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

More Discussions by “The Accidental Horseman”

At the Horse World Expo

Riders in the Arena at the Horse Expo

The Trainer doing his Demonstration
Will the real horse whisperer please stand up.

Well, its Horse Expo time again. Should I forgo my weekend chores and perhaps even give up riding for a day? Well, it’s January, awfully cold this morning and who knows, I just might learn a few things? You may have been to a Horse Expo yourself. This is where, as a horseman or horsewoman, you see miracles happen. For example, they always seem to have one of these celebrity horse trainers there. People in the crowd say that this guy really, really is the original horse whisperer and do not believe what they say about all those other guys. He is very charismatic, wears a cowboy hat and works the crowd like a seasoned televangelist.

Enter the horse with eyes wide, tail up, snorting. It trots around the ring acting more like a bull than a horse. Its traumatized owner, cringing by the side of the round pen, testifies that this animal, despite excellent bloodlines, will not load on a trailer; will not accept a saddle, rider or bit; bites, kicks and has put its last five owners in the hospital. You fear the worst for the trainer. Perhaps, this time our matador has met his match. He just stands there quietly in the center of the ring, looking very alone. How can anyone even approach this wild animal? The tension builds in the audience. However, in one-half hour it is all over. The horse is licking the trainer’s hand. It cannot wait to get on the trailer. The trainer puts a saddle on the horse and does a victory lap around the ring to the applause of an adoring audience.

You sit there and wonder: did I just see some kind of parlor trick? Just how did they get an animal like this to the arena in the first place? However, it was not a trick. This guy has been doing this kind of thing for years, and horses are among the most trainable of animals. Maybe I did not exactly see the above scenario this time, but you know what I mean.

The Flag at the opening Ceremony

The Crowd at the Exposition Hall So Many Vendors and Organizations

You get a feeling about a horse's personality.

A Days End Farm Adoption Horse

The Jumping Demonstration
Horses are first trained to maintain a steady gait without the bars up.

I believe that I got my monies worth out of going. I picked up a couple ideas of new ways to work with our own horses. I got some ideas that might help improve our barn management, and I took in the show. Polocrosse looks like a lot of fun. Vaulting, well I have always felt the goal of riding was to stay in the saddle and not leave it. I would break my neck for sure if I did something like that. There were more than a few nice looking horses and great riders. By way of criticism, the one jumping demonstration that I attended, despite its title which was “Taking your Jumping to the Next Level,” was not really executed with the audience in mind. The coach, who has excellent credentials, was working with a group of girls in the ring and basically giving them a lesson. As a member of the audience, I was observing the lesson, but her focus was on the students rather than the audience. How do you both work with a group of students and at the same time talk to a mixed audience of veteran riders and casual spectators? I felt that the coach did what she does every day: teaching her students to improve their riding. However, I felt that she did not have a plan about the specific information she wanted to impart to the audience. It might have worked better with two people: one with a focus on the students and the other on the audience.

The Polocrosse player was very enthusiastic about her sport.

I find myself thinking, “What if horses put on a people exhibition?” Just what would they say and what seminars would they give? I am certain they would have had a seminar on good pasture management, the ever popular “ground manners for people” and, of course, how to maximize receiving horse threats from your owner. The human-animal relationship is a two-way street. You may not have considered it, but they are training us just as much as we are training them. Also, as any horse person knows, horses have a keen sense of humor. They would certainly have a horse comic doing impersonations of different kinds of owners. You might leave the show feeling a little self-conscious. Do I really act like that around my horse?

I go outside to walk to the other building. It has turned into a nice day. The sky is blue and the temperature has warmed up considerably. A little more than an hour later I am riding my own horse in the woods with my wife. It has been a very long time since I had a jumping lesson myself. We have been talking about doing some more ring work and devoting more time to schooling our horses. Will I really apply any of the information that I picked up today? Will I buy any of the products whose brochures stuff my bag? Well, time will tell. This is the 17th year for the Horse Expo, and I can see it is a big production. The people running it deserve a lot of credit for putting together what appeared to be a very well-oiled machine. It is nice to see so many people interested in horses, young people involved with riding and these well-known equestrians in person. I notice now that the sun is getting low in the sky and the air much colder again. We turn the horses around and head for home. I reflect that it’s nice to have something a little different to do this time of year, and I am looking forward to the spring.

One nice thing about the Expo is the public gets to be up close and personal with horses.