What is it to be a real horseman? Can you be a horseman even if you’ve never before been involved with horses? Can you be involved with horses every day and still fail to be a horseman?
That is a question that came up with a recent posting to an email group, Classical Dressage, that I am a member of which was also accompanied with the link to a great video of a number of people working to help with a large number of starved horses in bringing them back to life.
What has touched me so much in this video, outside of the immense amount of dedication on everyone’s part, is that many of them showed up to help who have had no previous experience with horses.
Then on the other side of the coin there are those who have caused this great amount of suffering to the horses involved, which I would suspect have many years of experience with horses. I see it other places as well, being so involved that we become blind and end up causing more harm than good. You can go to any show and see that multiple times over of riders hurting their horses for the sake of a $10 ribbon. The price of the prize may vary, but the symptoms still remain the same.
- Cleve Well, a prominent AQHA trainer and clinician, has been accused of abuse on several occasions.
- WalkingHorseChat.com posts videos of ‘Freak of the Week’ gaited horses in action.
- A blog devoted to exposing the abuses behind showing and competition, Shame In The Showring, gives you an inside look.
As much as we continue to expose the abuses that are going on to horses in every sport, discipline and level of involvement (from day one beginners to the creme de la creme of horse ‘celebrity’), little is being prevented.
It is my opinion that without increasing overall education (not just in the horse industry but on the whole) we are only kicking dirt on the forest fire. There has to be more. Our culture has moved towards zero responsibility, we have morphed into a corporate mindset on the personal level. No one is taking responsibility to earn an education about horses before riding or owning one… or rather instead of nobody, very few.
Those who are highly educated that I encounter who are looking to learn to ride horses – do so with the same adept skill in which they undertake other areas they have no education in. They ask questions. How many experienced riders do we know that still ask questions? Less and less. Then there are others who I encounter who feel they know all the answers (even if those answers aren’t enough to enable them to do all that they want, which is exactly why they are contacting me), and because of that there isn’t a question in the world they would like to ask.
Do you still ask questions? I do, every day. Every second it seems when I’m working with my horse. Not necessarily questions about what I’m doing, but often now it is why I am doing it. How it is going to impact my horse, what the motivations are, etc. I don’t, however, ask myself questions about how much money I can make with my horse, or if I place in a certain class it will increase my perceived value and skill by my peers. Admittedly there was a time when I asked questions like how I could turn my hobby into something that profited me (and I did so with breeding horses for a time).
Now, however, I do offer services that bring money.. but they aren’t the source of my survival and I’ve given up on achieving ‘fortune’ through my horses. It takes me to a place in my mind, to think about using my horses in such a way, that seems akin to prostituting them out. As it stands right now they help me teach people and in that I am always grateful for all that they give and settles in my heart much better than the thought of them as being ‘money makers’. That is probably much of why I gave up competition, too much in it for the money and accolades to let me sleep sound at night.
