Lately, I have been thinking about neurological traits in horses that might go unrecognised. Can a horse suffer chronic depression? Can they experience schizophrenia? What about paranoia or autism?
Now that the Paris Olympics is coming to an end, I expect some of the controversy over the conflict between horse events and animal welfare will subside for another four years. But it shouldn’t.
People are always chasing symptoms because it is the symptom that most bothers us. We view the symptom as the thing that gets in the way of what we want to do.
I think it is widely accepted that when two horses ask, “Am I in charge of you or are you in charge of me?”, the one who moves the feet of the other is the more dominant horse.
I have come across a few horses in my working life that were committed wind suckers or cribbers, but I have never owned one so you can take my comments with as many grains of salt as you like.
