Few topics have charged to the forefront of the collective cultural conscience in quite the same way as consent. We witnessed a very specific conversation around consent explode very quickly with the #metoo movement a few years ago. The suddenness with which this hot-button word went from something rarely talked about, to the word on everyone’s mind led many to believe that this was an issue that was being blown way out of proportion. In reality, it was a pervasive issue which had been simmering beneath the surface for a very long time, although successfully kept mostly out of sight. Kept out of sight by those who benefitted from the upholding of the systems which allowed their bad behaviour to go unaddressed and brushed aside. The #metoo movement didn’t create the issue but was a catalyst to blow the cover off a deep systemic problem that needed to be seen. To shine a light into the dark corners of our society, and to give victims a voice, and a chance to be heard and believed.
While consent in the context of the #metoo movement referred to a very specific scenario, it has since become a broader conversation around maintaining autonomy, whether it be in the workplace, when raising our children, or when working with our animals. So how does this conversation relate to horses? Let’s break it down.
First, we need to define the meaning: Consent means to give permission, or to agree to do something or to have something done to you. Autonomy refers to the right to self-govern. Those are both very broad terms, so how can we bring it back to the context of our horses, both how it might apply to them and how it might inform our training and husbandry practices.
Off the top, I want to address the obvious: Offering our horses a chance to maintain some autonomy in their life does not in any way mean “my horse now gets to do whatever he wants at all times, and I get no say in the matter.” For one, you as the horse person also have autonomy that needs to be maintained for a healthy and balanced relationship to exist, so letting dear Fluffy trample all over you every time he feels like he’d like to leave the situation and go have a bite of that tasty grass is not honouring your side of the partnership. And for two, horses, much like children (or us adults for that matter!), do not always know what’s best for them. It is certainly not in Fluffy’s best interest to let him eat as much fresh green spring grass as he wants, right after his long-suffering veterinarian has diagnosed him with metabolic syndrome (the name Fluffy was probably the first clue). I wanted to address this, because it is a common argument that is brought up when people try to argue for a more purely dictatorial or dominance-theory-based style of working with our horses. “If you give your horse a say, next thing you know he’ll be walking all over you!” This slippery slope fallacy makes a pretty big leap from “the horse has no say in what happens to him” to “You have no say in what your horse does”. As with so many things, the truth, in fact, lies somewhere in the middle.
So what would be an example of a horse having some say in his own governance, while still keeping him and you safe? I’ll give you one. Maybe one day you are planning on going for a ride. You have been thinking about this ride all day and had been planning on working on some homework from your last lesson, or maybe teaching your horse a new skill under saddle. You arrive at the barn and your horse doesn’t rush to greet you at the gate like he normally does. He seems a bit fidgety and distracted in the cross ties while you are tacking him up. The more you ask him to stand still, the more impatient he seems to get. He doesn’t seem sick, he ate all his hay, his eyes are bright and alert, and he appeared sound when you led him in from the paddock, but he just seems not quite himself. You manage to get him tacked up, and he doesn’t seem as though the saddle or bridle are causing him any discomfort, but on the way to the arena he is really dragging, and trying to drift away from the arena gate and towards the trail. So instead of the intense schooling session you had planned, maybe you decide to go for a nice easy trail ride instead. After a nice brisk stroll down a familiar trail, your horse starts to settle and seems much more himself. You find yourself just enjoying the feeling of moving freely together and taking in the scenery. This is an example of compromise, in which you still get to participate in the activity you wanted to do (ride your horse), but you made an allowance for the fact that he was likely too distracted to focus in the arena on learning a new skill and was clearly indicating that he would prefer to get out and move his body in nature. Could you have pushed it and forced him to buckle down and concentrate on a more structured ride? Sure. Would it have gone well? Possibly, but it likely would have been more of a battle than if your horse had been feeling relaxed and ready going into it.
A much smaller example would be when you go to halter your horse. Maybe he turns his head away at first. You could grab his head back and shove the halter on, or you could pause, take a deep breath, and wait for him to turn back to you and put his nose into the halter. It
likely won’t take more than a few seconds, which is really not much even if you are in a hurry, but it gives the horse a chance to ready himself for the halter going on and getting ready to go do things. Just imagine if which of those two haltering options you choose could set the tone for your whole ride? (Spoiler alert, it does.)
The unintended consequence of always pushing through with your agenda, without listening to the horse, is that it reinforces to your horse that you aren’t really paying attention to his communication of his needs in that moment. Over time, repeated interactions in which your horse doesn’t feel heard can lead to either much “bigger” communication on his part (think, balking and rearing at the arena gate instead of just drifting slightly towards the trail), or it could even send him into a state of shut-down or “freeze”. Unfortunately this state of shutdown, or learned helplessness, is extremely common in our horses. It is caused by the horse essentially resigning to his fate so to speak, because he realizes that he doesn’t have a choice, so he withdraws within himself for protection and just goes through the motions. This is not a conscious choice on his part, but an evolutionary trait that all our mammalian nervous systems have. It is designed to protect us in the event that our “flight or fight” state was not enough to outrun or outpower the lion, and he ended up catching us. Our nervous system then goes “whelp, I guess if we are about to be eaten by a lion I might as well make this as painless as possible for us.” It can be extremely difficult to tell when a horse is in this state, as he may be very good at going through all the motions and doing everything that is asked of him. He is likely to be labeled very obedient and may be one of those steady-eddy types who never seems to spook at anything or put up a fuss. The difference though, between a shut-down horse and one who is calm but present, is that there will be a certain dullness to his demeanor. A sense of not being engaged or actively choosing to participate. This might be the horse who seems to need a ton of leg, or even spurs to keep him moving. This might be the horse who clamps his mouth shut when asked to take the bit. This might be the horse who doesn’t lift his head and look at you when you go into his stall with the halter. The signs may be small, but they will be there.
Herein lies the question then. Are we OK with our horses being in this state of shutdown when they work for us? That they put up with us vs enjoy being with us? After all, they are probably fairly safe and reliable to handle. They do essentially everything we want them to do, even if it might take a little bit of extra effort to get them to do it. Or does it matter to us that our horses be actively choosing to participate and work with us instead of for us? That they be all in on the activities we choose to do with them. That they enthusiastically look forward to their time with us, rather than sighing heavily and just waiting for it to be over? The answer sounds like it should be obvious, but remember, by offering our horses choice, it means that they might not always choose the thing we were hoping for. It means having to be flexible with our expectations and be willing to spend some time working out a compromise that works for both parties.
I’ll give you another example, as I am sure you are wondering “Well that’s all well and good Helgi, but what about when it comes to things that my horse will definitely not want to do, but has to do, such as visits with the vet, or taking medication?” Firstly, this approach is going to require us to put in a little more effort in terms of making the “less fun” but necessary experiences as stress-free and enjoyable as possible. But if zookeepers can train a tiger using a tennis ball on a stick and a pouch full of meat chunks to lay calmly for an injection, surely we can train our horses in a non-violent way to stand still for the farrier and vet. Not only will this make the situation less stressful for the horse (and therefore more likely for him to choose to participate willingly), but it will make the lives of our hardworking equine service providers much easier. But now for the example. One of the mares at the farm has a very delicate constitution and tends to feel colicky at the first sign of cold weather. This means that every method of warding off the colic must happen right away, which includes giving her electrolytes and oral banamine. If she is off her feed, the electrolytes have to be syringed in, and although it says “delicious apple flavour” or something similar on the package, she is quite sure that it tastes less like apple and more like poison. This means at least two syringes of yucky-tasting substances in short succession. After the first one, you can imagine that she is not exactly enthralled by the idea of a second one, and the old applesauce-filled-decoy-syringe is not fooling her one bit. When we tried to just shove the entire contents in in one go to get it over with, there was a rather dramatic protest which involved galloping away into the paddock, and then some very deliberate angry rollbacks and levades right in front of us. She wanted us to know in no uncertain terms that she was extremely offended! Needless to say, we were not confident that the electrolyte concoction had actually made it into her, so we had to try again. This time, we took our time, and listened to her communicating through facial expressions, body posture, and muscle tension/relaxation levels. Through this we were able to find a method that worked for her, which was “only give me ¼ syringe at a time, while one of you scratches my withers, then give me a minute to get over the taste, and yes please a little neck massage will certainly help me forget, and when I am ready for the next dose I will turn my head towards the syringe, only then may you give it to me.” It took a little bit longer, but she didn’t move a single step during the process. The additional benefit to doing it that way, was that when she felt heard, it helped to bring her parasympathetic nervous system online, which guess what – stimulates the digestive system (hence the nickname “rest and digest”). There is nothing better than hearing some very loud gut noises coming from a horse who is in the beginning stages of colic!
In summation, consent is something we can allow our horses while still keeping them safe in our human-centric world. In fact, it may even help to keep them safer than they would otherwise be as they try to navigate our human constructs. It not only allows for physical safety, but emotional and mental safety as well. It is a nuanced piece to our relationship with our horses, but it makes a monumental difference. We can enjoy our horses while still allowing them to maintain autonomy, and we can teach the next generation of horse people to do the same. And as a coach, if modeling respect for another living being’s autonomy and dignity isn’t a powerful life lesson, I don’t know what is.
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