Most of the time horse people are friendly and easy-going. But put them together in a high pressure situation and some of that niceness goes a way. For example, when it is the rainy season and they are all forced to share the arena at the same time. Your stable then transforms into an island on Survivor with tribes forming with all the drama and personality clashes. And I don’t mean among the horses.
My Experience
I have boarded my horse at two different barns now and have leased horses from half a dozen stables. At all of them, I have witnessed clashes either between trainer and trainer, trainer and client, and boarder and boarder. You would think the barn would be a place of tranquility and peace. Most of the time it is. But I guess we humans just can’t always get along.
In addition I have seen that horse people tend to form groups or tribes based on horse breed, trainer, training style, or discipline. I think it is human nature to do this. We tend to be attracted to others with similar beliefs and circumstances. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this except when one group thinks it is superior to the another. That is usually when conflict starts.
Best Breed
I myself am attracted to those who own an Arab horse because we Arab owners tend to really really love the breed. If the person owns an Arab and shows, I really feel a kinship to them since we have a lot to share and talk about. However, I don’t just limit my friendships to Arab horse owners. I have friends with different breeds of horses and who ride both English and Western.
At the barn, I go out of my way to be friendly and polite to everyone else. For one thing, I feel I have multiple strikes against me: I own an Arab, I ride western, and I also have had natural horsemanship training. (In California, it seems there are more English riders at barns now then Western.) For another, I try to keep an open mind and don’t make judgments against others. I am very sensitive to the fact that alot of people do not like Arabs and view them as hot-blooded flighty horses. I have heard a lot of comments about Arab horses being “crazy or stupid”. In fact, one trainer said to me, “I would never own an Arab, since they are too hard to train.” Luckily many people don’t always know what type of horse Valerie is because she is always calm and relaxed. In fact, when I tell people she is an Arab, they sometimes remark “for an Arab, she is very quiet”.
My feeling is there are alot of horse breeds out there and we can’t judge an entire breed by a few horses. Yes, I have seen some crazy Arabs I would never own but I don’t condemn the entire breed. I also have seen crazy Quarter horses and Warm Bloods but I don’t think they are all bad.
Riding Disciplines
Just like breeds, people have strong opinions about riding disciplines. Western riders make snotty comments about dressage riders and some dressage riders act superior to western riders. Some of this behavior is due to a lack of understanding. One way to stop this is to learn more about the other discipline. If you ride western learn about dressage or vice versa. When my trainer and I practice reining in the arena alot of the english riders ask us questions and think it sounds fun, which it is.
Training Styles
At my last barn, I never encountered prejudice against training techniques since most everyone rode western. Since it was a training barn, everyone had to do things the way the trainer taught us. When I left that barn I was exposed to a whole new group of people with different goals and training styles. There were people who just trail rode and others that showed. Some were interested in dressage others in jumping. Because of this, I was and am careful about what I say, since not everyone looks favorably on “natural horsemanship” training techniques. And I have an open mind myself. If a training style makes sense and is humane I am willing to try it.
Luckily, I think I have been accepted at my barn since no one has said anything negative to me. And I don’t think they would since Valerie is one of the calmest and good natured horses at the barn, so there really is nothing to complain about!
Do you have fighting at your barn? How do you handle disagreements?
Photo by spakattacks
