SolveYourProblem.com Article Series: Horse Care
Teach Me Horse Care Tips
The
Basics on Equine (Horse) Behavior
For all of those new horse owners out there,
you are soon to experience a wonderful relationship with your
horse. You can read every book there is and even do all your
research on the Internet, but still the best way to learn about
horse behavior and how they communicate is to sit back and
watch them. Personal experience can be the best teacher. However,
there are a few tips that can help you learn and understand
your horse’s behavior.
In the wild, horses will naturally live in herds. The herd
is their family. Horses need another form of companionship
other than the human owner, whether it be another horse, a
donkey or a goat. They need to have another companion. In these
herds there exists a pecking order. This pecking order is the
order of dominance, starting with the most dominant horse (the
Alpha) and continuing down the line to the very last horse
that is the most submissive. The most submissive horse will
be dominated by all those before him and will basically be
the one who gets picked on the most.
The Alpha
horse demands the respect of all those around her.
He is the dominant leader to whom all of her followers must
show submission and respect. The Alpha horse will provide the
herd with leadership, security, and lead them to food. Usually
the Alpha of an animal herd would be a male, but it’s more
common for the Alpha in a horses herd to be an old mare. The
other horses will accept the mare as their leader and will
respect her for her experience, guidance and wisdom. While
the mare is playing the leadership role, the stallion of the
group would actually “own” the herd. The stallion’s role is
to run behind the herd to make sure the slower horses catch
up with the rest and he will keep intruders at bay, including
predators and other strange horses.
The word “dominance” tends to make you think about strength.
When in truth, dominance has nothing to do with strength and
all to do about wisdom. The oldest or the wisest horse may
not have a lot of strength, but she will be the dominant one.
Being dominant also doesn’t mean that the Alpha must physically
abuse or mistreat the other horses, but sometimes it can look
as if the lower ranking horse is being picked on. Instead the
Alpha horse will create submissiveness in other horses by making
the others feel dependent upon them.
A
horse cannot be beaten into submission. Trying to beat a
horse into submission will only make him confused, fearful
and untrusting. Relationships with horses need to be based
on trust and respect. All horses, wild and domestic, are capable
of being dominated as long as they are approached in the right
way and when they are trained by using the right methods.
When a horse is being submissive, this means that he is being
obedient, respectful and dependent to the leader. To horses,
submission means safety and security. When a submissive horse
is not being respectful, he will temporarily be forced out
of the group. This rejection from the group can be mentally
traumatic to the horse because it is now vulnerable to predators.
Once he learns to be respectful and dependent upon his leaders,
then he will be accepted back into the herd.
As
a horse owner, you must have dominance over your horse
in order for him to respect you and follow your leadership.
You must take the Alpha role, if you want to have a good relationship
with your horse. Taking the Alpha role doesn’t mean that you
can’t feel love for your horse, or that the horse can’t feel
love for you. You must create this kind of relationship with
your horse.
Your horse can also speak to you in his own language. Here
are some of those translations from Horse to English.
Horse: Snort. English: Caution. “There may be danger.”
Horse: Nicker. English: Cheerful. “Hello, come closer.”
Horse: Neigh
or Whinny. English: Looking. “Where are you?”
Horse: Squeal. English: Forced. “I don’t want to! Stop pushing
me!”
Horse: Scream. English: Aggression. “Let’s fight! I’ll kill
you!” #
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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