Re: Bonding

["S. Brown" <sbrown@wamedes.com>]

> I have to contend with this. My wife and a 9 mon old filly " Oasis
Kashmir" have bonded like that. She even wants to bring her in the house
with her. Very protective, etc.

I've had to contend with this phenomena several times being a boarding
facility!  Concerned, bonded, loving is good (which is where your wife
probably is)...*over-protective* isn't always good for the horse's best
interest.  

I had one lady, a couple of years back, who put 2 blankets and a hood on
her horse when the temp reached about 38F -- she was cold so she thought
her horse was also!  I had to call her and get her permission to remove one
blanket and the hood when the caretaker came in quite concerned because the
lady had just left and the horse was already overheating.  She had also
insisted that the back doors to the stall be closed (all of our stalls have
paddocks attached with dutch doors connecting them that are left open
except for freezing, blowing rain or confinement) and the barn is insulated
with the hay stored above the aisle way!  After producing several posts
from another list that explained how horse's handle heat, she wised up.  

Another lady wanted her horse brought in from the pasture if it started to
rain (I live in the PNW, for cryin' out loud and the horse was wearing a
Rambo!)  We told her "no -- not unless is blowing, freezing rain and we
bring everyone in at that time!"  She refused to read the articles and we
eventually asked her to leave.  (There were other incidences of gross,
uneducated anthropomorphizing also.)

I currently have a lady here that used to do endurance around here (but
quit because she couldn't stand how endurance riders treated their horses
(?))...she whines constantly (and she has a shrill, whiny voice to begin
with,) and is very defensive (and not well educated...isn't that usually
the case?)  Her horse has terrible manners (she's afraid to discipline her
since it might hurt the horse's feelings) and she rides the poor horse
(she's doing "dressage" now) in a totally cranked in frame -- the horse has
no forward energy, she's hanging on her mouth (horse's mouth is always open
in an evasion), and she's developing a totally upside down frame.  This
horse had a bad injury to a hind leg before she came here but really
started to improve once she got here (according to the vet that was taking
care of her.)  She told one of the other boarders, recently, that she was
thinking about leaving because her horse's former bad leg would
occasionally be a little puffy after standing in her paddock all night (she
doesn't move much at night!)  She won't let anyone *touch* her horse or
feed it treats (it's a small, family-oriented barn where the critters get
regular treats) because "the horse only wants HER and why would ANYONE want
to *touch* someone else's horse?"  Eeeek....    She's the one that I think
will free up that stall in the next couple of months that I need to get
another horse for myself!  (Hope, hope, hope. <g>)  Anyway, we tell people
before they move a horse in that we treat our horses like horses -- so
PLEASE, no Barbie Doll horses or ones that they want turned out in BUBBLE
WRAP!!!  There are barns around here that will keep your horse stalled 24/7
in a small stall (ours are all 12x16) and perhaps they would be happier
there. ;-)

The problem I see comes from a lack of understanding of the horse's
physiology and mind.  It's fun to anthropomorphize if you don't take it
seriously! ;-)  It's when you can't separate the fun from the real that
causes the problems.  Being protective by providing a safe, healthy
environment is one thing...trying to equate human emotions and physiology
to the horse is a dangerous, but an all too often encountered problem.

One of my pet peeves.  Can you tell?  <bg>

Sue  




sbrown@wamedes.com
Tyee Farm
Marysville, Wa.