Working with a baby horse-using food as a reward and an emotional pacifier-slaughter bound rescue

Today I worked with a baby, well he's apparently pushing 2... he is an unhandled baby from the Kaufman Kill Pen in Texas. He was not "halter broke"...dumb term...trained to walk with a halter on his cutie face. Must be bizarre to have someone walk you around by your face if you think about it.

This is my student who rescued him learning to work with him. He's allowing touching.

I wish I had pictures or video of today. We will have to set up a camera. It was pretty awesome though. Took about 20 minutes to get him fairly desensitized to the halter and then I took him to the round pen. Where I then used my student with a feed bucket in the middle behind me as the bait and his job was to put his halter on and then he could get a bit of grain. We did it three times with run around loose equine sanity breaks in between. The third time he quickly shoved his nose through the halter with no fear. It was sweet he was like-OK, I got it-I'm doing it right-now give me the goods:)

There are so many rules where people say never do this or that. For instance using feed in training. There are times for it like this one-where a horse Loves food and has had alot of trauma. It is very helpful in moderation to create the desired result without misunderstanding and added trauma.

There are no cut and dry Rules. i.e. No shoes, only "natural hoof trimming", no alfalfa, no hand feeding, etc. There are times and places for all of these things. Every situation is different.

Horses are no different than ourselves in many ways...If you wonder what your horse feels...think of you in that situation..

So often, I hear new horse owners being bombarded with information immediately upon entering into the world of "Horse Ownership". They become overwhelmed pretty quickly. Barn owners, trainers, equine professionals of all sorts, and opinionated fellow horse loving people all have the Be All End All answers to everything you are experiencing with your horse...given generically in every situation. Answers repeated endlessly from text books written 10 years ago that lists and ailment and a treatment outdated and often ineffective. Very few people stop and assess the situation at hand and make an educated judgement based on their exploration and understanding of the situation at hand.

...And here is just a beautiful video of Jesse's Girl learning to jump. She is a Polo Pony Rescue.

My personal method is to always listen to all opinions and think them over... gauging the likelihood of  the suggested advice helping to improve my horse or my horse's situation. There is something so bizarre about the equine culture. In some ways it can be so stagnant and steeped in "Traditional"  practices it is barbaric in some cases, the pain of a bit against gum tissue in inexperienced hands, spurs that dig in and say nothing to a inadequately negotiated with horse. Does your horse want to be with you in what you are doing with him. I like to call this "High Class Horse Abuse". Jess (The above horse) is from this world. Polo is a fancy, high class, "Sport of Kings. Many of these horses, and many horses in all equine sport disciplines experience an abuse that is painful to them but somewhat ignorable to the humans involved. 

I recall going to the Equine Affair in Pomona California in 2007 or so...I needed to charge my phone so I snuck into the back of a lecture hall of 500 or so people... the speaker was a late in life cowboy of limited scope...he said "Horses do not have emotions"...I literally spit by accident into laughter. Anyone that loves their horse knows that they for sure have emotions...and dramatic ones at that.

"What is good for the horse, is rarely convenient for the human"- Inge Halliday

In conclusion, you will ultimately have to be the one to decide what is best for your equine friend. Basically all you have to do to figure out how your horse feels; is to think of yourself in the same situation. It's that simple. You want freedom. You want Love. You want understanding. You want food. You want water. You want somewhere nice to sleep. You want fun. You want friends. You want peace....and sometimes yer in a shitty mood...if there a difference between horses and humans?