RC: Re: Stallion behavior

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

Pat Super wrote:
>I remember vividly the horror stories I have heard from experienced "old 
>cowboys" of the viciousness of the attacks that stallions are capable of. 
>I have heard them tell that a stallion can be extremely unpredictable

Hi Pat - In the "olden days" (and even today with too many working cowboys) 
horses were tools & were treated as such.  I have also heard those stories 
about the stallions that turn on people that you mention, but I bet, from 
watching some of what goes on on ranches today, that those stallions had 
been nursing grudges all along.  We all know horses have memories on a par 
with the legendary elephant memory.

*Some* cowboy types today have been riding horses all their lives but 
haven't got a clue about horsemanship.  It has never occurred to them to 
consider horsemanship other than just staying on the horse & getting a job 
done.   Consideration for the horse other than keeping it alive and healthy 
enough to work is not a part of the program.  Before I hear howls of rage 
about this, I'm emphasizing the word *some* and I am speaking from personal 
knowledge.

My point is that if a horse happened to just have enough one day, who would 
blame that horse ... *if* they knew the whole picture.  If that horse was a 
stallion, with the hormones on top of everything, well, voila.  Point in 
case - the *only* person Nasrif has ever bitten while owned by us (this is 
over a 14 year period) was one of these cowboy types - we were caretaking 
his ranch at the time.  The man is older, needs a cane to walk around.  He 
was in the habit of swinging the cane at Nas whenever the guy was near him, 
no matter what Nas was doing, even just standing there, and even though we 
had told the guy over & over not to do that (remember, Nas was "trained" 
with whips before we got him).  So one day Nas just bit him in the back 
(nipped - caused a bruise but didn't deal out nearly the damage he could 
have) after the guy walked by and swung that cane at him.  I was there, I 
saw it.  If I didn't know the history of this, what might I have concluded?

So again it comes to this.  Horses are not tools to be treated like 
brainless, feelingless, opinionless objects.  Anyone who treats a being 
that  way may pay for it later on.  Unfortunately ulitmately in our society 
today, the horse - the true victim - will be treated like the bad guy.  Lif



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