Have you ever felt confused about the differing opinions and approaches floating around about natural horse care? If so, you’ve probably felt a similar confusion about approaches to your own health.
Is there a common denominator that causes this type of confusion? Absolutely.
Usually if you have a problem, the first thing you do is ask people about the issue you’re having and start surfing the Internet to find a solution. As you search, you find others with the same problem you’re experiencing. You discover that each person used a different approach and each said it worked. You may even try a couple of these approaches but none of them work for your situation.
Your frustration builds and you feel lost.
Why are there so many so-called solutions to the same issue? Each person said their approach worked. As a result, these people become hardcore advocates for that one approach and can’t imagine using another.
Why is that?
The common denominator is – for the same issue, every situation, every individual and every horse is different.
The same holds true even for controlled studies.
Calcium helps bone density. Calcium doesn’t help bone density. High cholesterol causes heart attacks. High cholesterol doesn’t cause heart attacks. There’s contradiction everywhere.
There are many reasons for this. My personal opinion is:
We’re all made up differently. Our genetics are different. Our situations are different. We’re all different – all the way down to the cellular level, and your horse is too.
There’s abundant advice on how to approach your horse’s care. It’s not effective or wise to give step by step advice on certain aspects of natural horse care, because it depends on the specific situation, person and horse.
What is effective is understanding solid guidelines, learning from others’ experiences and most of all learning from your horse. Real knowledge and understanding comes from each horse rather than from any given human’s “formula.”
Various Approaches to the Same Problem
There are various approaches used when it comes to natural horse care. This can be confusing and frustrating when you’re trying to find a solution to a particular problem. It doesn’t matter how much knowledge you have, you’ll still feel this way at times. However, if you’ve learned key guidelines to solving problems, you’ll rarely allow frustration to get the best of you.
If you can take away this one thing from this article, you’ll become confident in your decisions about your horse’s care:
It’s important to form your own opinions and apply them to your own horse care situation.”
As I discussed in my book, Guiding Principles of Natural Horse Care, even people who are considered experts don’t always agree. You’ll need to learn to decide what’s relevant to you, your horse and your situation and then create your own plan.
There is no one set solution to a problem and there’s no silver bullet.
If you’re looking for that, then I would like to recommend that you stop. It will save you a lot of frustration. Once you make this decision and accept it, you’ll be able to think more clearly. You’ll be able to more effectively apply core natural horse care guidelines to find the appropriate solutions to a particular horse care problem. As a result you’ll learn to become a better problem solver.
I’m not here to tell you what to do, but I am here as your guide. Keep in mind that the appropriate answer will always depend on your horse, you and the situation. With that as a guideline, don’t allow anyone to force a particular approach upon you.
Remember, your horse is always the real expert, not the human.
Once you grasp the concept that there’s no cookie cutter approach, each horse is an individual and every situation is different, you’ll be that much closer to a solution to most any horse care problem.
Something I’d like to leave you to think about is a quote from the movie Adaptation:
A rule says you must do it this way. A principle says this works and has through all remembered time.”
Keep it soulful,
Stephanie Krahl
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Photo credit – original photo modified in size and to include the Soulful Equine name and URL
