Impact of a performance-based society

Was is still natural in the horse world?

The horse, as a part of nature, is also influenced by the performance pressure of today's society. 

Even in breeding, we are far removed from the natural process. Natural selection is replaced by frozen sperm. Foals are often separated from their mothers before mare and foal are properly prepared, simply so that they can go to the foal pasture, sometimes as early as 3 months of age. Little thought is given to the psychological scars that result on both the foal and its mother. In addition, a pasture full of foals is like a kindergarten without a teacher. In nature, foals grow up in large families and also learn from older horses.

Around 3 years old, people decide it's time for training, usually based on a human schedule. If you know that a horse's body is not fully grown until it is 6-8 years old, you have to be very careful with it until then. At the same time, training must reflect the individual's mental and emotional readiness. Most horses are not sound in mind and body because too much pressure has been put on way too early in a way that a horse cannot understand.

After training, horses are integrated into their owner's life and are dependent on this person's willingness to respond to the horse's needs. How free is the horse really, how much is determined by the human and where is the horse allowed to decide, e.g. can it eat when it is hungry? 

Stallions usually live a solitary life, focused on performance in sport or as breeding stallions. They never get to know their offspring and are not involved in their upbringing. Even broodmares do always get the opportunity to grow up with their offspring.

For me, the treatment of horses and other living creatures is simply a reflection of our performance-oriented society and consumer behavior, which has led us to where the world is today. Everyone knows that this is not a good situation and that we urgently need to rethink. Our high-performance culture is artificial and man-made. Nature doesn't work like that. There is no race to a finish line, everything develops naturally at its own pace.

A lot has changed positively for the good of the horse, but there is still a long way to go. Change begins with our own life and it can then flow into other parts of our life, such as our life with horses.