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 Newbies Listen Up-The Basics on Equine Behavior
For all of those new horse owners out there, you are soon to experience a wonderful relationship with your horse. You can read every book there is and even do all your research on the Internet, but still the best way to learn about horse behavior and how they communicate is to sit back and watch them. Personal experience can be the best teacher. However, there are a few tips that can help you learn and understand your horses behavior.
In the wild, horses will naturally live in herds. The herd is their family. Horses need another form of companionship other than the human owner, whether it be another horse, a donkey or a goat. They need to have another companion. In these herds there exists a pecking order. This pecking order is the order of dominance, starting with the most dominant horse
(the Alpha) and continuing down the line to the very last horse that is the most submissive. The most submissive horse will be dominated by all those before him and will basically be the one who gets picked on the most.
The Alpha horse demands the respect of all those around her. He is the dominant leader to whom all of her followers must show submission and respect. The Alpha horse will provide the herd with leadership, security, and lead them to food. Usually the Alpha of an animal herd would be a male, but its more common for the Alpha in a horses herd to be an old mare. The other horses will accept the mare as their leader and will respect her for her experience, guidance and wisdom. While the mare is playing the leadership role, the stallion of the group would actually own the herd. The stallions role is to run behind the herd to make sure the slower horses catch up with the rest and he will keep intruders at bay, including predators and other strange horses.
The word dominance tends to make you think about strength. When in truth, dominance has nothing to do with strength and all to do about wisdom. The oldest or the wisest horse may not have a lot of strength, but she will be the dominant one. Being dominant also doesnt mean that the Alpha must physically abuse or mistreat the other horses, but sometimes it can look as if the lower ranking horse is being picked on. Instead the Alpha horse will create submissiveness in other horses by making the others feel dependent upon them.
A horse cannot be beaten into submission. Trying to beat a horse into submission will only make him confused, fearful and untrusting. Relationships with horses need to be based on trust and respect. All horses, wild and domestic, are capable of being dominated as long as they are approached in the right way and when they are trained by using the right methods.
When a horse is being submissive, this means that he is being obedient, respectful and dependent to the leader. To horses, submission means safety and security. When a submissive horse is not being respectful, he will temporarily be forced out of the group. This rejection from the group can be mentally traumatic to the horse because it is now vulnerable to predators. Once he learns to be respectful and dependent upon his leaders, then he will be accepted back into the herd.
As a horse owner, you must have dominance over your horse in order for him to respect you and follow your leadership. You must take the Alpha role, if you want to have a good relationship with your horse. Taking the Alpha role doesnt mean that you cant feel love for your horse, or that the horse cant feel love for you. You must create this kind of relationship with your horse.
Your horse can also speak to you in his own language. Here are some of those translations from Horse to English.
Horse: Snort. English: Caution. There may be danger.
Horse: Nicker. English: Cheerful. Hello, come closer.
Horse: Neigh or Whinny. English: Looking. Where are you?
Horse: Squeal. English: Forced. I dont want to! Stop pushing me!
Horse: Scream. English: Aggression. Lets fight! Ill kill you!
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