The Wild Horse Card

Equilibrium Ireland

Equilibrium Ireland

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So in recent threads, doesn't matter what the situation, we trot out the "wild horse" theory to prove an argument. Rugs, horses in the wild don't have them. Shoes, horses in the wild don't have them. On and on and on. One woman who for the entire 6 weeks of snow covered ground we had 2 winters ago, never put a drop of water in the field. She said, horses in the wild get their water from snow. My mouth just remained agape. So you play the wild horse card on water when your horse is going out to the field with a full belly of food, place a bale of haylage out there, and he's wearing shoes and 600 grams of rugs. I had no words.

But if someone doesn't get a vet for every little scratch, abuser. Some of these people doing the accusing are the very same who trot out the wild horse card for every other situation.

Maybe it's just me but it boggles my mind. Yes we only see healthy wild horses in the wild because the unhealthy ones are called lunch. Or they are standing on their own suffering til they die as the herd does not wait.

Terri
 
Gets my goat. Horses in the wild are not ridden either, does this mean we should keep them as pets? Plus they roam over 100's of acres, and suffer if they are ill or injured. Recent studies also show they get lami in the wild too. Personally I think if you are goingto keep domestic animals, they have certain needs which should be kept. That said mine live out, albeit with rugs on, as I do try to keep them as they like to be kept.
 
Very very sensible words.
Sadly, these days many people own horses who really shouldn't.
I'll trot out my old dad's favourite saying.
There are horse people and then there are people who keep horses.
Says it all in my opinion.
 
Very true E I, there is only one place truly wild horses live and thrive, central Asia. Everywhere else the horses are feral. People seem to forget that wild horses died out in North America, but came back again with the Spanish. You cannot really talk about truly 'wild' horses.
 
Then there are those who kick and hit (even bite :eek: ) their horses because that's what horses do to each other... :confused: :D

For me the wild/feral horse is useful to learn what horses really are to help our understanding to hopefully improve management, quality of life etc.
 
I also hate that, I mean how many kwpns do you see wandering around native England?! Yes I shoe, rug, feed and ride her but that is what she was bred for not to wander around freezing and starving on a bloody moor.

I think people use the 'in the wild....' excuse because they can't be bothered/can't afford it alot of the time. Do they let their dog scavange for scraps like they would in the wild? Probably not.
 
I can watch herd behaviour in my domesticated herd actually.

Are these human biters and kickers using rugs, shoes, feed, vets, Farriers, trimmers, and tack on their horses? If so hypocrites.

No I'm not advocating that treatment, just proving my point.

Terri
 
Equilibrium Ireland said:
Are these human biters and kickers using rugs, shoes, feed, vets, Farriers, trimmers, and tack on their horses? If so hypocrites.
Click to expand...
I expect some are. Imo it's just a handy excuse or some sort of bizarre justification to use hitting etc.to 'control'. :(

Feral horses are escapees and are genetically identical to domestic horses barring the minute breed differences which haven't altered the horse one bit really. So is there nothing to learn from them? Do we know it all then? Do we know what is best for horses in domestication or do we just think we do? :cool:

Ah yes, 24/7 stabling with a lovely fluffy bed and the most expensive rugs, tack and fattening feed is just what they need... :confused:
 
It's a bit like the ponies argument .. Why do I rug my welsh sec a? Because yes she's a welshie, but she's come from a stud not a mountain and she's been bred for her looks not her hardiness and finally she drops weight if she gets cold, so I would be stupid not to use rugs .. But they still look at you like your nuts :confused: yeah if you go and grab a native pony from the wild and pop it in a field with natural shelter, water and enough land to keep it going all year you won't need to do anything but how realistic is that?!
 
I particularly hate the "my horse can live out 24/7 in a windswept field, wild horses do it, its natural" type of comment.

Wild horses roam over 000's of acres. If its cold and snowy they head for lower sheltered ground. In the summer they go higher for some different grass and more wind (less flies and midges I expect)

Standing around in a few acres of mud with a bit of shelter isn't how wild horses live.

Wild horses also run on all sorts of terrain and wear their feet down. Again dont see how a few acres of mud is going to do this.

We have domesticated the horse and should be prepared to treat them as such. Would you want your dog living a "natural life" would it even survive.

Thats not saying we cant learn from observing wild horses though.
 
Well I'll be the first to say I don't know if I have it right. I do my best for them. Shelter when needed, rugs if needed, vet, farrier, water, ect. Out of 5, 2 get food at the moment and the others have access to a lick bucket. And I watch their grazing. And this year has been rough due to the nature of well nature. Everyhthing grew in the span of a few days so it seemed.

Trust me it would be much easier to turn them out on 50 acres of lush grass, let nature take it's course on EVERY situation, and watch them from my window. But because they're mine and domesticated I do not.

My point being proving an argument through the "wild horse" theory has no validity.

When I say watching in a herd it's been generally with mares, foals, and youngsters, as they grow in the herd. Not a bunch of older horses. There is much to learn.

Terri
 
Its one of my pet narks. I have quite a lot of pets :D

Mine do live out though, theyve got a bit more than a few acres of mud.
 
I agree that it can be used as an excuse and I hate to see horses left without adequate shelter, stood up to their knees in mud and unrugged when they are cold because it is 'natural'. Death is also natural, but I'm not going to be embracing that any time soon hopefully!

I think that we can learn from wild horses in that we can appreciate that wild horses move a lot, eat little and often and survive on a fibrous diet. If we can emulate those aspects by making sure horses have adequate exercise and turnout and aren't overfed or given cereals unnecessarily then fair enough, but I hate to see horses whose needs aren't met because the owner is too stubborn to treat it as an individual.
 
I think that there is a lot to learn from the behaviour of wild/feral horses, and it's a massive mistake just to dismiss these things out of hand.

True that domestic horses live in very different circumstances to their natural state, but, horses that have escaped captivity have reverted to their age old ways quickly and successfully.

Keeping an open mind, is the key to get the very best out our horses, we should do what we can for the horse and not too him. There is an awful lot going on in that brain and he can manage very well without us in the wild places, the places we haven't fenced or poured concrete over, if he could find them.
 
Why can't people just look at the horse that's in front of them and make decisions based on that!? I know tbs that winter without rugs no bother whereas Asbo's dam, who had roamed the new forest for the best part of twenty years with no intervention now lives in a two acre paddock with a barn for shelter and gets hard feed and a rug in winter because otherwise she gets cold and drops weight.

If my horse is loosing weight, I up his feed. If he is getting too fat I decrease his feed. If he is cold i'll put a rug on, if he is too warm i'll put a lighter one on/take it off entirely. Really this horse care malarky isn't that difficult, just requires a bit of common sense! :)

I can think of several people who 'have horses'. 'Horse people' seem to be a dying breed.
 
Horses in the wild would be lunch on legs to many predators. If they're injured, ill or just not quick-witted enough that's the end. If food or water's scarce, or in extreme weather conditions, they may survive, they may not. Life expentancy's probably fairly short.

They are "free" though, it's their natural state and I'm very glad there are a few left even if it's only a tiny number which are wild not feral.

However, it's not the life I want for my Mollie, even if I could provide it for her. She doesn't have freedom, but she does have ample food, water and care if she's ill. She's protected from the worst of the weather, free from predators (she doesn't believe that one :rolleyes:) and I very much hope she'll live to a ripe old age.

Oh and sometimes, very begrudgingly, she lets me sit on her back and make a fool of myself for a while. :eek:

I think it's a very silly and rather ignorant thing, to use what they would or wouldn't have "in the wild" as an excuse for failing in our duty of care.
 
I very much agree that playing the 'wild card' when it suits is quite silly. However, plenty go the other way and treat their horses in completely unnatural AND (before anyone shoots me over riding etc) unhealthy ways. Rugging a horse up to the eyeballs because you (generic 'you') want it to be "cosy" when it's actually sweating its bits off is an example, as is keeping a horse on its own because it's "not living in the wild you know!" (yep, I've heard that before).

A happy and logical medium needs to be taken and tailored to the horse in question.
 
And then how many horses in the wild are doing the type of work ours do?

Reg events at BE100, competes in jumping/ dressage/ ODEs/ showing every other week or so on average and is a TB type. He's not been bred to live in the wild, he was bred to go as fast as possible over big fences in a circle. Which is not a very natural thing to do, truth be told :D The amount of work he does is not what a wild horse would do and so treating him as one would be ridiculous, wouldn't it?!
 
Ok I do agree the other extreme of horse keeping is not great for their overall health. When my mare was in jump training I used to go crazy about the heavy liner under her rug in April FFS. Shortly after that she came back to me. She got chucked out and appropriate rugging, or not, for any situation. And OMG she kept her haircoat! I actually never saw overblanketing like what I saw here when I moved over. Kept racehorses in the NY winter with better haircoats and less rugs.

So yeah, I get the polar opposite of "wild horse". But really what I was getting at was people who, like my example in the OP, overdo everything on their horses and suddenly decide, gee that's a bit of work so I'll play the wild horse card! I remember that winter distinctly because I spent 45mins in prep before the horses could go out. Breaking ice, adding warm, putting out hay, keeping the water flowing for everyone and so and and so on. I remember someone saying to me, well aren't you going to take water to her horses? Um, no. Not my problem. The older horse colicked twice. For all those that think I should have involved myself, no, I'm not taking the blame if something happened. No involvement means no blame.

I agree reading about wild horses can be beneficial but not in the sense of using it for whatever you don't feel like doing.

And like I said, I don't have all the answers but I try and do my best. I want horses comfortable. Not too hot, not freezing. Yes, most horses can actually live without hard feed at times. Just a couple of examples.

Terri
 
pookie said:
I very much agree that playing the 'wild card' when it suits is quite silly. However, plenty go the other way and treat their horses in completely unnatural AND (before anyone shoots me over riding etc) unhealthy ways. Rugging a horse up to the eyeballs because you (generic 'you') want it to be "cosy" when it's actually sweating its bits off is an example, as is keeping a horse on its own because it's "not living in the wild you know!" (yep, I've heard that before).

A happy and logical medium needs to be taken and tailored to the horse in question.
Click to expand...

This ^^^^ :D
Mine live out 24/7 in a herd, but are rugged and fed if necessary, would have shoes if they needed them (they don't atm) and have spent the odd night in the stable when the rain is relentlessly peeing down :D
My chunky cob mare actually feels the cold WAY more than my TB, and is rugged accordingly. Horses are individuals, as are humans, and should be treated as such.
Common sense is sadly lacking in many who have horses, imo.
 
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