“Horses Can’t…”
I do a lot of scrolling through social media these days. Most of us do.
Social media is a blessing and a curse.
I met my Arabian stallion’s breeder through Facebook. She’s a wonderful woman and a wealth of knowledge. I keep track of all of my friends and former contacts through Facebook. I get to see horse show results and pictures of kids I remember teaching diagonals to as four year old little girls.
Then there’s the flip side - people advocating for things that aren’t great. Commenting on other’s posts and tearing them down. Some people think that horse people can be worse than others, but I find that to not be true. I find that you’ll find people tearing others down no matter what subset of the world you’ve stepped into. Sometimes it’s intentional, and sometimes it isn’t.
Yesterday I came across a wonderful video of a young boy, probably around eight years old, working with a young foal. It didn’t seem like conventional training to me, but the boy was calm, the foal relaxed - and the young boy’s movements were steady and clear. With a rope, which looked soft, he was very gently teaching this young horse to open his mouth. And he was gentle. Baby horse understood the assignment, and they showed another clip of him leading the foal gently. That’s it - we do reels now, so they are short and concise. Our society has moved towards instant gratification. The horses have not, by the way. I’m sure that foal had seen this work for more than the fifteen seconds videoed.
The comments ranged from praise to “leave that baby alone he’s too young.”
Firstly, let me promise you, a baby horse is never too young to learn how to have his mouth handled. In order to receive proper care he’s going to need to have things stuck in his mouth. Medications, parasite treatment. Teeth checked. I bet this baby horse will handle all of that better than the foals just left in the pasture to be babies - and I’m not sure, but I’m going to guess he still gets time to be a baby.
But what irritated me beyond that was a single comment - and I’m not even sure what place it had under this video - “Better to be handled young than not at all. You can’t teach a horse older than ten, they are too stubborn and set in their ways and DANGEROUS. They will never be trustworthy ever, even if you put work into them.”
I have two horses on my property right now that were broke out to ride at 14 years old, and one, my stallion, is just really starting his solid program at 11 years of age. Now, it is true that perhaps an eight year old child would be ill equipped to handle that situation. However, in most instances a qualified trainer, with time, and the right approach, can turn older pasture puffs into wonderful mounts. My mare that was broke to ride at 14 is now capable of being used in a lesson program, and she ADORES when the littlest children come with cookies. She sat in a pasture doing nothing for 13 years of her life, and she now sprints across the pasture to meet us at the gate for work time. Do you know what the largest difference is between her now and the horses I have who started training at a traditional age? She doesn’t have any arthritis.
Please - if you have the skill set to take in an older horse, don’t assume they can’t learn new things. Assume you’ll have to take things slowly, assume it’s not going to be instant gratification. Don’t think it’s not worth it - it’s actually very rewarding. It just takes time.
And you know - I think that’s the best part of horses in this day and age - they teach us humans to slow down in a world where instant gratification is way more trendy.
