T rue Love
What does Look Like?
By Elisha Bradburn
“I really, really love my horse, I mean he is so spoiled! I just got him the latest Scottie dogs licking ice cream cones print rain sheet, and the pink buck stitched saddle pad with matching pink skid and bell boots! I also closed him up real snug in his stall so he would be nice and cozy at night, and I bought him the fancy bit with real silver on the cheek pieces.”
16 • JULY 2021
SADDLEUP.CA
W
hile all these things are quite nice, they are ways we might feel loved, but not actually what horse’s love, value, or need. Learning to think from the horse’s perspective, not putting our perspective onto them, is a process. A process that takes time and the desire for something MORE with horses to achieve. The beginning of this process is to truly understand the horse as a creature and to truly begin to think about what we could do to show him/her love in a way he/she might actually appreciate. Horses are prey animals, and their basic needs are safety, comfort, food, play and reproduction. This is a good place to start understanding horses so we can love them better. Horses, being prey animals, feel safest with the freedom to flee. Box stalls are generally not conducive to granting a horse this freedom. So contrary to some of our beliefs, horses by nature, would most often choose being outside rather than confined in a stall. Ever notice this on a rainy day when your horse is standing outside rather than in a stall or shelter, if given a choice? Horses are designed to move. A stall impedes this basic need. Horses’ coats (without blankets interfering) are designed to look after them very well in almost any weather. The exception is probably where there is no shelter from trees or a roof, and it is very rainy, cold, and windy all at once for extended periods. Horses, unlike us, do not care what they look like, so the latest gear
