This is the philosophy of a famous horse trainer, but horses are herd
animals, so pick your species.
In every animal society there is a pecking order. The top dawg gets the
best food, the best women, the best sleeping places, and all the
breeding rights.
So you have two horses in a paddock. There is always #1 and #2. #1
bullies #2 around, herds him, takes his food away from him, and stands
in the door of a big barn and makes #2 stand out in the sun and rain,
while there's 2000 square feet of empty shelter behind that door.
Okay, so #2 is at the bottom of the pecking order...until..."Hey,
there's that fool that comes and drops all that hay and moves out of my
way so I can eat it all, what a wimp! Helllooooo Number Three!"
Fortunately most horses can be trained to accept the two legged herd
member as number one. But those are mares and geldings. FEW horse
owners keep stallions, preferring to leave that specialized activity to
the better equipped/more skilled/more gifted/crazier. No horse thinks
its "people" because it was hand raised. No, people are just wierd
looking horses, part of the herd. Horses expect YOU to act like a
horse - a leader. They are not emotionally or intellectually wired to
act like people. AND, they are prey animals, not predators, so they
don't act like dogs either. The more hand raised a horse is, generally
the more utterly obnoxious and insolent it is. Sometimes they will
NEVER accept being dominated and become real horsey criminals that end
up in those much maligned auction sales. Frequently because someone
tried to make a lap dog out of them.
I love my horses but I also treat them like the thousand pound skull
crushers they can be in the wrong circumstances. AND, we definitely
have Number One, Number Two and Number Three. Number One walks on her
hind legs.
Barb L.
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