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[RC] Sharing a water trough - k s swigart

Kristi Schaaf said:


But in AERC, with it being a race for so many people,
in my experience there's no way they are going to give
up some time waiting for a bubble of space for their
horse, so they just 'pile in'. As someone who doesn't
care about time, should I just assume that I'm the one
who will have to pull back and wait for that space for
my horse to open up?


What _I_ do is if I have a horse that can keep its mind on the business
of drinking even if there are other horses with their noses in the
trough; assuming there is actually room, I will ask the people there if
their horse is okay with sharing and then let my horse go up to the
trough and get down to the business of drinking.

If the people already there say they would rather I waited until their
horses are done, I will wait.  If I have a horse that I don't know can
safely share a water trough, I will wait, and if I think it necessary,
ask anybody else that comes up later if they can please wait (or back
off, let them have their turn, and then go back...after all _I_ am the
one with the horse that doesn't know how to share nicely).

I have found that the best way to determine what other people want you
to do is to ask them.  And I have found that the best way to keep people
from doing things you don't want them to do is to ask them not to.

I also consider the ability to share a water trough and stick to the
business of drinking not taking it as an opportunity to visit with
strangers, to be a good skill to teach an endurance horse...and I will
correct my horse for "visiting" with other horses at a water trough even
if the other horse is "visiting" with him and the other horse's rider is
letting it.  If my horse is unwilling to listen to the correction (which
is usually a twiddle on the rein necessary to straighten out his nose
and an "uh uh"), then I take it away from the water trough.

kat
Orange County, Calif.

"If the end justifies the means, everybody is justified." John G. Beck,
PhD



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