What constitutes responsible horsemanship? There are so many different training philosophies and schools of thought, so many different individuals all presenting their own ideas, that not only newcomers to the horse world, but also many old hands, can easily get lost and start to doubt their own approaches.
Continually questioning your own approach and beliefs, in my opinion, is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I think it is vital for the serious horseman to have a questioning mindset and to strive to keep on improving your own understanding of what and why you do the things that you do with your horse.
For me the crucial issue is the criteria against which you measure the answers that you reach in this continual quest. All too often, unfortunately, motivations other than the well-being of the horse influence these answers. And the problem is that it is very difficult to distance yourself enough from your own ambitions and ego, to truly examine your point of view objectively.
This problem cuts both ways. On the one hand we have those ambitious competitors for whom winning becomes everything, but on the other hand there are those who, in their quest to do right by their horses, also actually harm them.
It is often these people (and I say this with great sympathy) who, when they hear of a "new" approach or training method that is supposedly kinder and more natural, adapt these unquestioningly, without understanding the bigger picture. All too often the result is a spoilt horse and a very unhappy partnership.
A while ago I mentioned an Equine Freedom Charter that I got from Susan McBane's book, 100 ways to a perfect equine partnership (David & Charles 2007). That, for me, provides a solid basis on which to judge your actions with your horse. Just to recap, these "freedoms" are:
- Freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition
- Freedom from physical and thermal discomfort
- Freedom from pain, injury and disease
- Freedom to express most patterns of normal equine behaviour
- Freedom from fear and distress.
In the previous issue of SA Horseman I promised that we will, in an effort to gain knowledge on various training methods and techniques, visit various trainers and report on their beliefs and methods so that you can form your own opinion on the desirability of these approaches to training and management.
In this issue we put the Saddlebred in the spotlight by asking prominent trainers their views on certain controversial practices. In the training section of the magazine we also look at training practices that are mostly associated with Saddler training, although they are also practiced by many non-Saddler trainers.
We hope that these articles will add to your knowledge and perspective, and that they will assist you in forming your own opinion based on the Equine Freedom Charter.
