Horse rescue, by its nature, has always centered around “The Horse”. “The Horse” needs rescuing, retraining, and rehoming. But isn’t a piece missing?

“The Horse” is rescued from a situation where “The Person” was neglectful.

“The Horse” is retrained for “The Person” to ride.

“The Horse” is rehomed to “The Person” to be the caretaker.

What horse rescue takes care of is “The Horse,” but fails to address “The Person’s” needs.

Blame Game

More and more people are approaching rescues looking for a “Dead Broke” horse. What they are actually looking for is a horse that a person at any skill level can ride. Unfortunately, some people fail to realize that horse ownership is a never-ending learning process between rider and horse. Even a “dead broke” horse can learn bad habits from a well-intentioned person.

“The Horse” is labeled as the problem and is returned, instead of “The Person’s” lack of knowledge being addressed.

The Solution

“The Horse” and the “The Person” need to receive the same level of education. Rescues have a duty to not only the “The Horse”, but also “The Person” to provide the tools to make him/her the best horseman that he/she can be.

Resources

To improve our horsemanship, we take part in the Forever Foundation and listen to podcasts from Stacy Westfall and Phil Haugen.

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