Ethological horse riding, Ethical horse riding

Is the concern to ensure the well-being of the horse compatible with the desire to practice horse riding? Yes, say the specialists from various disciplines gathered in September 2015 at Haras de la Cense. This is exactly what ethological horse riding offers to succeed. Riding a horse, however, implies certain obligations for the rider, in particular respect for his mount. It’s called ethical horsemanship.

We are at a turning point, it is the transition between what we called ethological riding and what we can describe as ethical riding. This book will be of interest to all people who wish to better understand their horse and ride them with all due respect.

The relationship between man and animal has varied greatly throughout history and between civilizations. The beginning of the domestication of wild beasts in the Neolithic period obviously constituted a first break. Previously, man protected himself from wild animals and hunted prey, an element of a natural world to which he belonged and whose symbolic dimension is illustrated by the decorated caves of the Paleolithic.

The breeder can establish new contacts with the pet, a possession but also, sometimes, a friend.

All these data are illustrated in the relationships between riders and other professionals on the one hand, and horses on the other. This animal, first the means of conquests and the partner of battles, an indispensable auxiliary of agriculture then, the prized companion of leisure and the sports athlete of our days, was gradually integrated into a heroic gesture where , alongside humans, it occupies a place that no other beast can challenge it. Isn't it the only quadruped to have legs and not paws, a nose and not a snout? This status justifies, if necessary, that we look at what it means, concerning him, to take into account the well-being of the horse as much as possible. The first requirement is to know its nature, the subject of ethology, to know how to identify the manifestations of stress, suffering, discomfort of the horse, the opposite signs of its well-being. Everyone familiar with horses knows this more or less, but they still have to admit their limits, seek to improve, accept the advice and teachings of veterinarians, ethologists and others involved in the equestrian world. “Respecting the nature of the horse” certainly means ensuring as best as possible its needs for food, fresh and clear water, treating its ailments, allowing it to rest on dry and clean bedding. However, this is not enough. Like any animal, at different levels, the horse, a social species, needs contact with its peers and a freedom to flourish which, if it is not, as with us, in the order of the project, refers to what we call “fantasy”: rolling in the grass, kicking with joy, antics, going off tail in plume in a crazy cavalcade from one end of the meadow to the other, and other manifestations observed will touch any equine lover.