Health or Healthcare?
Following on from a few of my posts in the last few days there are some other concepts that I’ve been thinking about.
Horses. How we view them. How we treat them. How we perceive their worth. How they often become disposable in a way the vast majority of other pets don’t.
I don’t think the following type of Facebook post will be unfamiliar to a lot of people…
“Horse available as a companion only. We’ve had him/her for years and has never put a foot wrong, looking for a companion home where he/she can live out their days with others”
Also times when someone talks of how their horse has passed away. You see people sending best wishes for the horse to run free over rainbow bridge. To gallop in the fields of heaven with their friends already passed.
It really interests me, why is it we wish companionship and freedom for our horses once they are old or passed on? What age is it exactly that horses become ‘deserving’ of living the life they have evolved for? It does seem a little strange that they have to have died before that wish is granted.
For nearly ten years of my life I worked in education. I coupled my lifelong interest in animals with the lifelong learning sector and became a lecturer on FE and HE Animal Science based courses. When I qualified to teach, one of the first and most recognisable theories of learning motivation we referred to is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Now this theory was clearly originally designed with people in mind and as we start to look towards the upper levels of the triangle the needs, when linked to horses, may seem indulgently anthropomorphic but there are commonalities and links that can be made between the species at all levels.
The theory (in TL:DR format) shows the basic needs of the individual that need to be met before they are able to effectively engage fully in learning, creativity and ‘self actualisation’.
The very basal needs are physiological. How many of a horse’s basic ethological needs do we fully meet on a daily basis? Access to appropriate forage? Appropriate food, water and shelter? These are the things required just to function at a very basic level.
Then we look at safety and security. Do their living conditions provide security in a species appropriate way? Are they free from neglect? Again, required as a fairly basic minimum standard.
After that is the importance of social structure. Do they have appropriate and positive interactions and social groupings? Room to explore, play and experiment? Things that they are able to do much more confidently if their basic needs are being met.
Even the level regarding esteem is directly relatable to horses. Are we treating them with respect? Is our ‘discipline’ based in and employing positivity? Is training positive and using equine learning theory?
Self actualisation through the lens of Maslow’s hierarchy focuses on the ability of the individual to be able to create fulfilling relationships, investigate and successfully take part in hobbies, research and self development. In layman’s terms it is defined as having the potential to ‘fulfil one’s talents and potentialities’ which can again be directly linked to our equines. Think of a horse who can perform at the top of its sphere compared to others because it has all of it’s needs fulfilled right from the very basal meaning it is the best version of itself it can possibly be.
Im sure we are all aware of people who manage to perform at certain levels even though some of their more basic needs aren’t being met as I’m sure we also do for equines but eventually comes the likelihood of burnout. Which is much more catastrophic long term for physical and mental health. In fact I saw an article recently quoting that it can take up to five years for a human body to regulate fully once again after burnout.
So the question is, where do we make the choice to invest our effort? Into proactively getting things right from the start or reactively picking up the pieces when things collapse?
Do we invest in HEALTH or HEALTHCARE?
