are unique in that they are not too concerned about a herd, not easily startled and have a low level of resistance to pressure. I think their curiosities outweigh their natural instincts. For this reason, I do not think they would do well as wild horses.

It’s a good thing they aren’t wild horses (and most horses aren’t for that matter).

I wonder if more people didn’t obsess over CONTROLLING their horses and focused on more COMMUNICATION, we might not see more horses like this. Not a lot more, but more.

Correct communication comes before control. Control is the byproduct of good communication.

The other thing about the horse in the video and the horse I worked with, was that they were rescues of sorts. I really believe that when a person removes an animal from a crappy situation, gives them what they need and attempts to communicate positively, the animal has the possibility to build a strong bond. Depending on where they were, how bad it was, if they can “come back” and if the person is reading the horse correctly. Probably the latter parts have the most to do with it.

I am only a little cynical about this video and the reason for that is because this validates the idea that horses are pets and can be treated like dogs. I vehemently disagree with this idea. People get into more trouble and more horses get misunderstood when they are not treated for whom they are. The video does say “miracle” which should mean just that. But I think more people believe they are surrounded by special circumstances than they actually are.

Is that cynical or what?

I’m not all negative. The video actually brought tears to my eyes – and it took me a while to figure out WHY. I do not cry easily, there was nothing sad about the video and I’ve seen (and done) more interesting “tricks” than this woman.

So here’s why. Because look at what a wonderful, positive relationship this woman and this horse have! She does not need “help” from anyone, she has done such a wonderful job, this horse is enamored with her! She could not cheat or harm the horse to get this relationship, there is no way someone else did it for her, she didn’t use gadgets and she obviously truly knows the horse.

I became a horse trainer to help the horses. I got sick of watching horses at auctions, people discarding them only to get another they didn’t work well with either. I got sick of seeing thousands in the loose pen, for whatever reason their owners did not want to see through the end of the sale or help the horse to sell well.

Then I realized training horses does not help horses. A person can train and train and train and all it takes is one person to mess it up. So I jumped into teaching and tried to do this well. Odd too, because I used to hate teaching. The reason I started teaching was under the idea that if I can help the people, then I can help the horses.

I still believe this idea.

But I sometimes find myself on shaky “idea” ground in the face of people who do not want to do the RIGHT thing. They want their own needs met right now, regardless of their horse. Some even pretend to be horse lovers. Pretend to give the best of care. But in the end, they are only doing what is in their own best interest. Their decisions with the horses they own and the horses they buy reflect this.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t propose we all go into financial ruin and never ride or show our horses. We do need to take care of ourselves, we can’t keep all horses and we do have to make decisions around the business or recreation we are in.

But there are some people that plain out make decisions based only on what they want – even when what they want is not feasible. They will keep going until they find someone who will tell them what they want to hear and blow enough smoke to make it appear as though their goals are being met.

So, how fabulous and wonderful to see a video of this horse and woman, the pair is a breath of fresh air for this cynical horse trainer. Thanks for posting it Sandra.