Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
believed to never quite forget these fears. All a handler can hope for is to bury the bad ex-
periences beneath layer upon layer of good ones.
For example, suppose a horse is turned out on a new pasture for the first time. As he
trots around snorting, with head high, inspecting the boundaries, a couple of dogs pop out
of a wooded area at the edge of the pasture and begin chasing him. In his panic to escape
his modern-day predators, he mindlessly heaves his body at the wire fence and manages to
stretch and break enough wires to allow him to return to the barn. The stray dogs quit the
chase, as they are leery of the humans usually around the barn; your horse stands quivering
and bleeding alongside one of his buddies.
What do you think will cross your horse's mind the next time you turn him out on that
pasture? Even if no dogs are present, do you think he might avoid the wooded area altogeth-
er? Will every moving leaf in the woods make him suspect that killer dogs will emerge?
Will he go through the fence again? Unfortunately, your horse will be suspicious of that
pasture, and especially the woods, for a long time. Similarly, a horse that reaches into his
water tub for a drink and receives a shock from a tank heater with an electrical short will
very likely refuse to drink even if his body is in a life-threatening state of dehydration.
The best plan is to prevent such things from occurring in the first place. Once something
traumatic does happen, however, you must allay your horse's apprehension by systematic-
ally planning good experiences to replace the bad ones.
BIOLOGICAL CLOCK
Horses perform daily routines in response to needs and a strong biological clock. A horse
is a creature of habit, following his natural rhythms where possible and being most con-
tent when his management has a predictable pattern. Many routines are socially oriented:
small groups graze in tight-knit bands on huge ranges, participate in contagious pawing
and rolling sessions, or engage in running and bucking games. At regular times of the day,
individuals in stalls or groups on pasture can be observed to eat, drink, roll, play, and per-
form mutual grooming. The desire to participate in these rituals is not diminished, and in
fact is probably intensified, for the horse in confinement. In spite of bathing, clipping, and
blanketing, most horses love a good roll in the mud, much to the chagrin of their human
grooms!
Once a horse has established a routine of urinating in his stall, he will often, to the stall
cleaner's dismay, “hold it” all day while out on the pasture only to flood the stall the in-
stant he is returned to it. And the behavior inspiring the old adage “You can lead a horse
to water, but you can't make him drink” is based on a horse's firmly implanted habits and
his strong biological clock (although not drinking can be influenced by many other factors,
including a horse's keen sense of smell). The horse's biological clock is especially evident
