Spirit Horseworks

Love Emma and love Connemara's... Enjoy x

The Island Project with Emma Massingale - Full Film Alone on an Island with just my Ponies for company - Over the years I have started many young horses but I've always wondered if I didn't have any tools such...

The Therapeutic Value of Horses Who Benefits from Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy?

What Does Maslow’s Pinnacle Mean for Horses? | The IAABC Journal Catherine Bell looks at an equine application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and asks, what might it mean for a horse to live its best, most authentic life?

Once again the painted canvas holds up better than the painted floor! Just repainted the stair treads and revisited my past horses along the way.

GOING IN CIRCLES

When horses roamed the plains, they did exactly that: they roamed. They drifted along, grazing and mostly walking in straight lines. When horses worked for a living, they continued to walk those straight lines, pulling a plow from one end of the field to the other, pulling a milk wagon from one end of town to the other, or pushing cattle from one end of Texas to the other. As they transitioned from work animals to recreation vehicles, they generally continued walking, jogging, or cantering in reasonably straight lines, going from one end of a trail to the other.

Of course, not all work or recreation involved strict, straight line movement. They were asked to cut cattle, which often required them to work laterally, with sudden starts and stops and jolts and jerks. They were asked to perform military/dressage maneuvers, with significant lateral movement and transitions. They were asked to foxhunt, which required them to work over fences and around obstacles. They were asked to participate in sport, such as polo, which again required stops, starts, bursts of speed and lateral work. And, of course, they were asked to race, which required speed, but generally on straight line tracks or long ovals.

As they transitioned into show and competition arenas, however, they shifted away from straight line activity. We changed the game and asked them to become focused athletes and runway models. In doing so, we put them into smaller and smaller spaces and asked them to perform more and more patterned behaviors. Basically, we put them into patterned, repetitive movements—mostly in circles... little, tight circles. And they started to fall apart, experiencing more and more issues with joint problems, soft tissue injuries, and general lameness concerns.

We blamed their failures and breakdowns on bad breeding practices and poor genetics; we blamed their failures on bad farriers and inadequate veterinarians; we blamed their breakdowns on poor training and conditioning, poor horse keeping practices, bad nutritional practices, and any number of other things. And, while none of these should be disallowed, the fact remains that we changed the game and put them into those little, tiny circles and repetitive activities. So, let’s look at equine anatomy, and specifically, let’s look at that in relation to athletic maneuvers and activities.

First and foremost, the horse is designed to be heavy on the forehand. We fight against that concept, asking them to engage their hindquarters, to “collect,” and to give us impulsion. And they’re capable of doing so… but they’re not designed or “programmed” to sustain such activity for any length of time. When they do this in “natural” settings and situations, they’re playing, they’re being startled or frightened, or they’re showing off. None of these are sustained activities.

Likewise, when they do engage, they’re generally bolting forward, jumping sideways, or leaping upwards. And they're typically doing that with a burst of speed and energy, not in slow motion. Ultimately, their design is simply not conducive to circular work. Each joint, from the shoulder to the ground is designed for flexion and extension—for forward motion, not lateral motion. In fact, these joints are designed to minimize and restrict lateral or side-to-side movement.

"Horses “feel” rather than “think” us."
A great article from Sharon Clifton and Grace Lawson Baker
Read how horses are assisting veterans return to civilian life.
Horses are at the heart of this article and the Dare To Live program.

http://www.equineleadership.ca/thirdeditionscgl.html

Study Confirms Horses 'Talk' to Human Handlers – The Horse New research has revealed that horses do, in fact, try to intentionally communicate with us to achieve certain goals.

Please take a moment to comment and say no to this decision. Thanks x

Action Alert! Please Comment Today on BLM's Plans to Decimate the Onaqui Wild Horse Herd - Wild Hoofbeats Please Comment by July 12 on the BLM’s plans to remove 90% of the Onaqui Herd in Utah This Fall By Carol Walker, Director of Field […]

How wild horses deal with death and grief: A rare insight - Horsetalk.co.nz "We were intruding on a hallowed ritual, each of these beautiful sentient beings were bidding Pixie goodbye."