Friends, Family, or Farm Animal? Dorothy Crosby Stoddard, NH
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In horses, the hierarchy, or pecking order, is important! But most horses don’t care if they are number 1 or number 101; they just need to know their place in line: who is ahead of and behind them to function happily in a group. There’s an Alpha in charge, a passive leader selected and respected by the others who rarely has to enforce their position. Sometimes an aggressive leader is aspiring to be boss; he rarely has friends. Horses stand together but retain their independence. Every horse has a unique personality (horse-onality?) that identifies it as different from the others. We have Non-animal person Friend: How do you tell them apart? (in all fairness, a boy-ish gelding needing a baseball at home I have bays: dark, mahogany, cap and a worm in his pocket and an elusive boy who rarely shows any emobrown with points…) tion or attachment, but loves attention Me: Can you tell your kids apart? and happily hangs out if the bodywork Friend: they don’t look alike! is an option. We have the mare putting others in their place and literally makMe: yup. ing faces at the perpetrators. We’ve had Friend: ?? But… the shy, submissive one hanging back, Me: Does your dog look like mine? Friend: Your dog is a different breed rejecting any responsibility, and the old respected one, who simply leads than mine. the way. We’ve loved honest and giving Me: Yup! lesson horses, and those who don’t give Friend, during a child’s lesson: that anything away for free but expect prehorse doesn’t respond the same way cision and attention to detail for their the other one does... perfect response. We know the funMe: yup. loving silly ones, who like to play and Fall 2020
e’ve all been there; someone points out, in your dire situation: it’s “just a horse” (or a dog or a cat or a…). Ask any animal person, and in the species of their choice, the specific representative in question is a family member, a “fur baby”, a partner. That animal lover is emotionally invested; life without this precious one is unimaginable– they dread the day that emptiness occurs. To say it’s “just” anything is a major infraction and has caused many a rift in relationships. Just one more time humans can learn from animals!
26 4 Legs & a Tail
