by
Jan Dawson
President, AAHS
[Reproduced from Caution:Horses, Volume 4, No. 2, Summer 1999]
Back in nineteen forty-something I rode everyday during the summer in
Colorado with a man named George Soule. He and his wife, Adele, had a
string of trail horses that they brought to Glenwood Springs for the
summer after wintering in Arizona. He later moved to Newcastle, Colorado
where he introduced me to real back country riding. At that time one
could go to Crystal City above Aspen and find old canned goods still on
the shelves of the mining cabins, and there was only one old,
single-chair lift at Aspen.
When George and I would ride out for the day - we wouldn’t come
back till nearly dark - the only people we would see would be the
occasional sheepherder or logger. Maybe a cowboy on the high range but
no hikers or other tourists.
The worst admonishment that I could get from George was that I was
doing something that was making my horse uncomfortable. He would say,
"Now Jannie, you’re making’ that horse uncomfortable and if you
keep it up he’ll hurt you. A comfortable horse never hurt
anybody."
At the time I did not realize how profound the statement was. Just
think about it. Unless the horse just stumbles, he must become
uncomfortable mentally or physically before he hurts you. It certainly
has made me try to deal with horses on their terms and pick my
disagreements carefully.
If we take a minute and think of all the times we have seen a wreck
involving a horse, we have to admit that most of the time we are looking
at an uncomfortable horse.
The reverse is interesting as well. How many times have you noticed a
horse that was obviously mentally and physically comfortable and then
seen him or her commit an equine atrocity?
What this means to us is that when we substitute a big bit, one that
was taught to stop at the factory, for training, or we use poorly
fitting tack, or we fail to teach our beginners IMMEDIATELY how to have
still hands and legs and upper bodies, we are inviting an accident. The
sooner we can teach our beginning students the skills necessity to ride
humanely the safer they will be.
