Do horses feel grief?

I think – yes.  I have seen it first hand and there is no question in my mind that at least some horses do.  The following words and pictures are both very touching and  sad and the picture is both very touching and a bit gruesome. 
If you are squeamish about the sight of blood you might want to pass. 
I posted it here because I think it is mostly touching and because I think people need to be reminded that animals are sentient beings and have feelings just like us.

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If you’ve ever…

Choked back tears watching a new foal wobble to his feet
for the first time… Or watching your good horse wobble to his feet after
surgery…

Or seen the ends of the reins float straight out as a reining horse spins
beneath them… Or chuckled to yourself as you watched a tiny tot on a
patient pony trot through a barrel pattern at a saddle club play day… Or
felt the building tremble as an eight-up hitch of feather-legged giants
pulled a hand-carved beer wagon into the arena… Or had your heart stop
when you saw your horse lying motionless in the pasture on a sunny day —
and waited breathlessly to see an ear flicker…

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Respect

Respect is probably the most misused word in horsemanship.  People use it all the time and mean so many different things by it that it becomes worse than useless.  It becomes confusing and misleading.  Kind of like the word love.  There all all kinds of love, some healthy and some unhealthy, likewise there all kinds of respect.

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An Afternoon Horsing Around in Hope Valley

Yesterday we went to Hope Valley Meadow.

The plan had been to go to the creek by Red Lake but plans changed en route and we parked here instead to make the trip easier for the truck.

As it turned out Plan B was better for all.  Patticakes has the most mountain and trail experience.  Carrie has trail competition experience but in much more controlled environments.  Gracie has hardly been away from home and herd at all.  The flat terrain and ample grazing made the whole day much more pleasurable for all of them.

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How do you……

Induce labor in a mare?   Take a nap.

Cure equine constipation?    Load them in a clean trailer.

Cure equine insomnia?    Enter them in a halter class.

Get a horse to stay very calm and laid back?     Enter them in a liberty class.

Get a horse to wash their own feet?    Clean the water trough and fill it with fresh water.

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If all the beasts were gone . . .

If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit,

for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man.

All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.

~Chief Seattle of the Suquamish Tribe, letter to President Franklin Pierce