the Sage By Nature blog

A lot of animal injustice is done in ignorance, but today with all of the information available so readily in books and on the internet there is no excuse for ignorance. I started out ignorant, getting back into horses in my adult life but with the concepts and ideas that had been formed in my younger days. I showed a wonderful Quarter Horse named Obie Gitano when I was in high school, and I was never cruel to her but she was constantly shod and lived in a box stall her entire life. For most of it she at least had an attached paddock, but it was small and of course she was never afforded the opportunity to just be a horse and graze with other horses. There was no place to do that where she was – it hadn’t been built with that in mind – and I did not know any better. I came into horses as a horse crazy 12 year old and ended up thinking all of that was “normal” and just fine for keeping a horse. Sadly, I didn’t even question it. She wasn’t even my horse, so I would not have had much say in the matter anyway, but still, it would have been a nice thing for her to occasionally graze some grass in a big pasture. I think she knew she was cared about deeply though, and I almost never missed a day at the barn throughout high school since I could walk right down to it. I hope that there are big pastures in horse heaven where she is bucking and frolicking around right now as I write this.
Fortunately, when I got back into horses, I found a wise soul named Sage that would not stand for living in a stall or having her stable mates changed too often and was always physically better when she grazed on grass. So I was forced to research, learn and adjust to what she needed – not just what was convenient for me as an owner. It took me seven years to learn what Sage and I needed to know, and to finally find the spot where she can be happy and a healthy horse, but the journey has all been worth it. In Joe Camp’s new book, The Soul of a Horse, he says that if you love your horse you will find a way, and I believe that to be true from experience.
I have spent hundreds of dollars over the years on supplements and healing modalities trying to get my square peg horse to fit into the round circle of normal horse care (it would have been easier had I had my own property but I wouldn’t have necessarily learned as much). The bond that we have created – based in large part on the fact that she knows without question that I care and will lead her to better and safer things – gives me a companion who comes to me from out in the pasture as soon as she sees me, away from her buddies and even food, has walked over a tarp with less than 10 minutes of practice, walks through water and deep mud, over large drain grates and plastic pipes and over bridges she has never seen, and more. All this has just happened in the last year or two, so it took me a while to get us to this point. Every step I took towards where I am today led my horse closer to me. Am I an expert horse trainer or an expert at natural horsemanship? No. I am simply someone who deeply loves, respects, and is a leader for their horse, leading her towards better horsemanship from her perspective. And she knows it.
Perhaps there are bells ringing somewhere right now for Eight Belles; maybe this article is my bell for her. And Barbaro. And the crippled mare who was bred one last time. And scores of others like them past and present. If just a few more of us listen, and act, then the world can be a better place for horses and humans alike.