To have rights is to gain obligations

After Ed has been and worked on our horses, Lena and I have had lively discussions around the topic ownership and control over someone else. Are we entitled to it? What considerations should we take? Do they have something to say? Do we have the right to demand what we want? Are there limitations of what we can ask?

These are questions with more than one answer. They are connected with how we as humans view ourselves as superior. It involves questions of ethics, moral and our own desires and hopes for our own life. It's about love, frustration, agony, sorrow and joy and it's mostly about us as individuals and our attitude toward the world and its beings - among them foremost the horse. And it is about money, I almost forgot that. There is always a penny or two in the picture.

For my own part, I have no problem with having a horse and keeping it within the boundaries that my location provides me with. I want to use the horse I have for both riding and driving. It is, if you want to see it that way, my right to choose what I want to do with the horses I have.

Several years ago there was a man on the radio that said "it is important to remember that my rights ends where my obligations begins".

It is my right to ask certain things of my horses but I also have responsibilities to live up to. I am obliged to ensure that they are trained with training methods that are based on as little coercion as possible. The question of constraint is interesting, just as there are degrees in hell, there are degrees of constraint. All handling of horses involves coercion. The only question is how much is needed and if there is the possibility to give moments of release within the constraint.

During the ISES conference Camie R Heleski talked about the importance of ethics in horse management. She showed photos of training methods similar to animal cruelty in the training of pleasure horses. She also talked about how some exhibitors rubbed the anus with ginger on Arabian horses. The perceived irritation lead to highly held horsetails - something that paid off in the show ring.

On the list of obligations relating to the outside around the horse there are; food, pastures, maintaining of the horse, and by that I mean access to skilled farrier, veterinarian, any other therapist, saddler. I have an obligation to be vigilant for my horse to be able to assess the horse's day to day state, build my knowledge of common diseases and their progress so that I can minimize any suffering. I should keep track of the environment that the horse is kept in to avoid injuries in the paddock or stall.

On the list belonging to the “inner areas” around the horse, our relationship, there is as much concern to the inner wishes in people and what it is we want the horse to manifest for us.

Here we have what Ed calls leadership. We want the horse to respect us and we want it to "cozy up" with us, show us that they like us simply. Do you know what the horse's signs of "love" is or do you want it to show it in a more human-like way, with his muzzle against your cheek, for example?

Does your horse meet your ambitions. If not, what can you ask of him? How do you know if your horse has the capacity or not? Do you ride him "into the wall" to see if it can take or make it or should you stop earlier?

And then, worst of all - death. Are you prepared to take your responsibility for the end? I once went with a friend to see an older horse that was for sale. It was just crazy, the owners should have brought an end to that horses life rather than to advertise it. It felt very much like they wanted make a "doublé", get some money for the old mare (26 year old, but as they said "she breeds nice" - as if breeding was an option?) and avoid the cost of putting her down.

My opinion on that issue is clear as day, really old horses should not be sold. They can possibly be given away, if they are healthy, with the condition that it can not be resold, and it must be agreed with the receiver if they are prepared to take the cost of it being put away or if you should share it. Otherwise, we have to personally take the decision to end life. For me it's a question of being decent, and it is also the last obligation, to make sure that my friend may have a good life or a good death when age makes itself present.