I have just finished Lucy Rees' book in one sitting and I am burning to tell you about it. This is a really heartwarming book and yet totally realistic about the loves and lives of truly wild horses and the challenges that they face. It comes to some conclusions about the way that horses operate on a social level that leaving you thinking, "Oh yes, that has to be right" and sometimes "Yep, I think I always sort of knew that." The section on cohesion, synchrony, and collision avoidance is beautifully described.
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| Credit: Audrey Scott-Hopkins |
I first read, and loved, articles written by Lucy Rees when The Riding Magazine featured a series that she wrote in the 1970's. Considering that The Riding Magazine was a rather starchy magazine, heavily into BHS traditional techniques, it was ahead of it's time, and I only wish that I had paid more attention then and allowed it to sink in. More recently I heard rumours that Lucy was somewhat "off the wall" and, like a lot of passionate people, rather outspoken (this way lies madness in a lot of horse people!) living amongst horses in Spain. I missed an opportunity to meet her when she came to the UK. Its clear to me now that she and her students have spent a lot of time lying on their tummies next to inadequate bushes, watching the actions of horses in interesting, insect, and puma-ridden places like Venezuela, as well observing her own feral herd of pottaka ponies. Now, that's a job I'd like to do.
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| Credit: Jim Crouch |
She's rather dismissive of the New Forest ponies in their managed herds and any research based on their movements, blithely and inaccurately stating that the "colts are culled" which has never been the case on a wholesale level and is very far from the truth now. Her biggest revelations are about the paternal and protective role of stallions in a herd, something that is disrupted and now limited by the Stallion Scheme here which sees just fifteen or less, sometimes very young, stallions turned out for just one month. I have seen her arguments used by others as a justification for leaving stallions out on Dartmoor where over-production of foals is definitely a problem and does lead to some of them being shot at home, sent to an abattoir, or sold for a pittance at the sales. I think I'd like to see (do) more on the role of geldings and vasectomised stallions in the lives of semi-feral herds such as the New Forest (geldings) and Dartmoor (both). I've been watching 'white' Blue and the way he has nurtured and protected Juma and certainly influenced his demeanour and sense of safety. I could happily hole up in some gorse bush for hours at a time watching our beloved ponies interacting.
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| I can hide better than this |
This brings me to the future of my blog which is petering towards a diary of what the New Forest ponies are up to and views from the top of my horse. I think I have room for a bit more passionate, outspoken, potentially blithely inaccurate stuff before I give it up, along with any horse work whatsoever, at Christmas. That's when my insurance runs out and unless I can get regular access to local semi-feral ponies for halter training with students, I think it really is all over.
If you have any views on anything in this blog, or indeed a supply of local semi-feral ponies for training with students, please email me at sarah@logicalhorsemanship.co.uk
