Why do people immediately suspect former abuse when a horse balks at an unfamiliar task, or acts up?
I know there are a lot of worthless bastards out there who DO mistreat horses...but I read a lot of posts in many forums about bad behavior, and the common thread is "I think he must have been abused" when it's just as possible (and in many cases, more likely) that the horse has been spoiled or allowed to get away with being a bit piggish.
While of course you can't judge an individual horse's situation from comments here on a board, l'm just wondering, from your experience...do you think there more stupid or ignorant permissive people spoiling horses or true cruel bastards abusing them?
My vote, from what I see around, is more on the over permissive side. I think your average misbehaving horse has been either under handled, or mishandled through ignorance or stupidity, not deliberate cruelty. What do you think?
PH 12008-07-09T18:25:53Z
Favorite Answer
Because people and especially horse people LOVE to be drama llamas and assume the worse and play the hero.
How many young teenage riders have you run into who scream "abuuuuuuuuuuuse!" at any and everything?
There's a smug badge of honour some (and I said SOME not all, so chill people) people love to wear when they 'rescue' an animal, they care less about the critter and more about their personal ego shrine.
I think there are more permissive, cutesy wutesy, drama llamas f#$%ing up horses trying to buy into some pseudo mystical little girl horse scenario than evil, ignorant b@#$!%^@, though there's a hearty serving of those around as well.
More Lies & More Smoke Screens2008-07-09T17:34:43Z
Great question, I have wondered this myself. I think it is a tough call. We all know there are the worthless bastards out there who are cruel & stupid & abuse horses, but after being on here I also think there are more ignorant, inexperienced or totally clueless people out there who once read a book or saw a horse & wanted one. They have no clue what to look for, no riding experience, no common sense & do not look for help when finding a horse. They over buy or should just not have a horse because they didn't bother to seek advice or professional assistance to learn ANYTHING!!! other than "I read a book". I think these people are basically afraid of their horses because they don't know what they are doing, so the horse catches on fast & bad habits are born due to the "no no baby no do that to mommy" attitudes. Then these people sell these horses because it's "just not what I thought it would be like" & the next person gets all the bad habits & spoiled personalities allowed by previous owners. Hopefully the new owner is a person who can & will work these issues out & not some stupid cruel bastard who thinks that a good beating is all that is needed. MANY if not ALL problems can be traced back to cruelty &/or stupidity or ignornace &/or inexperience.
There are sooooo many questions on here that I wonder, where has all the common sense gone? & if these people have kids are they as much trouble as these people's horses are?
I don't know if we have always just been lucky or what, but we never had horses with major problems, even when I was a kid. Of course you had the occassional biter or bad attitude, but you dealt with it & did not allow it to continue. Plain & simple.
**EDIT** John, that was staed PERFECTLY!!! Jeff VERY well said.
Geesh people! Anyone who lets an animal that weighs over half a ton be disrespectful has no business with the animal. Such an animal is DANGEROUS. It doesn't really matter why they are disrespectful. What matters is that if not taken care of someone can and probably will get hurt sooner or later. And in my book a person's life is worth more than a horse's.
As far as a horse balking and it being from abuse. I have seen far more horses balk because the rider or trainer was being permissive and allowing the horse to act up than I have ever seen from a horse that has been abused. I can spot an abused horse within a few minutes of just watching. I do not even have to ride. There are obvious signs IF you know what to look for. Under saddle the most frequent response is to blow up at unpredictable times. Few if any grow out of this completely (though some get much better about it over the years). But balking is not typically one of the signs of abuse.
And A A. You are completely incorrect on two counts. First your assumption of 99% of the time a horse acts up is because of pain. That may be true for a well trained horse that has not been spoiled. But 90% of the time a horse acts up is because someone is asking it to do something it does not want to. Whether it is leaving its buddies, or crossing a 6 inch deep mud puddle. No pain is involoved, it just doesn't want to do it.
The second problem with your assumption is that you are implying that all pain is abuse. The horse may have inadvertently caused itself pain. Thus it is not abuse for a horse to be hurt if it steps on a rock wrong and bruises its frog. That is something that just happens. Also it is not abuse to hit a horse that has bitten you or kicked you and thus put your life in danger.
I agree with your opinion whole-heartedly! I have been rather annoyed by the current trends in some of these horse discussions. I think it is a teenaged fad to say "my horse was abused" to either get sympathy or feel like the hero.
People like to lump neglect in with abuse all too often. Many many horses are fed well, but neglected when it comes to training and working on manners and riding skills. But this doesn't give people the right to label it "abuse" or to excuse bad behavior. There is a huge difference between a horse's natural fear and obstinacy for new things and a horse's extreme phobia as a result of inflicted pain or abuse. A good horse owner will be able to read the horse and try things to see if its obstacles can be overcome and the horse can move on.
Another teenaged trend is to say "I rescued my horse" or "he's a rescue". Just because a horse was purchased at a sale barn or bought from an owner with 40+ horses doesn't constitute rescuing him. A true rescue is when a horse is in an extreme condition (starvation, fire, pain, etc.) and a person takes him in and changes the horse's life.
Let's just be honest about things and leave the exaggerations to the kids! Good post, cnsdubie!
I made a very similar post some time ago. I agree 100%. Too many people are in a hurry to throw out the "abuse" card rather than admit their horse is a spoiled brat and needs more training.
Sure there abused horses out there but if you read the posts on here you might be led to believe that 75 to 80% of horses are abused. I suspect there are far fewer cases of abuse than people think. Also I don't think outright active abuse should be confused with neglect which, while no less serious, is more passive and doesn't cause the kind of mental trauma that abuse does.
Here is a perfect example. My Siberian Husky had a litter of 6 puppies. From the very first day one puppy would startle, cower and yip and cry at any loud noise. All the other puppies were social, playful and confident. I kept that puppy for 5 months after I sold all the other pups waiting for the perfect family for him, and resigned to keeping him if that family didn't appear. Finally a young couple with no children came and wanted to buy him. When I introduced them to the puppy he came right up to the man and licked him in face and was happy to be with them. I explained about the puppy's aversion to loud noises and that he had been that way from birth and assured them he was NEVER abused. When I called them to check on the dog a few months later, they said that he was still shy and hadn't improved much where loud noises were concerned and if I hadn't explained his history they would have assumed he was badly abused. They loved him though and kept him.