Voted. I think sometimes animals are better judges of people - they never have the hidden agenda many people do. x

Voted. Horses do remember a lot more than we often give them credit for. I saw a saying once that said if your dog doesn't like someone, maybe you shouldn't either. Perhaps that should include horses also.

For many years I was the horse expert the pound called when they needed a horsewoman to assess a complaint. So many people think a HORSE loves a stall, and cross ties, and blah, blah. A horse loves other horses, and people. OUR certification program was designed to HELP other stables, not be the rescue, or stable police. Recently the country of Turkey really raised hell over the intention of forming humane societies there. The point they made eloquently was that while there are strays, they also have more and more people who get their animals fixed, and that many strays are "characters" fed and protected in the areas they live. They are NOT unloved, or uncared for as so often happens in America, to children and seniors, not just animals. They pointed out that they did not see one reason for creating "concentration camps" for animals. I saw a documentary about one of the last existing clans of Vikings in the world. They live on the areas, and their horses live free their entire lives. The tiniest child, to oldest relation is set on a horse, and often without a lead rope, or anything, ride to the next living place. They are one of the most world renowned Therapeutic riding programs. Families from all over the world travel their with autistic children to see if they can be drawn out and healed. It is very successful work for the last of their horse shamen. I once had a friend who adopted a cat from a rescue. They went to her house and abused her verbally and racially. I told my other friend, who actually was a part of that rescue...........I will never speak to you again until you apologize to her. My friend got a cat from somewhere else. She has rescued a dog and a couple of other cats. Her huge side yard is an amazing fenced area for them, they have a beautifully built room for rainy or cold times that she is at work and does not want them confined only to the house. They have cat doors to go in and out of the areas and the house at all times. They have a bubbling self filling water tank. The rescue woman? She lives in a old people village where no one can have pets, and never did apologize to my other friend. She cut herself off from all of us and all we do, for her own need to tell everyone else what to do, and think she was the ONLY one who knew what to do for strays and unwanted animals.

Thank you for having the kindness and the lack of jealousy to let this horse have part of its life. Horses are herd animals and I have run into horses twenty years later and had them overjoyed to see me. Sometimes I had to look at them carefully and remember where I had met the horse, or even talk to the owner to figure out where in the background I had met them. My younger son has often over decades had riders in horseshows come up and ask him if he knows their horse. Sure enough, they are racing babies he trained at a track or as young show horses he was cooling out when their racing career ended. When I had cancer, or a car accident and missed a few days from my horses, I was surprised at the fact that they did not pest for food, or treats, instead they snuffled me and put their heads over mine in a protective way that I have learned to know is that they were concerned. I asked my neurologist about that when I got home from meningitis. He said I must have been sicker than even he had thought, the horses seem to know. I told him my dogs had slept all over me in a heap when I came home, for some days. He said, they know, and they are trying to help you stay alive. I saw this for one of my horses when she was dying. She had slipped in a bath rack. I have never used one since. She was too old for surgery and had twisted a gut, I had to have her put down. The other horses came, one by one as we brought them to see her, and it was really a crying moment for me to watch them say good bye. Somehow they knew. One of my horses had been bought about the same time as another and had lived together for almost twenty years. The mare had a stroke and could no longer rise. The gelding, I let him out to be with her, he just stood there, nose to her, and made small sounds. I have made it a habit not to ever sell off my horses because I saw how much it grieves them. One of my first vets told me that he is always glad when I get a horse, he knows it will have a home for life, and be loved. I have taken the bus, walked long ways to the stable, and done without a lot of things to do my work. Luckily I have enough money to do it and to enjoy it. But it always makes me feel good to see other people do something to make life happier for these awesome animals. Even just to let them be friends with their old owner. How kind you are.