Horses Love Routine. Don’t They?
Hᴏʀsᴇs ʟᴏᴠᴇ ʀᴏᴜᴛɪɴᴇ ᴅᴏɴ’ᴛ ᴛʜᴇʏ??…
Right, I mean every BHS manual and ‘Looking After Your Pony’ book I ever read told me that I should feed, turn out and bring in at the same time every day.
Horses get really upset if they don’t have a routine and it will lead to banging on stable doors, wind sucking, crib biting, pacing, weaving *enter any stable vices I may have missed….stressy horses getting colic and then the gauntlet of turning out a horse who is high as a kite desperate to get out to it’s field and maybe a buddy if they’re lucky.
Livery yards thrive on routine. Everyone needs to be fed and turned out by ‘X’am and in at ‘Y’pm then nobody is left in banging on doors or out pacing fields and poaching them up.
I cannot tell you the number of times I have been told
‘My horse loves his stable’
‘My horse is always waiting at the gate for me when I get there’
‘My horse calls to me as soon as he sees me’
These all seem like excellent reasons to oblige and get them in and tucked up into a cosy bed, no?
Exᴄᴇᴘᴛ ᴛʜɪs ᴡᴇɪʀᴅ ᴛʜɪɴɢ ʜᴀs ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴᴇᴅ
On a cold morning, 8 years ago, I decided not to keep my horse in a stable anymore.
I decided she could live out.
I decided she should always have friends.
I decided she should always have access to forage.
I decided she could choose where she wanted to be; shelter, out in the open, running around or laying down.
My horse NEVER waits at a gate for me.
My horse doesn’t watch and wait for me.
I don’t ever feel that panic in my gut if I’m ‘late’ to get to them.
But she DOES have feed during the day.
She does have somewhere to get cosy and lie down if she wants.
Heck, she has several gates she could stand next to and call if the mood takes her.
You see, although horses in the wild will have general routines, these are based around their current requirements and conditions surrounding them at the time. They will change and adapt their routines to suit their current needs, but, they don’t thrive on routine. WE DO. When we dictate every minutia of their lives, they are dependent on us humans and in the giant void where all their enrichment should be, they are faced with a barren stable and us with our routines are their only salvation.
Horses thrive on being in tune with what they and their herd need. Whether that be searching for food, water, shelter. Playing and grooming. These aren’t things that always happen at the same time each day.
Our system allows horses to make choices. Aside from an external boundary, they essentially are in control of all their other decisions.
I can’t tell you the last time I heard a horse tirelessly banging on a stable door or watched someone weaving, desperate to be next in the breakfast queue.
Horses do not want to dance to the beat of our drum, they have their own drum and if you only listen you can hear it very clearly.
