Sometimes it's not your fault

Feeling guilty when there’s something wrong with our horse is very common, but not everything is our fault.

There are so many things that can go wrong with our horses that sometimes the whole ordeal of trying to keep a horse healthy can be very discouraging. A lot of the most common issues we see with horses is caused by improper riding, inappropriate living conditions, poor tack and so on. Stuff that is »our fault«. I would argue that most riders do truly love their horses and want to do what's best for them, but it is sometimes very, very hard to tell what that actually is. So, when the horse ends up having issues, and we are then told that we caused them it can be hard to take. The horse has ulcers? It's your fault for not feeding him properly. The horse has a dysfunctional thoracic sling? It's your fault for not riding him correctly. The horse has a hunter's bump? It's your fault for pushing him too hard. The realisation that we unknowingly hurt an animal we love, can be devastating. A lot of owners (and I am one of them for sure) take it very personally when something is wrong with their horse. They see it as a personal failure.

But sometimes it is not our fault. Sometimes the issues were there long before we started working with the horse and the work simply made them more obvious. I am not just saying that to make you feel better, there is research behind it. Did you know that ulcers are incredibly common in young foals? One paper by Dahlkamp et al. suggests that ulcers occur in about 48% of foals before weaning, and that number increases to 79% after weaning. Of course, I would imagine whether or not a foal has ulcers depends greatly on the conditions him and his dame live in, but still. That number is staggering. So maybe your horse was predisposed to ulcers before you ever started taking care of him.

Ian Bidstrup writes extensively about birth trauma in foals, especially about the occurrence of injured and cracked ribs in neonates. The reason why your horse might not be able to use his thoracic sling properly might not be your bad riding, but an untreated injury from foalhood. The same goes for hunter's bumps. So many horses get those by slipping in mud while running around with their friends. There are many more examples of this, but I think those two are enough to make my point.

Ulcers and rib injuries are just two of the things we very often see in foals.

The guilt we feel when our horses aren't ok can be a heavy burden. Sometimes it can feel as though the horse would have been better off with a different owner. But perhaps we need to look at it from a different angle. Perhaps some of the issues we are dealing with, were there before we came along and perhaps, they would have never been addressed if it weren't for us. We are putting effort in making the horse better and for this we deserve a pat on the back. We are probably all guilty of making poor decisions when it comes to working with our horses in the past. Most of us probably did things that turned out to not benefit our horses. We didn't do it out of malice, but out of ignorance. The only cure for that is education and as long as we continue learning, we can let go of the guilt of our past.

To quote Maya Angelou,

»Do the best you can, until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. «