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stephbgToday I finished reading Great Working Horse Stories by Angela Goode (Allen and Unwin 2009), which was a Christmas present from Mum. I've been nibbling away at it for a while because it's a huge collection of hundreds of Australian anecdotes, some as short as a few hundred words.
Most of the stories are from the first half of the twentieth century and capture the memories of people from the land, the towns and the cities. There are sections for heavy farm and cart horses working the land, the all-rounders who pulled the traps and took the kids to school, stockhorses, a surprisingly short section on warhorses (for lack of people to tell the stories I imagine), police horses, trouble horses, performing horses, and a short section on elite Olympic eventers. There are accidents and many funny moments, mainly caused by the horse just doing what it had always done and missing the memo that it had been sold or changed a job.
It's a great resource for anyone wanting to write or learn about Australia in that period. The horses were part of the furniture, and so you learned much about ordinary life of the period, and in the transition from horse to mechanised power. Although it was at times a bit of a slog to read, in the end I preferred the stories of everyday life, rather than those of the elite or exceptional.
A few editorial opinions filtered up through the pages. The author is clearly frustrated by well-meaning contemporary people who call the RSPCA at the drop of a hat and won't let working animals do what they're designed to do, and those who keep pleasure horses on high octane feed but insufficient exercise. Just like us it's better for a horse to be fit.
The book seemed to have mixed messages about modern methods of horsemanship, or just perhaps a rejection of the extreme evangelical horse whisperer culture. She wasn't suggesting a return to the days of breaking a horse's spirit and using physical violence (and there were stories like that), but she did seem to think it was important to remember that the horse was a large and dangerous herd animal who needed to respect people as their leaders, and shouldn't be treated as a pet. A question of balance, really, but I've not seen much in the way of criticism of natural horsemanship before. Not that I've been looking.
There are parallels in our society's attitude towards teaching and disciplining children. I don't think it's necessary or appropriate to beat anyone until the blood flows, but I do believe that a parent/trainer should be allowed to use a little non-damaging physical discipline once in a while for information purposes. That is after all what the horses themselves use to communicate, and sometimes with a bit of damage thrown in for good measure. They tend to be rough on each other in the paddock.
Personally my main concern is to make it as easy as possible for the horse to understand what it is I'd like them to do. If my goal is to make a reasonably calm horse happy and sleepy, I'm well prepared. I'm doing well at halter leading through a variety of yards and obstacles using my shoulders and elbows for steering .
For the foreseeable future there won't be anything much more complicated than that, but if I (ever) have the strength I may get the opportunity to lunge and exercise the RDA horses and will need to deal with a greater variety of behaviours and outcomes. A short sharp yank on a rope is a start. I wouldn't whip a horse to make it run, but I'd make it do scary things behind it to encourage forward momentum. I'd quite like to try sacking out and joining up one day but that will require a bit of time on my side and a sypathetic owner and facilities. Beyond that I really don't know. But I do know that I'm not keen on food rewards; I'd rather make affection and scritches from me reward enough.
The more I learn the more I realise I don't know. There's a *truckload* I don't know about horses, despite all that time spent studying horse encyclopedias as a child, and at present having little or no interest in actually riding or driving. Still so much to learn, and keep me 'umble. I've always said that horses are good for me :-)
Most of the stories are from the first half of the twentieth century and capture the memories of people from the land, the towns and the cities. There are sections for heavy farm and cart horses working the land, the all-rounders who pulled the traps and took the kids to school, stockhorses, a surprisingly short section on warhorses (for lack of people to tell the stories I imagine), police horses, trouble horses, performing horses, and a short section on elite Olympic eventers. There are accidents and many funny moments, mainly caused by the horse just doing what it had always done and missing the memo that it had been sold or changed a job.
It's a great resource for anyone wanting to write or learn about Australia in that period. The horses were part of the furniture, and so you learned much about ordinary life of the period, and in the transition from horse to mechanised power. Although it was at times a bit of a slog to read, in the end I preferred the stories of everyday life, rather than those of the elite or exceptional.
A few editorial opinions filtered up through the pages. The author is clearly frustrated by well-meaning contemporary people who call the RSPCA at the drop of a hat and won't let working animals do what they're designed to do, and those who keep pleasure horses on high octane feed but insufficient exercise. Just like us it's better for a horse to be fit.
The book seemed to have mixed messages about modern methods of horsemanship, or just perhaps a rejection of the extreme evangelical horse whisperer culture. She wasn't suggesting a return to the days of breaking a horse's spirit and using physical violence (and there were stories like that), but she did seem to think it was important to remember that the horse was a large and dangerous herd animal who needed to respect people as their leaders, and shouldn't be treated as a pet. A question of balance, really, but I've not seen much in the way of criticism of natural horsemanship before. Not that I've been looking.
There are parallels in our society's attitude towards teaching and disciplining children. I don't think it's necessary or appropriate to beat anyone until the blood flows, but I do believe that a parent/trainer should be allowed to use a little non-damaging physical discipline once in a while for information purposes. That is after all what the horses themselves use to communicate, and sometimes with a bit of damage thrown in for good measure. They tend to be rough on each other in the paddock.
Personally my main concern is to make it as easy as possible for the horse to understand what it is I'd like them to do. If my goal is to make a reasonably calm horse happy and sleepy, I'm well prepared. I'm doing well at halter leading through a variety of yards and obstacles using my shoulders and elbows for steering .
For the foreseeable future there won't be anything much more complicated than that, but if I (ever) have the strength I may get the opportunity to lunge and exercise the RDA horses and will need to deal with a greater variety of behaviours and outcomes. A short sharp yank on a rope is a start. I wouldn't whip a horse to make it run, but I'd make it do scary things behind it to encourage forward momentum. I'd quite like to try sacking out and joining up one day but that will require a bit of time on my side and a sypathetic owner and facilities. Beyond that I really don't know. But I do know that I'm not keen on food rewards; I'd rather make affection and scritches from me reward enough.
The more I learn the more I realise I don't know. There's a *truckload* I don't know about horses, despite all that time spent studying horse encyclopedias as a child, and at present having little or no interest in actually riding or driving. Still so much to learn, and keep me 'umble. I've always said that horses are good for me :-)
