I hate horses: therapeutic rant. (Long)

[Oleozz]

Horses are used quite often in the bird dog business for training and field trials and I really enjoy the Tennessee Walkers but because of expense and the care needed for them I have a Mule (Kawasaki).

 

[alchemysa]

I saw an interesting segment on a science show this week. They showed how a horse has a cognitive memory not much better than a goldfish.

They lead a horse into a small arena. On the other side of the arena two girls sat about 30 feet apart. On a signal, one girl would tip a cup of feed into a bucket. If the horse was released immediately it would go to the correct bucket. But if it was restrained for a VERY brief time it would choose the wrong bucket half the time.

The point was to show that if you are training a horse using the reward method you have to reward the horse within about 1.5 seconds or it will not associate the reward with the action. Or they will associate the reward with the wrong action. They need instant gratification to learn anything.

Obviously they can learn to associate a bucket with food, but they have virtually no ability to to quickly comprehend new information.

My daughter has had two horses. She often talks about getting another one. I'm not sure if her cognitive memory is any better.

 

[JeremyL]

There are 2 types of people in this world: horse-people and the rest of us. Real horse-people operate with different rules which exasperate us "normal," "rational," "reasonable" people. I have been married to a horse-person for 29 years so know what I am talking about. The same, I would guess, is true about boat-people, gun-people, hot-rod-people, etc.

There is no rational cost/benefit reasoning with a horse-person. Their appeal transends their cost, danger, aggravation, etc. To quote my wife, "Horses are cheaper than therapy."

I will not show this rant to her.

 

[Soundguy]

There are 2 types of people in this world: horse-people and the rest of us. Real horse-people operate with different rules which exasperate us "normal," "rational," "reasonable" people. I have been married to a horse-person for 29 years so know what I am talking about. The same, I would guess, is true about boat-people, gun-people, hot-rod-people, etc.

There is no rational cost/benefit reasoning with a horse-person. Their appeal transends their cost, danger, aggravation, etc. To quote my wife, "Horses are cheaper than therapy."

I will not show this rant to her.

I think your brush is a bit wide.

there are those of us that simply understand equines.. thoug are not heart and soul locked to them.

I own horses.. I understand horses... I'm not what you would consider a horse person. it's a pet.. nothing more..

soundguy

 

[Bird]

There are 2 types of people in this world: horse-people and the rest of us. Real horse-people operate with different rules which exasperate us "normal," "rational," "reasonable" people. I have been married to a horse-person for 29 years so know what I am talking about. The same, I would guess, is true about boat-people, gun-people, hot-rod-people, etc.

There is no rational cost/benefit reasoning with a horse-person. Their appeal transends their cost, danger, aggravation, etc. To quote my wife, "Horses are cheaper than therapy."

I will not show this rant to her.

And in which category do you place "tractor people"?

 

[JeremyL]

Bird, you asked a question that you know the answer to. The difference is that I can park my tractor for weeks at a time and it will sit tight; it does not need a minimum of twice a day attention, nor poop scooping. And a machine will behave in a (mostly) predictable manner. If it throws you, you probably are to blame. A horse on the other hand...

 

[Bird]

Yep, Jeremy, and having had 3 different horses as a kid, I think you're right, on all accounts. Of course, the last time I was on a horse was about 44 years ago. Things are different now, but back then the police responded to all animal complaint calls in Dallas, and the animal control officer usually only came to get the animal(s) after the police had the animal(s) confined. So I answered a call in which there were two horses in the caller's front yard. There was also a rope hackamore laying the grass; don't know which horse it came off of. Anyway, the smaller of the two allowed me to walk up to it and I put the hackamore on it. But the larger of the two wouldn't let me get close enough to touch it. So I thought maybe if I were on the smaller horse, I might get close enough. And I hopped on the horse I had caught and rode it around the neighborhood trying to get close to the other horse, unsuccessfully. I eventually chased the second horse into a wooded area and lost sight of it, then called for the animal control guy with his stock trailer.

Then it dawned on me that I had been riding a horse I'd never seen before; had no idea whether it was broke, trained, etc. If that rascal had decided to throw me and injure me, the police chief would not have been happy with me.

 

[scott_vt]

after reading all this, i think i'll stick with pine trees and crops.

Good Afternoon RollingsFarms,
Thanks that was good ! Im with you, my neighbor has horses we can look at grazing on the next hill from our property, thats enough horses for me !

 

[N80]

Well, the horse is still alive. Still in the stall. The good front leg was swelling Friday, because it is getting all the weight. Today the good leg looks better and he is straightening the bad leg and even putting the foot all the way down. The vet says only time will tell.

We were told that to send the horse to NC State for surgery would start around $7500, and probably go much higher and with no guarantee of success. I might spend that on my dog. He is truly a family member and is with us 24/7. And that's still just a maybe. A dog is still a dog. Even my wife and daughter did not even consider spending that on this horse. I'm glad I was not the one who had to put the foot down on that option.

Anyway, as mentioned, I did not intend to offend any horse people or even people who understand horses.....although I'm pretty sure I understand them too....just not how some people respond to them. Horses aren't hard to understand...it's the horse people that are, shall we say, inscrutable.

I'll keep you posted. Its looking good so far but I'm told that it could be all over in the blink of an eye.

Redbug....totally agree. Big boats, swimming pools, horses and a pack of dogs. Bingo.

 

[riptides]

Yeah, keep us updated. Not a fun time being on watch like that. I hope it works out for you all and the horse.

Amazing how fragile they can be.

Good luck these next few days and weeks.