The Soul of a Horse
Jun. 28th, 2008 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calzephyrMy penpal sent me The Soul of a Horse
and I enjoyed it very much. If you like horse books, or animal stories in general, you can't go wrong. The only thing that really wore on me was author Joe Camp's extremely folksy style, but I think he writes the way he talks, and I'm guessing he talks with lots of pauses. Joe is actually the writer, director and producer of the Benji movies.
What makes this book particularly interesting is that Joe came to own horses later in life than most people do. He and his wife, Kathleen, set out to learn as much about horses as possible, and were surprised by how much there was to learn, particularly when it came to natural horsemanship methods. They were really inspired by Monty Roberts. Some of the horsey techniques he writes about could easily apply to birds as well. For example, what truly makes a horse happy is not being under stress, which is tied to their flight instinct. Joe also reasons that horses have had millions of years of instinct to build on, whereas humans have only been intereacting with horses for a fraction of that time, and that horses must know what they're doing. One of the most eye opening chapters was about the wild horse hoof trim, and why horseshoes can be bad for hooves.
Joe believes that when you give a horse the choice to be with you, amazing things can happen. It's always delightful when an animal does something because they like you, not out of fear. That's no fun, you might as well amuse yourself with a wind up toy. Of course, Joe's lessons translate to the human world as well - no one likes to be pushed around after all. If a workplace really trusts in its employees, it will have happier employees and be successful...success at the cost of bullying people around just results in higher turnover ;-)
and I enjoyed it very much. If you like horse books, or animal stories in general, you can't go wrong. The only thing that really wore on me was author Joe Camp's extremely folksy style, but I think he writes the way he talks, and I'm guessing he talks with lots of pauses. Joe is actually the writer, director and producer of the Benji movies.What makes this book particularly interesting is that Joe came to own horses later in life than most people do. He and his wife, Kathleen, set out to learn as much about horses as possible, and were surprised by how much there was to learn, particularly when it came to natural horsemanship methods. They were really inspired by Monty Roberts. Some of the horsey techniques he writes about could easily apply to birds as well. For example, what truly makes a horse happy is not being under stress, which is tied to their flight instinct. Joe also reasons that horses have had millions of years of instinct to build on, whereas humans have only been intereacting with horses for a fraction of that time, and that horses must know what they're doing. One of the most eye opening chapters was about the wild horse hoof trim, and why horseshoes can be bad for hooves.
Joe believes that when you give a horse the choice to be with you, amazing things can happen. It's always delightful when an animal does something because they like you, not out of fear. That's no fun, you might as well amuse yourself with a wind up toy. Of course, Joe's lessons translate to the human world as well - no one likes to be pushed around after all. If a workplace really trusts in its employees, it will have happier employees and be successful...success at the cost of bullying people around just results in higher turnover ;-)
