Old School vs. New School Horsemanship

[Mike Matson]

Truth! Of course none of the "new school" happens around here!

http://equestrianreality.com/2013/11...-horsemanship/

[Cindyg]

The first one isn't accurate at my house.

Old school, if your horse is fat, feed him less.

My house: If your horse is fat, obsess endlessly on the starch and sugar content of his food. Call all over the country looking for the perfect forage. Have your pasture and soil analyzed. Have his thyroid, insulin levels, glucose, and leptin measured. Hire a nutritionist to advise you on ALL nutrient ratios. Buy custom balanced minerals. Long to buy Heiro, Quessence, Mag Restore, etc. but try to believe that the customized minerals are really what he needs. Try dozens of slow-feed devices. Try several muzzles.

You can laugh, but do NOT tell my husband that simply feeding less is an option.

[goodhors]

I couldn't afford to pay all those added expenses to be a New School of Horsemanship owner!

[Bluey]

We also need to consider the ramifications of our uses of horses in the Old School of Horsemanship and the New School of Horsemanship in the larger context of our societies:

Old school of horsemanship, everyone was around horses, knew what they were and were not.
Most took excellent care of their horses and taught those learning about horses how to do so and why and saw it was done right.
Aids were explained and where what we use fit with that, spurs and whips included.

Horses were a necessary part of everyone's life as transportation and in leisure, their use not questioned.

There has always been those that abuse, including abusing animals, including abusing horses and that was frowned on and laws were passed against that as needed.

New school of horsemanship, in most societies today horses are rare, marginal pursuit of a few.
For those that have horses under the New School of Horsemanship, part of that is the awareness that some are trying to make second citizens of anyone that is involved in any way with animals.

The general public doesn't know about horses, but of course becomes an instant expert on all and everything in this information age, including all about horses, without ever having been close to one.

Because of that ignorance of what horses are, the general public misses what horses really are and what functions they still serve for us.

For decades we have some of those clueless people now arbitrarily deciding that animals now should be considered off hands to humans.
Following their insidious propaganda ongoing for decades now, everyone that is involved with horses is branded an abuser just by having horses.

Those involved with horse are seen as someone that has strange abuser and violent tendencies, that drive them to ride horses running here and there and beat them with those whips and spurs to go faster, if not outright beating or starving them to death, see those videos of abusers doing just that!
That was told to me by a city raised high schooler that knows it all.

I say, the New School of Horsemanship includes today needing to defend our uses of horses in our societies, as Temple Grandin explains, not by responding to those attacking our uses, they have their minds made up and closed, but by telling our good, interesting stories of our animals and our care and uses of them to the general public out there.

By doing that, they can understand the important difference between proper uses and why we do what we do and those that abuse animals, not let others convince them we should quit using animals at all.

[quarterhorse4me]

Old school: My mother commenting that she simply does not know how her horses ever survived as she is looking at my supplements, two kinds of hay and two different types of feed (one for an ulcery horse). When I am out of town I am wasting my breath giving her feeding instructions as she just ignores me and does whatever she wants.

As a child, our horses were always super healthy and very rarely did we ever have any colic episodes. My childhood pony lived to 42. Obviously she did something right!

[Bluey]

Old school: My mother commenting that she simply does not know how her horses ever survived as she is looking at my supplements, two kinds of hay and two different types of feed (one for an ulcery horse). When I am out of town I am wasting my breath giving her feeding instructions as she just ignores me and does whatever she wants.

As a child, our horses were always super healthy and very rarely did we ever have any colic episodes. My childhood pony lived to 42. Obviously she did something right!

Or maybe they just "made different horses" then.

That is what we say when we compared some great, long lived relative to today's "softer" humans, that need to have their modern conveniences.

We trained and raced horses on plain rolled oats and alfalfa, rarely may have added Calf Manna if a horse was losing weight on it, rather than more oats.
We measured hemocrit count and added Red Cell if one was low.

Those horses were running as good as today's horses do on all that special food and supplements.
Some of their track records are still standing, so there is something about simple, uncomplicated care, as long as you condition right and watch your horse like a hawk.

[Megaladon]

Or maybe they just "made different horses" then.

That is what we say when we compared some great, long lived relative to today's "softer" humans, that need to have their modern conveniences.

We trained and raced horses on plain rolled oats and alfalfa, rarely may have added Calf Manna if a horse was losing weight on it, rather than more oats.
We measured hemocrit count and added Red Cell if one was low.

Those horses were running as good as today's horses do on all that special food and supplements.
Some of their track records are still standing, so there is something about simple, uncomplicated care, as long as you condition right and watch your horse like a hawk.

This is true, when was the last Triple Crown winner?

[ccoronios]

Or maybe they just "made different horses" then.

Or what they ate was different. I know you addressed this, Bluey - but I'm looking at it from a different angle. There are so many chemicals in all of our feed today (and food, but that's a different topic) that, if one pays attention to such things, there's little semblance to the relatively 'pure' grain/corn/hay that we fed several decades ago.

Look at all the ailments/diseases/problems humans are having that have cropped up in the past several decades. Why would it be a stretch to think that horses are less susceptible to chemical warfare?

[Bluey]

Or what they ate was different. I know you addressed this, Bluey - but I'm looking at it from a different angle. There are so many chemicals in all of our feed today (and food, but that's a different topic) that, if one pays attention to such things, there's little semblance to the relatively 'pure' grain/corn/hay that we fed several decades ago.

Look at all the ailments/diseases/problems humans are having that have cropped up in the past several decades. Why would it be a stretch to think that horses are less susceptible to chemical warfare?

Our bodies and those of our animals have always been under the assault of all kinds of "chemicals" in our environment.

While those changed with the times, that is par for the course for all alive in this planet.

One example, how centuries ago led was used, today is even taken out of gasoline and paint, with good reason.

So, we are really not any better or worse in general as much as our knowledge is increasing and we can avoid more harmful "chemicals", while admitting that we don't know enough to be that sure yet how all around us interacts with each other and ourselves and our animals.

All of us live longer.
There is a longer list of diagnosable maladies known today.
That may account for being more of them.

Hope that makes sense?

[Megaladon]

Or what they ate was different. I know you addressed this, Bluey - but I'm looking at it from a different angle. There are so many chemicals in all of our feed today (and food, but that's a different topic) that, if one pays attention to such things, there's little semblance to the relatively 'pure' grain/corn/hay that we fed several decades ago.

Look at all the ailments/diseases/problems humans are having that have cropped up in the past several decades. Why would it be a stretch to think that horses are less susceptible to chemical warfare?

This is exactly where my thoughts were going but I didn't want to start a whole GMO/chemical debate.