Horse Sense: Kissing a fool | Ohio Ag Net | Ohio's Country Journal

February 18th, 2012

By: Kim Lemmon, managing editor

Feed Harley

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Harley really enjoyed his treats. He also stayed mannerly during the entire test.

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So if you haven?t figured it out yet, the fool is me!

When I was a riding lesson instructor, keeping my program?s visitors and students safe was my priority. I forced everyone to abide by a long list of rules. I?m sure a lot of folks, including my husband, Mark, thought my rules were a bit restrictive and obsessive but I felt the rules were a necessity.

I was fortunate to have only a few accidents occur during my time as an instructor. We averaged about one fall every other year. No one was seriously hurt thankfully. To me, the lack of serious injuries and infrequency of falls proved my rules were working but something was lacking.

No one broke my rules except Mark. I would occasionally catch Mark hand feeding a treat to the horses and it

actually made me a little sad. I wanted them to be glad to see me, too.

When I sold all the lesson horses and starting having horses around for my own pleasure, I decided to relax the rules a little. I never gave Mark a hard time when he hand fed the horses and I started doing some ?dangerous? fun activities with them myself. Here are the results of my experiment.

Hand feeding and other disasters

I hate horses that lip or nip at you or are always pushing you looking for a treat. One barn where I taught allowed students to feed the horses treats after lessons. Once the rustling of a bag of carrots started, the horses started dancing in the cross ties and nickering. It was really hard to keep everyone safe and saddle horses while all that was happening. Since my teaching days are done, I decided it would probably be OK if I relaxed my feeding rules a little.

For this experiment, I started hand feeding my horses the occasional treat. It went OK for a while. The draft mare, Julie, was fine, but the bay minis, Mike and Ike, could smell treats in my pockets and started pushing me with their noses. This pushiness became more and more aggressive.

When I let folks pet the horses on their nice and fuzzy noses, the minis started getting ?lippy? and even showed some teeth a time or two.

The worst thing I did was give Julie a kiss. She loved it. My nieces didn?t love it so much, though, when she started trying to reach out her nose from the hitch rail to touch them. My nieces are only 4 and 6 and didn?t like the idea of a huge muzzle coming at them. When I showed them she just wanted a kiss, they were less than impressed. They thought it was gross and, more than that, had Julie achieved her goal, she could have easily knocked my nieces to the ground and injured them without even trying.

When I tried kissing the bay minis, their behavior became even nastier. They loved the kisses, but thought it was a game and wouldn?t stop coming at me with their mouths, sometimes with teeth bared.

As a result, I felt the hand feeding, muzzle petting and kissing had to come to an end. Maybe an occasional smooch or treat will be OK, but definitely not more than once a week. My horses are too smart and develop bad habits too quickly.

Cutting corners

I thought I would try riding Julie without brushing her. I always preached brushing before saddling, but I decided I could save time by riding bareback and not brushing her. I didn?t care that I would be sacrificing my jeans to do it. I figured I would just wear old short ones (less fabric to deal with) and throw them in the washer right after riding.

When I tried this experiment, it was late January and Julie was covered with mud and I was lazy. It happened to be a day in the mid-50s even though it was January. I talked my dad into giving me a leg up and went for a ride.

There were several things I forgot. It was January. Julie hadn?t been ridden or driven in months. She has probably been ridden less than 20 times in her life.

Julie was standing so quietly in her mud lot that I was lured into a feeling of security. It didn?t last for long. She crow hopped and bucked and even reared once. It probably wouldn?t have bothered me so much, as it was January, on a light horse but I was bareback and on a draft. I?m not sure how I avoided falling.

Julie definitely had spring fever. Once the ride was over. I was barely able to keep control of her while walking her back to the barn.

There?s a very brief video of part of the incident at ocj.com on the Horse Sense page. Dad said I handled it like a professional. All I could think about was how stupid I had been to ride her without a saddle in January after a lot of time off.

Had I taken the time to brush Julie I probably would have determined that she was a little goofy on that day and I would have properly chosen a saddle or decided not to ride at all.

So what does all this mean?

Kim the instructor had it right!

I can have fun with my horses and kiss them and give them treats and pet them on the muzzle and ride in the mud on a mud covered horse, but there are consequences for these actions. I would prefer daily excellent ground manners with an occasional kiss and treat rather than daily treats and kisses with accompanying tooth marks on my hands, jacket pockets and face.

Remember ground manners are a basic and very important part of being able to manage and enjoy your horse. The horse learns who is boss before you even start to ride or drive. You can love them and pet them but remember they aren?t really pets. They can kill you and injure you a lot easier than a dog or a cat.

I think it is time to hang a sign up in the barn with my rules.

1. No hand feeding.

2. No petting on the muzzle.

3. No kissing on the muzzle. (Except Julie on special occasions).

4. Always brush your horse before you ride and drive.

5. Petting and hugging your horse are always encouraged.

My new motto: ?You can have fun and still have a horse with nice ground manners.?

Mark will probably think the list is for him and ignore it, but I?ll always know I was the one that needed the reminder.

Source: http://ocj.com/2012/02/horse-sense-kissing-a-fool/

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