HOW TO KEEP YOUR HORSE HAPPY

HOW TO KEEP YOUR HORSE HAPPY

We all want our horses to be happy. A happy horse is friendly and easy to manage. The question is - what is the best way to do it?

Keeping your horse happy is less about their living conditions as what you do and how you do it. However, without a doubt, all horses are happier with others of their own kind around them. Being the sociable animals they are, they like to live in groups - and preferably mixed groups of mares and geldings which is the way Nature intended.

Nature has also designed them to spend nearly all their free time grazing. No horse is happier than when he is out in the weather at grass.

It's when we come into the picture that we must pay attention. They don't much mind what we ask them to do, as long as they have been trained to do it. A major part of their basic nature is the desire to cooperate - which we also interpret as the desire to please. All horses are born with this trait.

What they don't like is boredom. When bored and alone, shut up in a stable for example, they mostly escape from boredom by going to sleep. When we are riding, they cannot do this. They must keep going because we tell them too.

How then, do we avoid boredom? Think about what horses do naturally. I'm talking about wild horses here, which is the happiest life that horses can have. It's what Nature designed them to do.

Wild horses are constantly migrating, i.e., moving from place to place. In their own little world, they are happy and relaxed. We can get close to the migratory habit by going hacking or pleasure riding. (See also Happy hackers like a loose rein )

Wild ponies migrating on the Gower peninsular

While horses will happily go hacking every day of their lives (more or less) variety is also no bad thing. Variety makes horses well-rounded, willing and able to do anything. Sociable activities such as Riding Club, beach rides, picnic rides, pleasure rides are particularly valuable, adding interest to an otherwise mundane life.

If you live near suitable water, take your horse paddling from time to time. Aside from anything else, it's so good for their legs!

If this is a new venture, be prepared. Most horses are reluctant to go into water until they get used to it. Their fear is what lies under the surface. From their point of view, there could be anything down there.

You may then, have to persevere to persuade your horse to get his feet wet - but it's an interesting challenge and well worth the effort!

There is no harm in doing some jumping from time to time, as long as you don't do too much of it. Horses do find jumping quite hard work, can quickly get angry and resentful and start playing up. All horses are intrinsically lazy, so anything energetic goes against the grain. Even the whizzy ones would prefer to calm down. It's only their life experience that makes them speedy.

Likewise, competing makes a change. The plus side for horses is that there are plenty of others there. The down side is all the tension and excitement. Nonetheless, the happy horse will take competing in his stride.

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned schooling or flatwork. The purpose of schooling (and the reason children go to school) is for horses to either learn things they didn't know before or improve their competition performance. Just going endlessly round the same enclosed space is extremely boring. It is so far removed from what horses normally do that horses can't see the point of it. Without any rider interference or nagging at them to hold themselves this way or that, horses will tolerate going endlessly round in circles, but they are hardly happy doing it.

Some other things to consider
The atmosphere around them and way they are handled also has a bearing on the horse's state of mind. Being intrinsically calm and peaceful themselves, they like a calm, peaceful atmosphere where any activity is simply workmanlike.

What they don't like is excitement, speediness, rushing and above all - fussing. Horses hate to be fussed and this includes an excess of petting. We may like to have our loved ones all over us, but horses don't.

They like a show of appreciation and the odd treat in the right place, but otherwise prefer that we simply get on with what we have to do calmly, quietly and efficiently. Happy horses also know where the boundaries are. They know their place and have trust and confidence in the person or people handling them.

And finally ...
It is often believed that horses need daily exercise. This is only true for horses that are confined full time to a stable. As long as they get daily turnout, horses exercise themselves as they move about grazing.

If they have an excess of energy from being shut up for a long time, they will work that off very quickly by running around at speed, often bucking and kicking.

The moral of this story is that you should only ride your horse when you feel like it. More damage is done by treating exercise as a daily chore than by leaving him alone to do what he really likes doing best - which is grazing. When you have to do something, you rarely do it as well as when you want to. If your heart isn't really in it, there is no point.

I'm not talking here about athletes, performance horses which must be kept at the peak of physical fitness. They are an entirely different proposition. I'm talking about the ordinary, average horse which we keep for pleasure. Given enough time out grazing, horses keep themselves as fit as they need to be.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.