So, You Think You Love Horses? Some Reflections on the Nature of Horses and Man

More Discussions by “The Accidental Horseman”

The first thing I must say is that this is nothing to rush into or do on impulse. You need to have the financial resources to do it correctly and the time to devote to it. It is also good to have others who can assist you who are familiar with what needs to be done and how to do it. In other words you need a mentor.

A Very Polished Rider and her Mount
Do not kid yourself: It will take years of hard work to look like this.

Once you have decided that you want horses to be part of your life, the first step is to learn how to ride or drive them safely. There seems little point to having a riding animal and then not ride it, but there are those who just keep them, and animals do need a good home whether used for a purpose or not. Another consideration is that these are athletic animals and, just like people, having regular exercise is important for their good health and well-being. If you were not born into a family that owned horses or had an agricultural background, you can start by taking riding lessons and thus establish relationships with people in the horse community. If you have become reasonably proficient at riding someone else’s animal, the next transition is to acquire one for yourself. Often your instructor or other experienced person you know will help you out. I would hope that they would act in your best interest, but there are times that I fear that people have spent way too much money for a horse that had few virtues. I get a suspicion that the buyer was being taken advantage of by a person looking to pick up a handsome profit turning over a horse. Hopefully, you can judge the people you are dealing with even if you do not have that much experience with horses. People have written entire essays on picking the right horse and that is not my purpose here. It is useful to get the animal you are acquiring examined by a veterinarian that you plan to use on an on-going basis.

Many first-time horse owners will board their horse at a riding stable, and for some people this will be a permanent means of horse ownership. You pay a boarding fee that can add up over time, and someone else will have the responsibility of caring for your animal’s needs. Just like hotels, the places with more amenities cost more and you need to look around and get a feeling for the nature of the people running a prospective stable. Boarding is what my wife’s parents did with her first two horses and what we did after we were married and somewhat established in our careers when we acquired our first horse, the Chestnut Mare. The experience we had with boarding was that the manager of the stable often had a different idea about what constituted adequate care than the one we had. The Chestnut Mare was not an easy keeper, and in our judgment she was underfed and even worse for all concerned she was a cribber. Cribbers are horses with what we would call nervous habits in humans. They often damage fences or stalls by chewing on wood and are not esteemed by those boarding them. People fear that other animals will “pick up the habit” and have devised all kinds of devices akin to those used by medieval torturers to chasten the poor animal. Having owned the chestnut mare for 33 years, I am in a position to say that no other horse she was with ever picked up her habit of cribbing. After a few disagreements and even moving to a different facility, we finally decided to acquire property and to keep her on our own land.

I might draw an analogy here. Learning to ride someone else’s horse is like dating. There is a certain excitement about it, but no real commitment. Purchasing a horse and boarding it, is like being engaged. There is much more commitment but still not the intimacy between parties that comes with either marriage or keeping your horse on your own land yourself.

The Chestnut Mare and me while she was being boarded
I am uncertain who was schooling whom.
We often felt that we could see her ribs and that she was underfed.

The advantage to keeping the horse on our own property was that we would manage her entirely as we saw fit. As I commented to my wife, “If you do not like the way she is cared for, you will have no one but yourself to blame.” The Chestnut Mare, an energetic Thoroughbred, could be the Chestnut Mare, cribber, difficult keeper and all. It really was no big deal to buy more feed or replace a fence board or two. It is funny how you can so easily say that about your own, yet it is so hard to be forgiving about the faults of someone else’s animal. Needless to say, you save on boarding fees if you do your own management, but there is a big financial outlay to acquire an adequate amount of land and horse related facilities and equipment.

I had to learn how to manage a small horse operation. Fortunately, we had friends who were already doing this and shared their knowledge with us. Although I was a city boy, I truly like the rural life and I enjoy the time out- of- doors doing maintenance on our small farm and horse operation. Having a horse did influence our career decisions. We would come to live and work in a rural area rather than an urban environment. The property we purchased had been previously owned by a family that had ponies for their children and already had a small barn and some fencing. Over the years we have added additional pastures, buildings and riding trails. We have purchased horse trailers and tractors. We have spent a lot of time in the saddle enjoying our animals, but we also have spent a lot of time caring for them. In the process we have known both joy and a sense of accomplishment and also rarely sorrow when an old equine friend dies, but I can honestly say that I have never resented the demands imposed by caring for horses. They have become part of the routines of life. Feeding the horses, turning them out, putting lime on the fields, repairing the fencing, going to the feed store and a thousand other things have become just part of the routines of my life and are no different than brushing my teeth or washing my face.

Horses themselves are very much creatures of habit. They are there waiting for us at feeding time and know exactly that the routine is. I think that living on the same land as your animal and exclusively caring for them adds a dimension to the human-animal relationship that boarding them lacked. I also can say that sharing the responsibility of caring for the animals as a couple and also riding together has added a dimension to our marital relationship. However, this is certainly not of the same magnitude as being parents, I might add. There is nothing else in life quite like that, but that’s a book any parent might write and I am talking about horses here.

Life has it twists and turns and who really knows what the future holds for any of us. There are a lot of people out there who at one point in their lives had dreams that they have never fulfilled. I hope that you will not feel that you are one of those people and that horse ownership is that dream. Maybe “this horse thing” is to be, and if so, I hope that you go for it. It worked for us (even if I am but an accidental horseman) and also for many other people. So, have fun in the process and please be safe. Remember the words of Lao-tzu that a journey of one thousand miles begins with a single step.