7th January, 2012 Nelly says.....

 

Why no pictures of me? (This comment is tongue in cheek). She's been back today along with Brandy and Blue and not a word to her son or one back. 

7th January, 2012 I Wanna Be Like You

I often have a word of the day: prevarication, extrapolation, badinage, that sort of thing. Anthropomorphism is a regular and I think it is a feature of many people's beliefs about horses. Just look at how many films shown over Christmas and the New Year starred talking animals - The Gruffalo's Child, Ratatouille, Shrek, Madagascar and the wonderful classic, The Jungle Book. However, to understand the REAL motivation of animals the new BBC documentary Earthflight is unbeatable. Animals fighting to survive, fighting for food, fighting for sex - and the last two go back to survival. Driven by these three motives alone - the need to stay alive. When working with horses we have to understand that there is a great well of instinctive, automatic, unconscious, behaviour and that we have to draw them up, from this before we can work with counter-intuitive, conscious, trained behaviour (in fact non-natural behaviour). We are lucky that one of the horse's natural instincts is to co-operate but otherwise it is amazing that they will work with us at all given that so much of what we do is against their natural instincts.

When a horse suddenly explodes, takes flight, bites, kicks, bucks...this is all totally natural behaviour. It doesn't mean that he has forgotten everything he has learned just that he has dropped back into that well where he is just a horse. It will take effort to draw him back up. So many "Why does my horse...?" questions involve surprise at totally natural behaviour. The answer can be very succinct: "Because he is a horse". The more complex question is: "How can I ask my horse not to be a horse."

The other danger of anthropomorphism is that it can introduce the idea of moral dimension into a horse's behaviour. Horses have no morals. They don't intrinsically know that a behaviour is 'right' or 'wrong'. They just do what works for them. In a herd environment they learn what works through the actions of other horses. Peechay knows that it is okay to share his mother's food but not Jack's. He is currently working on getting exclusive rights to the contents of the blue barrell. Horses can only learn what is acceptable around humans through actions and the actions of those humans. They don't automatically know. Until then, all they have is their instinct - the drive to survive.

One final thought. What does pain mean to horses? I think there is a huge link between pain and fear in horses. A horse that is in pain is often more spooky, more reactive, nore inclined to bite and kick. The pain itself may be invisible. Pain is a precursor to death in the wild. Animals that are visibly injured, slowing down or acting out of character are picked out by predators and soon become a meal. It is in the interests of the horse to hide pain and to increase their level of vigilance.

5th January, 2011 Shaken and stirred

Nelly has gone back out on to the Forest now and both she and Peechay seem utterly unperturbed. He is having a fine time playing with Indiana, particularly 101 things to do with half a blue barrell.

3rd January, 2012 The Opportunist

The bird feeder has blown over in the wind so we have a new visitor.

And another one:

3rd January, 2012 Auspicious day?

Of all the days I could choose to wean Peechay, I chose yesterday. It was a bright, crisp day and the sun was shining. He's now really good friends with Indiana and I thought it was an ideal moment. I wanted it to be as surreptitious as possible so I just quietly closed the gate between him and Nelly while he was eating hay in one field and she was in the other. Needless to say at 4 a.m. this morning, when I was woken up by the gale force winds rattling the house and the sideways rain smacking on the windows, I lay awake and worried about him and at the very first sign of any light, drove up to the fields to see how he was. Of course he was fine and he and Indiana are happily eating hay in the field shelter whilst Nelly and Jack have tucked themselves up under a hedge with theirs. Like most owners I really the weight of responsibility for my ponies and would feel terrible if anything awful happened to them as a result of something I had done or hadn't done when I should have. Subconsciously I am always concerned about the safety of my ponies out on the Forest but balance that against the wonderfully natural life that they have and the self sufficiency they develop. Surely Peechay's calm acceptance of being separated from his mother is because he has already ventured far from her out on the Forest knowing that the earth is not flat and the world is full of horses. He knows how to socialise with complete strangers and minds his manners until he knows whether he is speaking to friend or foe. 

It also helps that he is eight months old - about twice the age (and independence) that New Forest foals have normally reached before they are abruptly weaned from their mothers. In my younger days (and I'm officially older today) we used to wean our foals abruptly and take the mother as far away as possible so that they couldn't hear one another. This was often traumatic and on one occasion a foal managed to injure himself very badly in the stable and almost had to be put down. It put us off breeding horses for a very long time. I'd much rather do things incrementally like this providing it is safe to do so. Nelly will be turned back out on the Forest at the end of this week but she will still be able to come and wave at him when she comes home for her hay.

2nd January, 2012 Birthday donkeys

In just over two hours it will be my birthday. As a present my Mum has given a donation to the Safe Haven for Donkeys in The Holy Land, and not only that, she delivered it in person while she was visiting Israel and met some of the 160 donkeys that live there. For more details take a look at: www.safehaven4donkeys.org

It is amazing to think that it is now almost 12 years since Englishwoman Lucy Fensom set up Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land. Lucy continues to work incredibly hard at our outreach projects and at the sanctuary, where there are now over 160 donkeys.

Lucy Fensom, Founder and Field Director says: 

Our success relies on your very generous donations so thank you to all of you who kindly donate to help our vital work.

Since 2000 we have rescued, treated and helped over 1,000 donkeys, mules and horses and run free mobile vet clinics and education programmes in the region, to teach both children and adults how to care for their working animal.

Our charity provides the free veterinary care for these poor, broken down animals that their owners would otherwise have no way of affording. By helping their working animals we are helping the people. We have worked hard to build relationships with many of these poverty stricken people and managed to reach out to their hearts. As a result they value our help tremendously and I find their appreciation so rewarding.One remarkable thing to see at our outreach clinics days is our small team of staff of all faiths, Muslim, Christian and Jewish - working together with the Palestinian owners solely to help the animals.

1st January, 2012 Old Acquaintance

Today the whole gang of us went down to Patrick and Suzanne's for a get together. Whilst Jim, Jenny and David tucked into the fondue, I fought hard to resist and nibbled on nuts and apple slices! Later we went out to see the horses where I was reunited with Rodlease Extra Special (known as Hans) who has recently been weaned. He was one of the two featured at our foal handling course last autumn. He's a solid colt, bright in colour and in intelligence.

I have joined the KICK OFF THE POUNDS KICK IN 2012 facebook page and will be donating £1 per every 1lb that I lose to Equine Market Watch. I've made a good start and already owe them money!