12th February, 2009 I get so emotional baby

Last night I went to hear the talk on animal rescues by Jim The Fireman - at the risk of starting to look like a groupie. My excuse is that I went with Sue B whose foal had been rescued by them when he collapsed in the garden, and anyway, I think you pick up more when you hear something for a second time.

Once again he spoke about the difficulties of saving owners from injuring themselves when they are so emotionally involved with their animals. He talked about their feelings of fear and guilt especially when there was some element of their care that had contributed to the accident in the first place, such as weak fencing or a dodgy trailer.

There is so much emotion in our relationships with our horses - maybe that's why we have them in the first place. Many of the people that I go and see have lost the joy and pleasure that they felt around horses and become overwhelmed with feelings of doubt, guilt, fear, frustration and even anger. These negative emotions, if justified at all, don't help the owner, don't help the horse and certainly impede training. I have found it useful to imagine offloading such emotions at the gate as I go to my horses and hopeful to forget to pick them up again as I leave. The best thing I ever read was that only the good feel guilty.