--- In [email protected], "Virginia Tupper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Page 185-186: > > "Another survival technique has developed in marshy regions: > fighting instead of fleeing. That means that the flight behaviour of > certain natural horses, for example Icelandic horses has fundamentally > changed, even regressed." > > Which is his reasoning to why you don't train Icelandics in the same > ways as other horses. > > V >
It's something to think about, I think the Icelandics (mine anyway) are a little less likely try and flee out of fear, but I don't think it is totally extinct in them, it's there somewhere. Even in the mules, who are similar, it's in there somewhere, if it really came down to it, it's just not on the surface as much. They (Icelandics and mules) will walk away from something they don't want to be around, but usually don't panic and run away mindlessly. I'm not sure how I would train them differently though, the techniques I have always used on my Icelandics and mules, they work just fine with my "other horse":) Of course I have to think about what to do in each situation, and with each horse as an individual, that always changes, but the basics stay the same. Maybe is this related to that saying that "you should train a horse the way you have to train a mule" (something like that)? I am certain that horse trainers who use sloppy techniques, whatever you want to call it, they are not going to work with mules, they don't work too well with Icelandics either, I think that's how we get either shut down horses, or bolting ones. They actually probably don't work too well with regular horses either. I just am not totally sure what he is talking about. Good horsemanship works with all of them. I think good horsemanship is like a flowing river, it can change and adapt to fit the situation, not like ice, where there is a prescribed set of rules to use, and someone tries to use them in the same way in every situation. Basically, it comes down to you and your horse, and you have to face each other and work it out together. Kim
