Meet Peggy. (Re-Post shared by follower.)

Peggy is the skeletal remains of a polo pony mare that was euthanized due to dangerous behavior. It was said that she, and I quote, "was trying to kill people".

The first image is of Peggy's thoracic spine. The spinous processes of her vertebrae directly under where the saddle would be not only have no space between them, but have rubbed so hard against each other that they wore holes in the adjacent bones. Attachment points for tendons and ligaments further down on the vertebrae are spiky and sharp and feature errant bony deposits where her body was trying to support soft tissue structures that were under tremendous abnormal strain.

The second picture is of the ventral aspect of Peggy's lumbar spine. This is the view you would have if you laid down on the ground on your back underneath skeleton Peggy and looked up towards the sky. Not only does she have areas where the vertebrae are trying to fuse to stabilize her back, she has an enormous 1.5" bony growth ...

Emotions have been "high" here in the USA... and the residual effects will remain. Some folks are feeling very confident, while others are devastated. Either way, many equine enthusiasts "seek refuge" in spending time with their horse as a reprieve from politics, daily life stresses, and the future unknowns...

I wanted to offer a gentle reminder of how much the horse mirrors human emotions during interactions by sharing a story that occurred at the end of a six-day Alternative Horsemanship clinic a few years back.

A participant was recalling the interaction he'd had with his horse that morning before arriving. Things had not gone as he anticipated, and he used negative human emotional terms to describe the horse's behavior.

As we spoke, the horse stood nearby, saddled and in a halter and lead rope. There was lots of slack in the rope as the man loosely held it, and he was facing me as he spoke, with the horse a slight distance behind him. As the student started talking, the horse fussed, flipped ...

Equine enthusiasts are often focused on task accomplishment without having a foundational understanding of how the quality and timing of their communication affect the horse's future willingness, adaptability, and try.

Subscribe to participate in this 2-part horse learning series in the November Livestreams.

Is your communication relevant?
Saturday, November 2nd 9am

Real-time Communication
Saturday, November 9th