AB Horsemanship

New project💫 Jacinto
Short term goal: Transitioning to a bitless bridle
Long term: Competitive-level jumping – perhaps even bridleless!

Professor McGreevy: ”The horse feels considerable pain” World elite horses are tormented by sharp bits and strong pressure. This is shown in images from several major photo agencies. Sportbladet has had veterinarians

Attention, jumping coaches: it's time to halt the teaching of children to use a whip whenever a horse hesitates in front of a jump.

Children do not naturally harbour a desire to kick, hit, or yell at their animals. These behaviours are either observed or instructed by those who should know better. This generation of riders is being explicitly taught how to be angry and abusive, perpetuating a cycle that must be broken.

Consider this scenario: You witness a child walking a dog on a leash. As the child turns towards some stairs, the dog stops at the bottom step. The child forcefully kicks the dog in the ribs, yells "GET UP," and hits it with a whip. Outrageous, right? Yet, when the same scenario occurs with a horse, it often goes unnoticed.

This normalised and accepted practice is alarming. Picture it applied to a horse in a photograph. Understand that it does not contribute to the safety, confidence, harmony, or balance of the horse or the child. Once these abusive "techniques" become automatic habits, they are challenging to correct. It's time to intervene.

Why did the horse stop in the first place? There are numerous reasons: underprepared, over-faced, tired, sore, lacking clarity, rider unbalanced, horse unbalanced, wrong pace or line, and many more. None of these reasons are helped by angry and abusive riding.

Yelling, hitting, and frightening the horse further lead to nobody having fun, nobody feeling safe, and both people and horses getting hurt. Our sport deserves better representation in the media.

Here are phrases we should abandon:

"Make him do it"
"Don't let the horse win"
"Always discipline a stop"
"Don’t let him get away with it"
"MORE LEG!"
Replace them with:

"Prepare, then prepare some more"
"Reward the smallest try"
"Breathe"
"Wait"
"Feel"
"Trust"

Children do not naturally desire to mistreat their animals; they learn it from those who should know better. STOP IT! Let's break this cycle and create a more compassionate and effective approach to jumping coaching.

"El problema más grande que se origina cuando las personas entrenan con dominancia y respeto es que asumen que la falta de aprendizaje en el animal no es por error de parte del entrenador, si no porque está tratando de dominarlo."

~ Alissa Lanae

¡Hablemos sobre la Teoría de Dominancia!

¿Por qué es tan común encontrar personas implementándola al manejar y entrenar caballos, aún cuando la evidencia está en su contra?

La mayoría de los comportamientos equinos a los que llamamos 'dominantes' probablemente son causados por defensa de recursos, en especial en ambientes domésticos.

A decir verdad, estas ideas anticuadas no solo dañan nuestras relaciones con nuestros caballos, si no que también crean más problemas debido a la interpretación errónea del comportamiento.

¡Construir una relación equitativa es una mejor solución que intentar dominar al caballo!

Surprise!

Los caballos tienen ciertas capas de la piel más delgadas que las del humano, lo cuál indica que su capacidad para sentir dolor es igual o mayor a la nuestra. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33187204/

Me tienen harta los comentarios como este. Los caballos si sienten. En todo el cuerpo. No porque sean animales grandes su sensibilidad es menor. Un fuetazo les duele y jamás lo van a sentir como una cosquilla.