My blog has been up and running for more than one year now and it is time to pause and give some thoughts to the direction it has taken and some to the path it hopefully will proceed on in the future.
I have always hoped to be part of a change. A change in attitude towards horses in India. A part of a new encyclopedia of equestrian knowledge in a vast desert of the utter lack of horsemanship training, good riding lessons or well-equipped riding schools.
Yes, there are centers of equestrian learning in India, great schools, knowledgeable teachers and amazing horse people. But they are few and far in-between. Instead, I too often see abuse of horses due to a lack of knowledge. It is often not even poverty which makes people ill-treat horses or lack of compassion. Yes, I have seen horses being tied up in front of a little hut which are underfed and overworked because the owner needs to feed his family first and might not have the funds to buy medicines or sufficient food for his horse. But the same person might take the horse to a little green spot for grazing in the early morning hours, sacrificing his own sleep and breakfast, so that the horse can munch a little bit of fresh grass.
More worrisome, I find the plight of many horses belonging to affluent or even filthily rich people who might have the most beautiful stable, who are cleaned, washed and groomed every day, fed the best food but who are never left outside together with other horses, who are fed staple which is unsuitable for horses and which makes them fat and ultimately ill and who spend a life of boredom and inactivity.
The life of these horses is no less miserable and this is not due to lack of funds but to the utter ignorance of their owners and little proper training on the ground of horse and rider.
The internet has changed how people learn and educate themselves on topics they find interesting. It has improved the life of many horses in the West as people suddenly had a lot of resources at their fingertips and good trainers started using the internet to disseminate their knowledge and help people with their horses. In India sadly this has not yet been the case. Instead, many people who own horses have little knowledge about them. They resort to a combination of half-knowledge, superstition and the wisdom of Instagram or Facebook groups where photos of horses rather than tips or real knowledge are swapped.
Even people who have been to other countries and seen good horsemanship might tell you that this horse keeping is good for western breeds, but not for their own Marwari horses who are different and need a different handling as they are warhorses. This and other myths are circulating far and wide and are used to explain away bad horse keeping practices.
Before I started this blog, I had a heated discussion about what we can do to improve the situation with a few like-minded friends. And we hoped to create an informal network, sharing and disseminating information and setting examples of good horsemanship and good horse keeping.
They have really soldiered ahead with a proper horsemanship academy and a groom school. I, so far only started a blog.
But I am also collecting material to publish an E-book on horse keeping and horsemanship in the Indian context. I want to publish it in the course of the next year and make it available to download for free.
The topics I want to deal with are feeding, stabling, exercising and training horses in India. I hope this will help some riders and horse owners to better understand the needs of their horses which are not to be stabled in a golden stall and get fed clarified butter until the weight resting on the little hooves causes terrible damage.
It is also not getting washed and shiny every day and never have the opportunity to get really dirty. This is not what horses need and want. Not even warhorses!
After all, a horse is a horse, whether it is a thoroughbred, an Arabian, a warmblood or a Marwari.
Horses need exercise, they need company and they need a constant source of food so they can eat for a greater part of their day, not only two or three times, like us.
Most of all, we need to understand that the horse is a social animal, a flight animal and a grazing animal.
It needs company, if possible, all day long, it needs open space and not a confined stall or even being tied up for hours a day. And it needs to graze and have access to roughage or grass for as long as possible rather than getting fed three meals of high energy grain.
If the needs of the horse are met, it will stay healthy longer and it will be mentally and physically balanced so we can work with him, spend time with him and train him for pleasure rides, equestrian sports or work.
Why is this blog necessary? India has an indigenous horse culture which has developed and peaked in the middle ages, when horses were priced for their speed and valor in battle.
Horses have always been expensive to keep and in the Hindu order of beings, occupy a high rank as royal, even divine animals. So, they have never been used for working in the fields or pulling the carts of common farmers. Instead, they were the prerogative of the ruling classes of North-Western India. They were owned by the warrior castes who needed them to rule their kingdoms and to wage war on their neighbors.
Their horses were well cared for, well-trained and prized beyond measures. Books on their keeping, judging and selections were written and circulated widely. During the middle ages, horses were the prime import good into India, exchanged for Indian cotton, silk or indigo.
Why was all of that lost?
Well, first of all, fortunately not all. Still some old learning can be found in some families, among some people and in some of the old books which have been translated into modern languages, so they can be read and understood today.
The decline started with the advent of the British and the Pax Britannica, when the purpose of horses as animals of war was lost. Native cavalry units were disbanded and the breeding of native breeds such as the Marwari or Kathiawari horses waned. The British brough their own horses and horsemanship. They needed a stronger, heavier horse for their cavalry. Indigenous horses and grooms would still be employed at times, but most of their soldier were mounted on Australian Whalers or Thoroughbreds.
The royal and noble families of India who had bred horses and often kept hundreds of them at their estates, now bought English horses and rode them English style which they learned at British schools such as Mayo Collage.
As the traditional feudal system had collapsed, they did not need to keep horses and soldiers anymore and bit by bit, they disbanded their troops and reduced the number of horses. Polo and hunting were the order of the day, not warfare.
With Independence, the situation became even more abysmal. The noble families lost their means of income with the land reform and finally the abolition of the private purses. Suddenly they had no more funds and no means of income. For generations they had ruled their land and lived of the revenue. Now all this was lost to them. A whole generation lived from selling whatever they still owned. The first to go, were the animals, horses, camels and elephants. They were expensive to keep and served little purpose. The animals were given to farmers and businessmen. People who had little or no idea about horse keeping as they had never owned horses before.
And those who knew, migrated to other professions. Knowledge about horses and horse keeping had been transmitted orally for generations. The same families kept horses, the same families supplied grooms, farriers and other professionals. When this nexus broke, the knowledge got gradually lost.
The knowledge of the different bloodlines, the knowledge about horse training and about horse keeping. How to give effective massages, which plants to use in case of colic or the birth of a foal. Very little of this ancient expertise survived. Most was lost in the transition of the generations. In India professions are passed from father to son. But when the son needs to change his profession, the link is broken and everything which is not written down, will get lost over the time. From knowledge it turned to memory, then to myth.
And when the sons and daughters of the families who used to have horses, brought them back to their homes, so much had been lost and many had to start from zero. Till today, the old wisdom and skill has not returned but everything had to be relearned. And this relearning process is still under way. And while relearning is great, its even better to learn more about the scientific side of modern horse keeping. Our horses today are animals of leisure and maybe sports. Horses are no longer necessary to fight in wars or bring their owner from A to B. Today horses occupy a new role and horsemanship and horse keeping needs to be seen from a new angle.
We have learned so many things about the nature of the horse and its needs and thanks to the internet, a lot of it is available online. The problem is there is so much bullshit along and it is difficult to tell what is right from what is wrong. Sometimes there is no absolute right or absolute wrong. People in different places can do things in a different way. But the needs of the horse remain the same. Company of other horses as it is a herd animal. Lots of space to roam as it is a flight animal. And a constant diet of fiber in order to remain healthy. It does not need a beautiful stable or being groomed twice a day. It will always prefer to roll in the mud or dust and get relief from the flies and insects rather than being clean and beautiful.
So there are lots of topics to write about, lots of issues to be explored and hopefully I can help the one or the other reader who stumbles upon my blog to read more about horses and horse keeping in India.