Day One – Queensland Writers Week

Say it with Me, Slowly: Cooperation, not Domination by Marion Altieri (read below)

Over Queensland writers week it will be a pleasure to post several articles well worth thinking about. The first, is written by horse lover, talented writer, author and friend Marion Altieri. But first a short excerpt from ‘Voices in the Wind’…

Short excerpt from ‘Voices in the Wind’ by Carmel Rowley
…“Marc smiled at the beautiful silhouette the stallion presented, tail aloft, his tight agile body trotting with supreme confidence beside his handler. He zoomed in the camera, taking a close-up of Masquil’s face. Suddenly, Marc drew in a quick breath and grabbed Jessikah’s hand. He had seen reckoning on the stallions face. As Marc lowered his camera, the whip-waver ran up behind the horse. Marc knew what was going to happen. The man ran close behind the stallion and, in a single movement, the horse lashed out mid-stride with his hind legs. As they retracted one of his hind legs hooked itself inside the plastic bag, dragging the bag and the whip.

The crowd jumped to their feet, a universal gasp swept the arena. The stallion lunged forward in panic. His handler turned to see what was happening and the horse, sensing this, reefed at the lead, snapping it from the man’s grasp. In the scrabble the handler was knocked to the ground and rolled aside. He looked up in horror as the stallion’s front hooves skimmed the top of his head. The horse plunged and bolted, the plastic bag firmly attached to his hind leg.

Hysteria rose in the crowd…”

Say it with Me, Slowly: Cooperation, not Domination
By The Alpha Mare  www.saratoga.com on October 4, 2011 5:05 PM – M.E. Altieri

…..tonight I have to dash off a little something, inspired by a video I just saw on Facebook. Don’t worry, it won’t be long, just pointed. People who love horses should work with them, or at least get to be around them, somehow. People who do not love horses should not be allowed to be near them, ever. There’s something about the kindness and innocence of the horse that pushes the buttons of people who have the need to dominate another living being. I don’t know why: maybe they can’t get away with that behaviour at home. Maybe they hate their bosses. Whatever the inspiration, some people just plain need to be cruel to a living being.

The natural human response to a horse is the strong desire to defend her or him, to become the horse’s protector. People lacking this response should steer clear of equines, or face the wrath of those of us who DO feel compelled to protect and defend…

You see, I saw this video. I won’t describe the vid; who was in it or any of the details. In this case, the guilty are being protected only because I want to avoid any communication with the offenders who starred in the film. Even exchanging emails with them would make me feel dirty.

In the video, a series of horses were being, well, in my opinion–abused. In the name of “training,” horses were being whipped, shanked, yanked.

Unacceptable. Absolutely, positively–unacceptable.

Let’s think about this like reasonable, supposedly-thinking, sentient beings. I don’t know about you, but if someone had a chain, rope or bit of any kind in my mouth–and was yanking it, or whipping me–I’d rebel. I’d kick, scratch–I would respond, strongly.

And you can be certain that, when I was free of the equipment in my mouth–I’d do some serious booty-kicking. Shrapnel, everywhere–and not mine.

Now, put a horse in this situation. Horses have no thumbs: if they did, they could use their hooves to remove the offending equipment, turn around and kick the daylights out of the people who are whipping them.

But they’re stuck, and–being that they’re being yanked and whipped–they are frightened. And confused: they didn’t do anything wrong, so why are they being hit?

Let’s apply a little good, old-fashioned logic to this problem:

A) A prey animal–the horse–is being whipped by a human. In this scenario, the human is playing the role of predator.
B) The horse is scared.
C) The horse responds as her instincts dictate: to try to get away from the predator.
D) The predator keeps whipping the (by-now) insanely-frightened horse, and

ERGO — The human expects, somehow, that the horse will cooperate, to “calm down.”

THIS, my thinking friends–doesn’t even make common sense. The horse’s instinct is to get as far away from the source of danger as possible. In order to do that, the horse must run, using all four strong legs and hooves. The shaking head is the first indicator that the horse is fixin’ to flee.

There’s an adage, “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you always got.”

Interestingly enough, this is also the working definition of insanity: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over–and expecting different results.

Domesticated horses want to get along with humans. There’s no soul more loving, cooperative and gentle than that of a horse. The fact that the horse is willing to share its magical, mystical, spiritual world with we, mere humans–is a miracle, in itself, and a heavenly gift. Horses are on loan from The Almighty, a glimpse of Heaven, right here on Earth.

One need not beat a horse into submission–in fact, it may be possible, but not until the horse has acquiesced sadly, and realized that she is in a relationship with someone who does not love her in return.

Having no thumbs, the horse is a hostage, and will cooperate after a good beating only because her spirit is defeated.

How much more joyful is a task–whether that is work, or a sport–when we humans work as partners with the horse, rather than Master and Slave?

And how much more successful will we be in the end, when both parties are happy in the relationship?

It blew my mind to see this video–the people kept shanking, yanking and whipping their horses–and somehow, they were surprised that the horses acted up! Does that make any sense to you, at all??

They were trying to get a frightened horse to become UNfrightened long enough to perform her/his sport–and darned, they couldn’t figure out why the horses kept looking wild-eyed, and trying to run away. That’s a real head-scratcher, eh?

Hmmmm…pretty smart, horses. Trying to run away from a whip.

Even humans are that intelligent.

So let’s try a new thing, shall we? There are many of us in the world who realize that cooperation with our horses leads not only to winning races; earning ribbons and generally coming-in-first–but also to a loving, warm, fulfilling relationship with these magnificent animals who want so much to to be our partners.

Domination never, ever led to a partnership, never mind to a life-long relationship that’s worth having. The one doing the dominating may have lousy self-esteem, or other issues that scream inside their heads. The voices are telling them that they will only be seen as strong, smart, “in charge”–if they can make someone tow the line.

Some miserable souls hurt cats, dogs–anything smaller than themselves. That’s called sociopathy. And then there are those who need to dominate something much larger than themselves: buffalo won’t put up with it. Try it with a tiger. (Be sure to write out your will before you try to beat a tiger into doing your bidding.)

But a horse–a-ha! A horse is considerably larger than a human being–but, being that it is a vegetarian–ergo, a prey animal–and gentle of spirit, it can be dominated easily.

Bingo, we have a winner–that is, if you’re a soul in desperate need to control.

But those people have no right to be around horses, precisely because the horse is a prey animal. It doesn’t take much to frighten a horse–but a loving heart can earn cooperation with a stroke of the hand; sincere eye contact and–get this–by listening to what the horse has to say.

I’m one of those people who thinks that those who abuse animals should be imprisoned, for an indefinite period of time. I wonder how the boys in prison treat a kitten-killer. Not well, I bet.

So it should be no surprise to anyone that, if I see a video of horses being yanked and whipped into submission–I have to say something. We all should say something, to whatever governing body is appropriate. Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens with every breed of horse, every sport and endeavour.

Every day of the year.

Coopration, not domination, is the way to win a horse’s heart–and to win medals, ribbons or your race. The next time you see a horse being yanked, whipped or otherwise beaten–say something.

The horse can only neigh loudly–and unfortunately, that neigh will earn her another lash across the face.

But they won’t–they can’t–physically beat us for speaking out, ’cause we’re predators, too. We have big mouths to speak, and hands to write. And those hands…unlike our equine friends…have thumbs.