Non-violence or pacifism?

Listening to Nelson Mandela's autobiography 'Long Walk to Freedom' (audio books are my most recent pleasure, especially since purchasing a 'Parrot' in-car speaker system to I can actually hear them properly!), my ears pricked up when he mentioned his opinion on the difference between non-violence and pacifism.  It's not something I'd ever thought about before, but since I claim to work with horses in a 'non-violent' way, I looked it up.  As I heard it, Mandela seemed to be saying that non-violence meant being opposed to violence in any situation, whereas pacifism meant being opposed to violence but violence may be used in self defence.

Wikipedia says, amongst other things "Nonviolence is the personal practice of being harmless to self and others under every condition"  and "Pacifism is opposition to war and violence... and opposition to violence under any circumstance, even defence of self and others.... Some pacifists follow principles of nonviolence, believing that nonviolent action is morally superior and/or most effective. Some however, support physical violence for emergency defence of self or others."

It seems to me there's a lot of confusion - as usual, words are used simply as labels, and the intended meaning may well vary from person to person.  As far as working with horses goes, I would certainly say that I aim to avoid using violence of any form (but there again, what is your definition of violence?!), and that in this matter I am acting as a pacifist.  However, I believe that the safety of the human (and often the horse at the same time) is paramount, and if I or others were in danger, I believe I would do whatever I felt necessary to alleviate the danger.  My priority is always to avoid dangerous situations, which is where I feel that knowledge and experience play an essential role, but ultimately my feeling is that if the human is injured or worse, then who will look after the horse?!

Never look a gift horse in the eye?

Yesterday I received the following story from a Brain or Pain reader:

"Hi Sue,

I've got a holistic horse help helpful hint here for you.  Regarding the old adage "never look a gift horse in the mouth" my own personal addition to it would be "but look him in the eye".

Last year I was given a show pony that the owners couldn't cope with because of a set of behavioural issues and in the end the girl who had him gave up riding. I always got on well with the pony and accepted the offer when i was asked if i would take him on. Very early on I suspected that eyesight problems had something to do with his behaviour and treated him with the conisderation that I would give a horse that I know can't see terribly well. This helped him tremendously and his confidence increased proportionately to the decrease in his spookiness. He is now doing very well but as I thought that his sight in his left eye might be impaired i got his eyes assessed Friday last week. It appears the he has a cataract. I contacted an eye specialist who is going to have a good look at his eyes next week but he already warned me that something more might be amiss as the pony at the age of 9 is too young to have cataracts. I may be in for major vet bills now over a prolonged period of time.

The question is: had I looked him in the eye before I accepted him, would I have taken him on?

The answer is: probably yes as he is very cute and a really nice buddy who does not have any behavioural issues.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is: if anyone is intending to get a new horse, don't forget to get the eyes checked.

Maybe this will come in handy in your Brain or Pain publication.

Freddy"

Freddy makes a really good point, in my opinion.  In the past I have had a problem with selling a horse who had problems with her vision.  She was a bay mare, Welsh Section D 4 year old called Holly.  Beautiful, kind and gentle, and quick to learn as are all Section D's, she was a pleasure to work with.  It was when I was living with a horse dealer, and so I had bought her to back and sell on, and I was excited that she should go to a lovely home, since I had no problems with her whatsoever.  The only thing I noticed was that if I was working her when it was getting dusk, she had more of a tendency to trip.

The buyers had her vetted and she passed with flying colours.  But once they got her home they discovered that she had problems with her night vision.  I had never had the need to deal with her in the dark since I lived on site and worked with the horses all day, so I hadn't recognised this as an issue.  The end result was that they kept the horse and I gave them their money back - I was young and naive at the time and they are very lucky people, she was a fantastic horse in every way except this!

I have also had the experience of working with a couple of one-eyed horses, who seem to cope incredibly well with life.  One was an elderly broodmare (who produce some stunning foals), she was wary when you approached her on her blind side but otherwise you wouldn't have known anything was amiss.  The other was a chestnut thoroughbred gelding who came to us for backing.  We were using a round pen at the time, and I found it fascinating that I could work him in both directions - I would have expected a much lesser communication on his blind side.  He adapted by changing his posture and turning his neck a little, but could still respond to signals to speed up, slow down, change direction, etc.

It seems to me that eye disease is becoming better recognised by vets, presumably as diagnostic procedures, treatment techniques and medication progress.

So I guess my advice agrees with Freddy - if you're intending on buying a horse, get the eyes checked!

Regular physio is important for your horses' health and well being

It's that time of year again!  My family are visiting this weekend, and that's a great excuse to get the house and garden up to scratch - something I tend to manage only once a year!  I might even get as far as cleaning the car, although goodness knows what I'd find under all the mud and dog hair!  Being a horse physio at this time of year in the UK means coming home each evening covered in horse hair, as everything is malting heavily.  The horses that have had long winter coats are ok, but the ones that have short clipped coats and are still losing their coat make me as itchy as if I'd been clipping - not pleasant!

This week has been exceptionally busy, and thankfully I've had a student with me for the week to ease the burden.  It's so rewarding helping someone develop their confidence and ability to help horses feel better.  The Horse Massage for Horse Owners DVD is selling well, so I know that plenty of horse owners are looking to help their own horses feel better, and to recognise earlier when they need professional help.  My next project is to get started properly on my first book, which I'm very excited about... more to follow at a later date!