The Face of Spoiled Horses

It is the story of this horse in particular that had me viewing . over and over. Listening to the body language of horses is the basis for all natural horsemanship techniques. It is a rare opportunity to study the behavior of a horse, who according to Brannaman was "as close to a predator" as a horse can get.

We all tend to forget what horses are capable of but it is that potential which should motivate us to do right by them. Any horse has within it the ability to unleash the beast seen in the film. While this particular animal had a contributing physical factor,  its behavior and that of the two other attempts by horses to kill humans I have witnessed were man made. Only two attacks I saw were purely instinct and one of those was lethal.

 Still it is easy for we humans to tell ourselves "it will never happen to me" so we condone behavior that sets the horse up to fail in the society we expect them to live within or we tune out or miss clues that tell us we are in over our heads. 

The horse is not the only loser when that happens. Buck
asks us to see the impact across the board. We all pay for the societal impact of improper horse management even if we don't realize it.

I have to commend the film maker and Buck Brannaman. In our time of politically correctness and the far reach , and sometimes excesses, of the animal rights groups, laying this subject matter out there was quite brave. The spoiled horse is a highly dangerous animal but rarely as obvious to spot as the one in this film. Yet the outcome for this horse is not sugar coated.

Interestingly, the mare that tried to kill Harvey Jacobs was the preferred mount for a child. The only issue her owners  were aware of was she would not take the bridle. To my way of thinking this mare was more dangerous because her killer intent was not obvious. Even Harvey had not seen it until she attacked him.

Potential killers are more common than we choose to believe. I know that because I have not gone out looking for them. They have found me in the course of my ordinary life. True my life with horses is an active one but only two of these  experienced with horses trying to kill were on my farm(one of which was a horse trying to kill a dog chasing him and the other a jealous gelding killed my mare), one at a horse show Ghosts of Horses Past , one in my childhood,   and then these two situations in a clinic setting.

If you add to that the danger I found myself, and my horse in, when a spoiled stallion was stalking Legs in the ring at horse shows, my concerns about the jeopardy we all face from spoiled horses is well founded. Hopefully Buck will help those  who create  the risk see the jeopardy and change their horsemanship in ways that make all of us who love and cherish horses safe.

What about you? Have you witnessed the potentially lethal force of a horse?

To be continued....

Rope Work

I just realized I have forgotten to add the link to the story about the stallion that was stalking Legs in the showring. I didn't write about this as it's own story but included the events as they happened at the different horse shows. I have not located the first incident but this will pick up at the next major one that happened and go on through. I will try to find the first major crash where the horse ran into Legs and add that link if and when I do.