Eric Schwennesen - Horses

For much of the world, horses are the most overused topic on Earth. It seems to be so, even in parts of the world where having strong feelings about horses would be about on a par with strong feelings about raw carrots or the International Monetary Fund. Why is this?

Squatting in the shade, pondering, is a good place to start: Horses have been here for ten million years or more. They started out about the size of a rabbit, and with five fingers. I'm guessing running came to them early and often as fun-loving felines, canines, lupines, ursines and just about every other sort of -pines joined in the merry chase. If you look at a typical horse expression today you can still see some of the haunting memories of being bait for every carnivore in the Pleistocene. Think that's funny, do you...?

So okay; horses got a head start, but humans of some sort have been around about a tenth as long. We still have five fingers, and some would argue that even though we're mostly bigger than rabbits, our attitudes, outlooks and competences are pretty rabbit-like; and it wasn't so very long ago that some of those big African fun-loving felines gave us a merry chase. Occasionally they still do; I know for a fact that humans still sense being within pouncing distance by leopards on the savannas, especially if you can't see them. It's a most unsettling sensation.

So, today, we have much in common, bait-to-bait, as it were. Maybe some of that visceral link between us comes from that sense of -- look out behind you!

Which brings us to our own working equines, a fairly hard-bitten bunch. Life is not easy on a working mountain ranch, but the remuda we've evolved over the decades seem frankly pretty pleased with their existence. It takes a bigger perspective to realize why: worldwide, much of the horse world is an Industry (read "way to make a lot of money".) Vast parts of the Old World and an awful lot of the New, use horses as a way to separate empathetic humans from any easily-detachable wealth, under the guise of education, training, discipline, protection, supplementation and promotion.

Thus: in much of Europe today, the State must not only approve of you owning a horse; but the horse must be issued a passport, an updated set of health records, be inspected by a State ...horse inspector..?, have certified acceptable living facilities; and the owner/rider must pay for endless levels of training and certification, and be issued licenses to prove competence to ride...in a covered arena. With acceptable horseshoes only, put on by a State official farrier. With the proper size and number of horse blankets, as determined by a State agency.

Even the size of the horse's stall (of course you must have a stall!) is determined and inspected, as is the size of the outside "play" area.

 From here it looks like one of the sweetest little permanent State robberies ever invented. 

I've explained much of this to our horses; they give me the clear impression that they understand me. They look across the corral fence at miles upon miles of open landscape where, even under a saddle, they have the open freedom they were born to. Back when we used to get occasional bad weather, I even built them a shelter off the side of the barn to get out of the rain or snow. They've never used it. They just look at me with ten-million-year-old eyes, and wonder how they ever let us be in charge.

 Eric Schwennesen is a commercial beef rancher in the Mogollon Rim country. He grew up in Belgium, cowboyed in Nevada, and helped Navajos and many African peoples with rangeland conflicts for over 35 years. He recently published "The Field Journals: Adventures in Pastoralism" about his experiences.