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Fickle Friends© Marta Towne
Horses are wonderful if fickle creatures. The same one that is a total brat with all of the adults here will do anything for a 9 year old girl.
We have a gelding that is proud cut, he still firmly believes he is a stallion and in an effort to convince everyone else he is, in fact, a stallion, he gets stubborn from time to time. He is fully aware of which stall is his, but insists on occupying every stall but his own. Quite simply, he does everything he can think of to make life as difficult as possible for his two legged care-givers, except for this child that is. With her it is an entirely different story. He will instantly obey any and every verbal command she utters, he will lay down in the pasture for hours at a time while she leans against his belly to read. With her, he is the epitome of a gentleman.
How does a horse know that a child is different from an adult. How do they come to understand that a child has to be treated gently and carefully. It is not necessarily size, even a small adult does not elicit the same response. Perhaps it is the manner in which a child conducts themselves, obviously they do not behave as adults do. Maybe it is an inborn instinct that causes the horse to know the difference. Whatever the reason, horses simply do not treat children and adults in the same manner. One has to marvel at the intelligence of horses, they are thinking, reasoning creatures, no matter how they may present themselves at times. They are capable of bonding and forming lasting relationships, of understanding the delicacy of a child and acting appropriately. At the same time, they are also capable of projecting total inability to communicate or understand the desires or directions of human beings. This undoubtedly does not mean they are actually unable to comprehend, only that they, for reasons of their own, choose not too. They deliberately place the human being in the position of having to make their demands not only known but accepted. For the most part, even stubborn horses will do as you ask if you insist on it. They just don't necessarily do so willingly or graciously. One does not need to be cruel or physically abusive to secure the cooperation of even a stubborn horse, simply patient and consistent in their insistence that the horse comply. However, just because the horse does comply does not mean that they have been dominated or overcome. It is simply means that the horse is smart enough to know what he can get away with and what will not be tolerated by a particular human. It is not the horses nature to resist human beings or to fight without reason. It is their nature, however, to test and determine if a particular human is capable of a position of dominance or if they can be buffaloed. Go To Page: 1 2 |
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