companionship
28 December, 2011
Filed in Category: horse behaviour
I hope everybody had a great Christmas and is looking forward to more festivities over the New Year period.
Thank you everyone for their Christmas good wishes.
Here is Aliy with her horse Danny in the festive mood.
Solitary Confinement
I was asked a question on a horse forum regarding a young stallion that was showing aggression towards its owner and towards toys in its paddock. The person asked if playing with balls and other toys in the paddock was teaching the horse to be aggressive.
Here is a link to the horse playing in his paddock last year.
My response is that the toys do not teach a horse how to behave. Toys just provide an outlet to what is already inside a horse. Play is good for horses and I would not discourage it. But there is a time and place for it. If the horse is confusing playing with a paddock toy and working with his owner, then the owner needs to clear that up. There should be no confusion of the borders between playtime and non-playtime.
But to complicate the story, it was revealed the horse lives alone. He has no paddock mates and has never had paddock mates since being weaned. Therefore, the horse knows very little about how to interact with other horses. The owner considers the horse has potential as a top level cutting horse and sire so has decided to keep him as a stallion and to protect her investment by avoiding the dangers of injury from other horses.
This creates a few problems for the horse. Firstly, because he has not learned how to socialize, there is every possibility that as his hormones kick in he will become quite aggressive stallion to other horses. Horses that don’t know herd etiquette tend to grow up believing that rule the roost. They have never met a horse higher in the pecking order than them (except maybe their dam) and therefore don’t know how to respond when they meet a more assertive horse. This often means they can’t be relied upon to be manageable around other horses.
To me, this scenario makes the prospect of the horse becoming a competitive cutting horse and breeding horse more remote. How does a horse that does not know how to behave around other horses become a top-level competitor? How does he become safe around mares in season? It also means that as a breeding stallion he will be a handful for his handlers and most likely will only ever get to meet a breeding dummy.
The other big issue for me is the aspect of cruelty in isolating a horse from companionship. Everybody knows that horses are a herd species. Not only do they need a herd for safety and survival reasons, but also for psychological reasons too. Horses need other horses to feel okay inside. They can learn to live without horses, but few of them are okay with it.
To me, keeping horses in solitude is an abusive act that is no less cruel than starving or beating a horse. I don’t care how valuable a horse may be no horse should live alone. I don’t think a companion sheep or goat is the answer either. They may act as a stopgap, but the relationship a horse may have with a different species cannot be a complete substitute for the one they have with their own species. It reminds me of the movie with Tom Hanks marooned on an island and all he had for company was a volley ball he called Wilson.
A long time ago I wrote about my thoughts on abuse – it’s on the Horse Talk page. I defined abuse as anything we do to a horse that does not benefit him in some way. I absolutely put denying a horse companionship in that category.
Thank you everyone for their Christmas good wishes.
Here is Aliy with her horse Danny in the festive mood.
Solitary Confinement
I was asked a question on a horse forum regarding a young stallion that was showing aggression towards its owner and towards toys in its paddock. The person asked if playing with balls and other toys in the paddock was teaching the horse to be aggressive.
Here is a link to the horse playing in his paddock last year.
My response is that the toys do not teach a horse how to behave. Toys just provide an outlet to what is already inside a horse. Play is good for horses and I would not discourage it. But there is a time and place for it. If the horse is confusing playing with a paddock toy and working with his owner, then the owner needs to clear that up. There should be no confusion of the borders between playtime and non-playtime.
But to complicate the story, it was revealed the horse lives alone. He has no paddock mates and has never had paddock mates since being weaned. Therefore, the horse knows very little about how to interact with other horses. The owner considers the horse has potential as a top level cutting horse and sire so has decided to keep him as a stallion and to protect her investment by avoiding the dangers of injury from other horses.
This creates a few problems for the horse. Firstly, because he has not learned how to socialize, there is every possibility that as his hormones kick in he will become quite aggressive stallion to other horses. Horses that don’t know herd etiquette tend to grow up believing that rule the roost. They have never met a horse higher in the pecking order than them (except maybe their dam) and therefore don’t know how to respond when they meet a more assertive horse. This often means they can’t be relied upon to be manageable around other horses.
To me, this scenario makes the prospect of the horse becoming a competitive cutting horse and breeding horse more remote. How does a horse that does not know how to behave around other horses become a top-level competitor? How does he become safe around mares in season? It also means that as a breeding stallion he will be a handful for his handlers and most likely will only ever get to meet a breeding dummy.
The other big issue for me is the aspect of cruelty in isolating a horse from companionship. Everybody knows that horses are a herd species. Not only do they need a herd for safety and survival reasons, but also for psychological reasons too. Horses need other horses to feel okay inside. They can learn to live without horses, but few of them are okay with it.
To me, keeping horses in solitude is an abusive act that is no less cruel than starving or beating a horse. I don’t care how valuable a horse may be no horse should live alone. I don’t think a companion sheep or goat is the answer either. They may act as a stopgap, but the relationship a horse may have with a different species cannot be a complete substitute for the one they have with their own species. It reminds me of the movie with Tom Hanks marooned on an island and all he had for company was a volley ball he called Wilson.
A long time ago I wrote about my thoughts on abuse – it’s on the Horse Talk page. I defined abuse as anything we do to a horse that does not benefit him in some way. I absolutely put denying a horse companionship in that category.