It’s a very strange belief that animals want to work for humans, it’s really obvious that this mule has shut down to cope with the situation. Saying NO is not an option as he most likely will be beaten. And it’s hard to understand how people romanticize abuse. I wonder if people don’t understand the signs of a horse or a mule saying NO, or if the just don’t care. What do you think?
Thanks Maria. I think a large part is due to superficiality and lack of empathy, part to human culture which is oriented to control and oppression for utilitarian purposes. Much depends on the environment you live in. Many years ago, I definitively left conventional horse riding in search of a dimension of well-being to live with the horse. Only 1 year later, I set foot in the stables where I had kept Aisha for 5 years, to say hello to some friends and something incredible happened. I saw the places and gestures that were normal and everyday for me at the time and I found them so absurd that I wondered how I was so blind that I didn’t realize what I was doing first …. but then I was immersed in “normal” management and I did not see … now I saw horses being dragged, abused, used as objects, ridiculed, humiliated, subjugated …. nothing different than a concentration camp. The contrast between what I saw and what was familiar to me, and what I saw with different eyes after having only made a small piece of the journey was illuminating.And every time I feel like judging people for how they see horses ,I try to remember about how I was blind too.
Your’e right, once you have seen the whole idea about equestrianism from another perspective, it’s hard to understand how you could have normalized use and abuse before. But as you say – it’s so very important to remember that the people that are still withing the context just hasn’t seen the other perspective yet, so how can we judge them!
p.s. I wrote tons to indicate an heavy load…probably it’s less then the wheight of an adult person, but this makes not difference.
It’s a very strange belief that animals want to work for humans, it’s really obvious that this mule has shut down to cope with the situation. Saying NO is not an option as he most likely will be beaten. And it’s hard to understand how people romanticize abuse. I wonder if people don’t understand the signs of a horse or a mule saying NO, or if the just don’t care. What do you think?
Thanks Maria. I think a large part is due to superficiality and lack of empathy, part to human culture which is oriented to control and oppression for utilitarian purposes. Much depends on the environment you live in. Many years ago, I definitively left conventional horse riding in search of a dimension of well-being to live with the horse. Only 1 year later, I set foot in the stables where I had kept Aisha for 5 years, to say hello to some friends and something incredible happened. I saw the places and gestures that were normal and everyday for me at the time and I found them so absurd that I wondered how I was so blind that I didn’t realize what I was doing first …. but then I was immersed in “normal” management and I did not see … now I saw horses being dragged, abused, used as objects, ridiculed, humiliated, subjugated …. nothing different than a concentration camp. The contrast between what I saw and what was familiar to me, and what I saw with different eyes after having only made a small piece of the journey was illuminating.And every time I feel like judging people for how they see horses ,I try to remember about how I was blind too.
Your’e right, once you have seen the whole idea about equestrianism from another perspective, it’s hard to understand how you could have normalized use and abuse before. But as you say – it’s so very important to remember that the people that are still withing the context just hasn’t seen the other perspective yet, so how can we judge them!