Last night we watched the first of a two part series by Martin Clunes, called Horsepower. A full synopsis of the episode can be found on the ITV Website. An interesting show, and although I’m not sure about the true reason for the series except to make a good tv show, at the end of it there were many things to ponder. Here are a few of my thoughts:
Race horses – Gambling is against the law in the UAE, and yet in Dubai they have invested millions and millions into what can only be described as an overly lavish and ostentatious race track. Martin Clunes made an observation that he thought the horses had a ‘glint’ in their eyes as they raced around the track. I’m pleased that this was clarified for him, and was told that the horses were running out of their prey animal instinct of fear, where the one who comes in first doesn’t get eaten. Can anyone really say that a horse running for its life, with its mouth gagged shut and tongue tied down, blinkers on its eyes and cotton in its ears, being whipped within a ‘legal’ inch of its life, is having fun?
Horses at liberty – What a contrast was the life of a racing horse to the amazing relationship that Jean Francois Pignon demonstrated as he performed with his horses, completely at liberty – bitless, saddle-less and shoeless. What a fascinating display of trust, by both horse and human. When I see what can be achieved through respect and trust, it reinforces my belief that all the restraints and equipment and ropes, spurs, bits and halters that get used to make a horse do what we want, are really completely unnecessary – and their use has nothing to do with the horse.
Wild horses – There are few truly wild horses left in the world. The show looked at the plight of the takhi in Mongolia, and the Mustang in America. I’m also adding the Australian brumbies here although they weren’t in the show but are also under threat. If you reflect long enough on the precarious life of these wild horses, you would soon figure out that these horses are only under threat because of man’s greed – why should wild horses have land for free when $omeone could use it for grazing cattle? I hope a time will come when people will look at the choices they make and realise that other species often pay the price.
These are the things that made the biggest impression on me. And it is my hope that those who watched it were able to look beyond it as heart-warming entertainment and perhaps question more closely what our relationship with horses is really about.
So far so good. And already new things to learn about how to interact and gain the trust of a new horse. It’s interesting to watch Cassie, and to remember what it was like the first few days after Finn arrived. I remember that at some undefined point, he went from being a horse, to Finn. I’m not really sure how to describe the transition, but once he allowed us to know who he was, he was no longer just any old horse, but he was Finn, with his signature energy and mannerisms and a connection in his interactions with us. Gracie took longer to let us in, but it was just the same, for a long time she was just a horse and then one day, she was Gracie.
Right now Cassie is still just a horse. And we’re slowly learning about her moods, her quirks, her personality. And I know after time, she will also suddenly be, Cassie.
Hopefully it won’t take long for Cassie to allow us to touch and groom her more, and allow us to take off her head collar. I’ve made use of some excellent advice on Mark’s blog about the positive effects of brushing a horse’s mane, and spent about 20 minutes brushing out Finn’s tail as Cassie watched. Finn stood patiently, and allowed me to brush and groom and then clean out his hooves. I know Cassie took in all of this.
The herd dynamics are interesting to watch too. It looks like Gracie is acting as the dominant mare as she’s the one who leads when moving around the pasture, with Finn herding from behind. I think this is the case, but I don’t know if after time this will change. It’s nice to see Cassie and Gracie grooming each other or sharing the same patch of grass.
And it’s great watching Finn with his two horses to herd around, which I hope gives him a certain amount of pleasure because it’s definitely his calling.
Today was the big day! And I’m pleased to say that Cassie is settling in well.
It turned out to be a quiet event with minimal fuss, somewhat to the annoyance of the human spectators. I think we were hoping for lots of galloping around and excitement, but instead, Cassie strode into the pasture, and Finn and Gracie glanced up and went back to eating hay. As if to say, well finally, you’re here, about time.
And Cassie looks so relieved too. I’m really pleased for all of them and looking forward to watching the development of the new herd dynamics.
Everyone gets ready for the big day
Finn barely manages to have a look at the new arrival
Cassie is a rescue horse. At some point in her life, she has been very well schooled. However, for whatever reason, it appears she has been pushed beyond her comfort zone, and by pushed, I don’t know if this meant being beaten or abused in some way (whether verbally or physically) but she is now very wary of people. She does not like being touched, having a head collar put on (or taken off!), her feet being trimmed, and a whole list of other things that should be ‘normal’ interactions with a horse. I just thought I’d mention this for it’s part of the reason why she is wearing a head collar in the pictures – although at some point soon we hope to take it off.
Cassie’s most current owner has made huge strides in dealing with these issues and she has come a long way. But it still takes her a long time to trust new people and new situations.
Cassie will also be our most important teacher to date – moving on from the relatively easy relationship we have with Finn and Gracie to one where we will have to start from scratch.
I’m looking forward to getting to know Cassie, and for Cassie to get to know us.
I arrived today to a very suspicious looking Finn and Cassie. I see that Finn is up to his old party trick of attempting to remove Cassie’s head collar. They obviously know something is up, how could they not?!
Finn then saw me with my camera and being the ham that he is, he came over and did a bit of posing. He is going to be impossible once he’s in charge of his little harem.
As a side note, you can see where Cassie broke the fence in her straining to get to Finn and Gracie.
No time to think about Cassie over the weekend. We’ve just finished four intensive days of session four of our trimming course – classroom lectures, live trims, dissection and bone collection. This is by far the hardest course I have ever taken, not only physically hard, but emotionally hard as often we are trimming rescue horses whose whole aura seems to be shouting “help me”.
As well as feeling drained, I end up realising how at times my horsemanship skills are lacking and how much I still have to learn, and the gaps in my knowledge seem huge and overwhelming.
For anyone reading this, I would now ask you to spare a thought for one of our teachers over the weekend. This teacher was one of the cadaver legs that we worked with – a laminitis sufferer, and with degeneration in all the bones so awful and so advanced that there is no way this poor horse lived without excruciating pain in his final days, if not much much longer.
But he taught us much needed skills to help laminitis, and he will teach many more. And I believe that our thanks for his help will do much to bring healing to the painful life that he had.
Here are pictures of his teaching for us, the easy ones to look at. I will spare you the horror of his abscesses and his pain. His bones are the ones on the far right … the demineralisation is pretty obvious. RIP.
I have been wanting for awhile now to have another horse so as to make up a little herd and have a dynamic of three horses living together instead of just two. I had already found several possible choices, which isn’t difficult as there are hundreds and hundreds of horses for sale at any given moment, many of these offered for free.
Circumstances are such that getting another horse just really isn’t an option at the moment, besides, Jonathan has a fondness for Cassie and if we were to have another horse he would like to have her if she was ever available. So I said, well don’t count on it as I can’t see her owner ever parting with her.
As I said that, I had this unmistakeable feeling that I was going to have to eat my words and that I was going to be proven wrong. I just didn’t realise how quickly.
An hour later, an unexpected text and Cassie is being offered to us on an indefinite loan.
*klunk* … that’s the sound of me falling off my chair and feeling just a little bit funny in the head.
Today was a somewhat difficult evening with our horses. Not that anything is wrong with them, far from it. But at the moment circumstances mean that in our neighbouring field it is only Cassie on her own. She’s having a hard time with this and whenever our two move down to the bottom field and out of her line of site, she strains on the fence and calls to them.
To make us feel all the more miserable, we got soaked as an incredibly massive blue grey cloud covered the field and rain came in sheets as we did field maintenance.
When we were done, I stood at the fence with Cassie and said to her, look, if you want to be here with the others, then sort it out.
Then Jonathan and I spent some time connecting with Finn, then Gracie, then adding Cassie. Would it sound contrived to say that a rainbow then appeared between the two fields? But it did.
Something’s on the move, and for Cassie’s sake I hope it’s something to make her solitude a little easier.
Today Finn and Gracie had what I hope will be their yearly dental check-up. I’ve never seen an equine dentist in action before so had no idea what to expect. But we were very pleased with our dentist Dan Astle-Carter, who kindly give us a mini lesson and let us stick our hands way up into our horses’ mouths and have a feel. Interesting yet ever so slightly slimy!
As we suspected, Finn had developed a rather sore looking ulcer on the side of his mouth where some teeth were catching, otherwise I think everything was fairly normal.
Both Finn and Gracie stood patiently, which I expected they would. But how proud of them we felt when Dan said how impressed he was with their calm behaviour. Guess we must be doing something right, or more likely, they both trust us and know we wouldn’t allow anyone to harm them.
I arrived today to find two beached whales lying in the sun. I’m not really sure why, but horses lying down on the ground just don’t look right. Cows on the ground, fine. Horses, not so fine.
I walked down to the two bathing beauties to say hello. With much effort Finn raised his head a tiny bit off the ground, saw it was me, and flopped it back down again. Nice of him to be so interested.
