--- In [email protected], Robyn Hood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I have met some horses, in all breeds, who had kind of phobias about > different things. Fly spray being one of them. Funny sound, weird smell in > lots of cases, who knows. Why do some people have phobias, even when > logically it makes no sense, at least to others?
I think this is true. I have one who had a gate phobia, I really have no idea why. I've known her since birth, there is nothing I can think of. We worked through that one. Another really has a phobia of any kind of spray, others let me spray them at liberty in the pasture, and others only if they are held with a halter. That is just them, there was no training in this. I don't really even bother with fly spray, it just doesn't work well enough. I did use some of that intense spot fly repellant a few weeks ago, that seems to actually work for a while, and nobody was bothered by the application. Anyway, the place I have them now is very clean and there aren't really as many flies, even though there are many more animals. I have also had horses who would freak about chemical fly spray, but stand fine for natural. > > It is interesting that humans seem to expect a higher standard of consistent > behaviour in animals than we do in ourselves. Imagine if you were sitting > in a restaurant and someone comes up and starts taking things off your > plate. Would you like it? Probably not, but we expect dogs to willingly > give up a juicy bone or whatever it is that we want them to. > >> > Change the context and you change the experience - a new place, different > person, slightly different style... > I think it is good to give animals a break. Realize that they are living, breathing beings, not our slaves. If I were the horse, how would I want my person to treat me? I think I'm doing ok there, mine seem happy. I like to try and be compassionate to their fears, I've said this before, I was always a little scared to jump off the high dive at the pool, I sure would not like it if someone came up behind me and pushed me off before I was ready, I think we do things like that to our horses a lot, it's ok for them to be scared of some things, it's their genuine selves, we can give them a minute, give some space to the situation, take a deep breath ourselves, it works out much better that way. Kim
