Dear Humans, I know you think we horses do not have stress in our lives. You say we have all our meals prepared for us, we have nice stables to live in and paddocks to go out in, the best veterinary care, grooming, carrots and treats. How could we have stress? Ma Leueen tells me Humans have stress about Billz and More Gages and a lot of stuff. But we horses do have stress and I would like to tell you about three things that cause us stress.
1.Sickness
I want to tell you about my friend Roo Pert. He was in the paddock next to me and we always used to chat and play around. One day, not so long ago, we were playing and then he said he didn’t feel so well. We stopped playing. Then he lay down. “C’mon Roo” I said, “Let’s play some more.” “I can’t Beebs,” he replied. “My insides are hurting something awful. I can’t get up and play.” I knew he was in real trouble. We needed a human. Where are they when you need them? But then I saw Barn Manager Carl. He had spotted Roo on the ground and was heading out to get him. He got him up and took him inside. Later we horses learned Roo had to go to the hospital. We were all worried. Next day we listened to the Humans talking about Roo. We hear everything you know! Roo had to be opened up and some parts of his insides cut out! Yes! That night we horses were all talking about it and we were all upset. Tattoo said he had been opened up once and it was not nice but he recovered. Then we felt a bit better that Roo’s chances were good. If Tattoo could do it so could Roo.
Roo came home a few days ago. He said he feels better but he has to stay in his stall all the time other than being taken out by a Human to be walked. Well we horses were all relieved and welcomed him back. It is very stressful to be sick and stressful if a fellow horse friend is sick.
2. Being For Sale
I was born in Germany and Coach Belinda bought me when I was pretty young. When she decided to sell me she did not send me to a sale barn she kept me in my usual stall at the barn at home. Ma Leueen was the second person who came to try me and I knew right away we were going to get on really well. But some horses are not so lucky. They are put up for sale and sent away to a barn where a lot of horses are for sale. They are tried by a lot of different people and it is hard for we horses to know what the different riders want. If they are lucky they go to a nice person who will take good care of them. But the process of being up for sale is so hard. Not knowing who will take you is stressful.
Being retired.
Ma Leueen has told me that when we get older we won’t be training and competing all the time. We will still be together and can go on hacks in the forest together. She has promised me she will not leave me out in a paddock not knowing where she is and what is happening. She will still look after me and make sure I have horse friends to spend time with. We horses like our jobs and when our working days are over we don’t want to be just cast aside. We understand we cannot be young and working forever but we do want to know we are still valued.
Those are the three things that we horses can have stress about. If you, Dear Humans, could just remember that and talk to us to let us know what is happening it would help us a lot.
Till next time Dear Humans.
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