Welfare Discussion is Not a Personal Attack

A lovely OTTB I had 8-9 years ago. Poorly developed on the flat and rushed fences, I used a pelham that he did not need with a figure 8 and martingale so we could keep moving up jump heights.

Concerns about horse welfare are not a personal attack. People criticizing the mechanics of harsh bits is not a personal attack. Too often do people try to brush off relevant concern regarding outdated training and care practices in the horse world by labeling it as unkindness. This attempt to brush it off and label any information that they don’t want to believe as an “attack” undermines the relevant and necessary discussion on modern horse welfare.

It can be hard to learn about the detriments of certain practices that you were taught are perfectly acceptable. I’ve been there. It’s a very difficult feeling to grapple with and it’s often easier to go in denial. However, regardless of whether or not you alter your training or care practices, it is of the utmost importance to be receptive towards new research even if it just means you being more mindful while you engage in certain training practices, use certain gadgets or keep your horses in certain living environments.

The only way we can continually better our care of our horses is if we are honest with ourselves and open to learning new things, even if it is difficult.

 It is not an attack on who you are as a person when horse people speak out about current welfare issues in the sport. Even if you engage in the practices they condemn, they are condemning the practice. Not you being blinded to problems in the industry due to never being taught they are an issue in the first place. 

There is a learning curve, a steep one. After all, this is an industry that has misinformation being given to riders left and right. Physics of certain equipment downplayed. Behavioural issues ruled as “quirks” or stereotyped due to gender (mareishness), breed or labeled as the horse just being naughty.

The horse world is unique in how little value masses of people place in behavioural science and proven welfare practices. Experience and years spent showing or doing something of status in the horse world is viewed as superior to research by an awful lot of people. Then this mindset is passed down to impressionable new riders, eating up the info given to them by a professional who was also taught the whole “this is the way it’s always been” way from someone older than them.

It creates an echo chamber. An “us vs them” mindset between people who engage in more traditional training and care practices versus those starting to head towards science-based training and re-evaluating normalized management practices. 

This results in people feeling like they’re being labeled as abusers when information regarding things like modern stalling practices and the risks associated with that gets shared and people express concern for how long many horses spend in stalls. 

My old Arabian gelding showing a “whale eye:”. I frequently used twisted wire bits, draw reins etc to try to make him go into what I thought was a correct frame.

The reality is, it is just the practice being criticized. We need to share information to do better so we can stop the cycle of riders being introduced to stressed horses with stereotypic behaviours and/or pain behaviours as their first experience with horses. It causes them to normalize and ignore indicators of poor welfare practices, instances where the horse’s life could be immediately bettered in most circumstances, even just with vet care, enrichment or more thought. 

Many of us have been misled. Many of us have used practices that we now no longer believe in. The vast majority of us never intended to hurt our horses, it was the result of a culture that is normalized and entrenched in our community. 

The pervasiveness of this problem results in people viewing it as an impossible feat to do things a kinder way. To address behavioural issues without a harsher bit, more gadgets or more corrections. You’re taught that these things are normal. That horses are big animals who need to be put in their place or they’ll hurt you. And so, you hurt them first. Unknowingly creating a lot of the problems you are trying to fix. Never truly meaning to harm your horse.

You don’t have to agree with all of the information you read, but you should be open to reading researched information even if it challenges your views. Even if you cannot immediately resolve the situation you’re in, even if you’re not ready to completely dive into the research, you can at least make a start by simply being more aware.

By simply realizing that prestige in the horse world, amount of ribbons one, amount of years experience does not necessarily equate to ethical practice. It does not necessarily mean the rider or trainer is adept at assessing equine behaviour. It doesn’t mean they’re using species appropriate care practices. They may think that they are because they’re doing what they’ve always been taught, but it doesn’t make it so.

This is why unbiased research is so important for working out ways to ride, train and manage horses in the most ethical manner possible with the resources we have available. Resources include our current level of understanding and ability to take in and apply the information we learn. 

A lot of people are not immediately ready to recognize the current state of the horse world for what it is and the honest, objective amount of welfare concerns there are. They choose to deny and carry on because the other thought is too painful to bear. 

This is often the first stage before people take off on their learning journey. Denial.

Regardless of where you are at or what your beliefs are, know this: When I criticize certain training and care practices, I’m not ruling you as a terrible person who doesn’t love their horse. I’m ruling you as someone who is making mistakes as a result of the environment they were taught in.

 I’m ruling you as someone who I hope really begins to honestly consider the realities behind certain equipment, training and management practices so you can at least go into using those very practices with an honest idea of their severity and the risk factors. Because, even if you change nothing, the sheer knowledge of something like “this is how the mechanics of my bit work” may cause you to unconsciously soften your hands or be more open to other bitting options in the future.

My first OTTB mare riding very behind the vertical.

Everyone is capable of changing but it starts with us taking that leap. And, trust me, I know it’s scary. In some ways, I miss my naivety from back before I was less aware of the impact of the training and care practices I believed in. Less aware of how stressed so many of the horses I loved were. Less aware of the subtler signs of stress on horses around me. Less aware of the damages that long term isolation from other horses or lack of ability to move around do to horses both mentally and physically.

Ignorance in a lot of ways was bliss because I couldn’t have empathy for things that I didn’t believe were bad. I never was forced to consider my decisions fully because I genuinely did not see the impact I was having on my horse. I’d be enabled by so many role models and trainers at every level from within my barn to figures in the community, brands, organizations… the whole industry. 

I did bad things to my horses and made mistakes that harmed them mentally and physically. I enabled myself in training practices that were not fair and were essentially me taking my frustration out on my horses. I was encouraged to do so by people I perceived as more knowledgeable and experienced.

But, you know what? I was never maliciously going out of my way to hurt my horse. Even when I punished them and “corrected” them for things, it was done with the intention that it would keep us both safer and wouldn’t damage our relationship. That was a fallacy.

I had bad horsemanship and a warped idea of what good living situations looked like for horses. But, I was never trying to be intentionally cruel, even if my actions were perceived as cruel by my horse. I don’t think I was a bad person back then, even though I did things I now condemn.

I have this same belief towards anyone, even as they vehemently defend poor training and care practices. Ones that I now know in my heart are researched and heavily linked to welfare deficit.

Even if they are not ready to take the information in right now, they are still capable of change. I won’t support them in their denial of more credible information. If they have credible information on their side, I think it is a great opportunity for discussion and learning. But, if not, which is in a lot of cases when people merely cite “experience”, I maintain my stance based on what I’ve learned with being honest with myself.

I don’t dislike you as a person just because I disagree with practices you may engage in. I have been there and I get it. I wish I had gotten out of that mindset a lot sooner and so now, I dedicate a lot of time to talking about major issues in the horse world in hopes of modernizing practices.

So, even if we may disagree, just know that rarely am I calling someone a horse hater or abuser when I discuss certain welfare issues. It’s merely talking about the reality of the impacts and how we can make change. Not a personal attack, more so a commentary to my past self. Saying what I wish I had heard sooner.

All of the horses in photos I’ve used for this post I genuinely loved as horses. I did unfair things to all of them because it was what I was taught to do, was what a lot of other people did and I didn’t know better. So, I continued to enable my impatience and unfairness with my horses without even being aware of what I was doing.

I see this in a lot of other riders still and I feel the need to share my experience because I whole heartedly believe it is possible to make the horse world adapt to be more fair to the horse and it would, in turn, better relationships between horse and rider and overall performance.

We know better. We can do better.