Horses For Writers

I've started a new blog I call Secrets of a Lazy Trainer

If the link doesn't work try cut and pasting this

http://secretsofalazytrainer.blogspot.com/

Problems People Give Themselves

The following article was written because someone wrote me the following question;  I have an eight month old colt. I bought him when he was six months old. He comes to his name, but won't let me put a hand on him. If I try he turns his back end to me and tries to kick me... What can I do? ...Should I just cut my loses and sell him?
 

Horses  Are Not Dogs
 
 
Why do people buy foals and young horses?
 
One thing that seems to happen over and over that causes more problems in the horse world than almost any other one thing I can think of is people buying or otherwise acquiring a foal without any prior knowledge of horses.
 
This puzzled me for years and years until I finally realized that when people want to get a dog many times they go buy a puppy and, more or less successfully, teach it to be their good companion. Given this familiar scenario it is no wonder so many people make the mistake of thinking the best way to get started with horses is to get a foal and raise.
 
The reason this is a recipe for disaster is that horses are not dogs. While both animals live in groups and have had their genes influenced by humans for thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years, they are polar opposites. Dogs are hunters and pack animals. Humans are hunters and pack animals. They have common goals and a common language to begin with.
 
Horses on the other hand are the hunted. They are prey and herd animals. Every horse is the descendant of millions of generations of prey animals that have eluded predators long enough to reproduce. Everything a prey animal, i.e. the horse, does is designed to outwit predators, i.e. us.
 
I think it is incredible that humans learned to use prey animals as muscle at all. It may be our most outstanding achievement after learning to use fire. I put it before the wheel because there is evidence that in some parts of the world the introduction of the camel caused the wheel to be abandoned. If you every try to drive in deep sand you will understand why this came about.
 
All of this means that while we do successfully bond with and use prey animals we have to first learn to speak their language and that takes a lot of time and effort. Most of what we do naturally is designed to scare the wits out of the average horse. If it feels natural when you are in a horse’s presence then you are probably wrong. You need to figure out just exactly how to do the opposite. That is why anyone wanting to get a horse needs to take lessons for several years before even thinking about acquiring a horse.
 
The first horse anyone buys should be old. I used recommend getting a horse in its mid-teens, now I say buy a horse in its mid-twenties. Horses are long-lived animals and the older horse may well be a companion longer than a dog acquired as a puppy. The main reason for buying an old horse is that an old horse that has a lot of training behind it can teach a new horse owner more in the few remaining years it has left than another human can teach in a decade (though the old horse may well live to be thirty-five or older). It will teach a person how to speak “horse” instead of “dog.”
 

Here is a reply from a friend who is deeply involved in dog rescue.

Well, MANY novice dog people decide the way to have the "perfect" dog is to raise it just like they want it... which proves the point that DOGS ARE ALSO NOT HUMANS, either!   On the other hand,... look how well many of us raise kids!   ;->   
 
Ok, all funny/cynical aside.    I do agree that most middle of the road dogs will be easier incorporated into a human family.  MUCH easier than the horses.... but we sure pick up the messes in the dog world too!   PLEASE, people, start with an older "started" dog.(or horse or???)  What you see is what you get and as with horses... that well trained, civilized and used to humans critter will teach you much more than you could learn from a book, trainer or disaster with a young animal.    Horses AND Dogs are NOT humans and if humans are going to keep them, they need to try, FIRST, to learn the language  and "hard wiring" in whatever species they are wanting.  
 OR.... consider Cyber Pets...... 
 
OK, I am a big grouchy, I guess!    But, YES!!!  I firmly agree with you that horses are more different than humans than dogs and humans!    AND lots larger and more able to do serious damage with "miscommunication!"    
 
You Tell EM!
 
J. Peters LA

My Books

I would like to tell you about a wonderful website and source of materials I discovered a couple of years ago. It is Holly Lisle's site, www.hollylisle.com She is a very experienced (30+ books) writer who truly believes in Paying it forward. She has many free articles for a writer to learn from and they are helpful for the experienced writer as well as the beginner. She also has reasonably priced how-to books to aid in a writer's journey. She also offers the works of other writers as well and now has a small, but thriving, publishing endearvour underway. Along the way she also began offering some fiction work that I like. Do go explore her site for your self at www.hollylisle.com

My relationship with Holly Lisle began when I ordered one of the books and had some trouble downloading it. We communicated by email until the problem was resolved. In the course of chatting back and forth I mentioned that I'd written a book with the working title of Horses For Writers. It began when I was reading a really good story and got thrown out of it by a serious blooper concerning horses. I knew the writer had done her homework concerning horses because of the way she presented previous information. But when I thought about it I didn't know where in the world a writer could go to get that bit of information. It needed some serious research to find and either you got the information from someone with a tremendous knowledge of horses or a college textbook. Neither of which is all that easy to come by. I wrote a note to her and kept a copy. Over the years I added more and more information until I had a book on the subject.  Holly expressed an interest in publishing my book and after reading her terms I accepted. It has been a very good start and confidence builder for a beginning writer.

My books, Horses For Writers and How to have a Civilized Horse are available from her shop www.shop.hollylisle.com

I have been writing for Associated Content since September of 2007 and now can offer a wide variety of articles there. http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/111018/elizabeth_j_baldwin.html

These stories and articles are free to you. Occasionally checking out various ads will be helpful to keeping them free. I get paid a miniscule sum each time someone clicks on one of my articles for the first time in a twenty-four hour period. Those sums do add up though and are much appreciated.