Global Hysteria

Us humans, we have a tendency to dramatise everything. A slight change in temperature, and the world is coming to an end.
Only we call that Global Warming nowadays. Its a new key word that sells newspapers and everyone can understand.

If you watch the weather report, its always the hottest, coldest, windiest or somethingest day in reported history. But what exactly does that mean? The earliest weather report goes back to the late 18th century. Its not exactly a representative time period to analise the planet.

When I talk to my grandmother, she tells me about her childhood, and there are always phrases like:
'It was an unseasonably hot (cold, rainy etc.) day', In her childhood, seasons obviously weren't identical every year, like they arent today. Thats normal. Its called nature.
400 years ago, they had summers, where it rained incessantly for weeks. Back then, that was not due to Global warming, it was God being angry with his people.

I used to believe in scientific weather reports on the media. When I was about 12 years old, in the mid 80s, we had a very rainy summer. The papers were full of reports about 'sun spots' causing the incessant rain, which we would have to expect for the next 10 years. As if nature was making fun of us humble humans trying to find an explanation for everything, the next summer was incredibly dry and hot (quite unusual for a German summer). By then we had forgotten about the sun spots. Global warming became the new thing. We got predictions of people in the beginning of the new Millenium (ca. 20 years from then) living on a desert planet totally wrapped up to protect themselves from the deathly sun rays.

The thing I cant quite understand is: We talk about polar ice caps melting and flooding the continents. Try an experiment. Fill up a glass with water and put a couple of ice cubes in it. Then mark the water level. Wait until the ice has melted and measure the water level again. Funnily enough it hasnt changed! Frozen water has a different density than liquid water. It expands, when its frozen. So, how does that work for the melting ice poles? They float on the water like in my glass example, half under water, half above the water. When they melt, the water level doesnt change.
Now you will argue, that its the ice on the actual land mass, that will increase the water volume. How much land mass is there on the north pole? None at all. There are only huge ice slabs floating on the ocean.
Granted, the south pole has a land mass of 14 mio km2.
But if that makes a difference on the water level, what about reclaimed land? We are still reclaiming land all over the world. A reasonable sized submarine displaces about 7 tons of water. There are hundreds or even thousands of submarines and ships out on the sea at any given time. Do they not make a difference?
Also, people read the age of a glacier by the layers that have been 'building up' over the years. Does that mean, the water that is tied up in a glacier dries out the ocean?

Lets assume for a moment, Global Warming does actually exist. Maybe it is perfectly normal. From the mid 12hundreds to about the mid 16hundreds (some scientist even say till the mid 19hundreds) there was what is referred to as the 'Little Ice Age'. Maybe our planet is still recovering from that and thats why we detect increase in temperature? Another example. What caused the Ice Age? Was that not perfectly normal in the development of the planet? Or was it the technology dinosaurs used, that cooled the air?

Fact is: We dont know anything at all about these things. We havent been analising this planet for long enough to understand what is happening. In a couple of hundred years people will look back on us and laugh hysterically about their dumb ancestors, who thought they were warming up the planet with their inferior technology. Just as we laugh now about the earth being flat.

How to western train your horse

Its actually very easy. You can train an English trained horse to a western trained horse no problem, because the western way is much more natural for the horse. Should you want to train your horse the other way, you will face great difficulty.

To change an english trained horse to a western horse you first have to change your own attitude towards riding. Instead of control and discipline you go for fun and friendship. You make your horse want to do what you want to do by letting it have the choice.

Lets start by mounting the horse. The most important thing: it doesn't matter, how you get on the horse! That's one of the fundamental rules of western riding. Do what is comfortable for both of you and don't do it by the book.

Once you sit on the horse, just relax. Stretch your leg away from the horses flanks and get rid of the broom stick you were taught to have in your back. Just sit naturally and comfortably.
Leave the reins loose. It doesn't matter, if you use one or both hands for the reins, just (again) hold them in the most comfortable way.
To get the horse going, you do not hammer your heals into his sides.
You move your hip forward and click with your tongue. The horse will feel encouraged to go rather than pushed to go.
Enjoy the horses movement! Lean back in your saddle. Dont tighten the reins.
To go from walk to trott to canter you do just the same thing: move your hip, click your tongue.
And sit back and be relaxed.
To turn right, all you do is move your hand (or hands) that is holding the reins over the horses neck to the right, without pulling his mouth.
To turn left, move your hand with the reins to the left.

To stop or slow down, you gently pull in the reins just enough to let your horse know, what you are asking. This is the only bit that takes a bit of training. Mainly, because, being used to the English way, we become all tense and afraid to loose control over the horse, when we dont have the tight reins. But western riding is all about being relaxed, and sending tiny signals through your mind and body to the horse. The horse knows exactly how we feel. So, when we are tense, the horse gets tense as well, and the last thing a tense horse wants to do is slow down. So, train yourself to be relaxed, and TRUST your horse. If you trust him, he will trust you.
A famous book I once read by Henry Blake told about a guy who was asked to train a hypersensitive, nervous horse and make it calm. So this guy took the horse, and went straight out into the middle of a parade of people with drums and guns etc. The same horse, that he was riding for the first time, stood still in amongst all this noise, as his rider put down the reins and lit a cigarette. And that the secret: he completey relaxed himself, so the horse felt, there was nothing to be nervous about and relaxed as well.

So, remember the basic rules for western riding:

1. do what is comfortable and dont follow any strict rules.
2. be relaxed. That includes your whole body; your back, legs and hands.
3. trust your horse
4. treat it as a friend and not as a slave.

Now, enjoy yourself and have fun...

Western versus English

(from the horse's perspective)

You know, I was originally trained the way it is more common around here. Tight reins, strict discipline and my riders heals constantly pushing mi sides. Some horses probably prefer this style, but personally, I think it sucks. Why does my rider think, he has to control my every step? I can walk by myself, and if I wanted to, I could use my physical strength against him or her and there wouldn't be a thing they could do about it. Fact is, I have control. My feeder, the girl I've been working for for the last 16 years, saw that straight away. I am not the type that can walk stiff necked, with hands pulling my sensitive mouth while pretending to be relaxed.
I got retrained, in Western style. What that means is, I walk along on long reins in a totally relaxed way. Whats even better: my rider is relaxed, too. She leans back and her heals don't even touch me. When she wants to turn right, she sends a soft request with the reins touching my neck, slightly pointing to the right. And I choose to turn right.
Its such a friendly way. It feels like my rider is my friend who wants to go for a walk with me, rather than my master telling me what to do and how to do it. I feel free; I go where I want to go, because my rider asked me to. No strain on my mouth, no more aching neck muscles, no more master-slave hierarchy.
One of the best parts is, we often use what they call a Hackamore, a bridle without mouth piece. So I can actually nibble some grass on the way, because there is no bite in my mouth stopping me from chewing properly.
If youve got any questions on how to train your horse western style, you will have to ask my owner.

How to keep and feed a horse Part 1.

All you need to begin with is a piece of land just big enough for the horse to walk about. Depending on the horse, about 50 m2 is actually enough, as long as you exercise the horse otherwise. Fence it off so the horse isn't able to go places where you don't want it to be. Like your rose garden, for example.

Unless you live in Siberia, just an open shelter that keeps the rain and wind off, should do, because in winter the horse will grow a thick coat. A horse grows fur depending on the temperature its exposed to. One thing we like to forget, is that animals are not human beings. Just because we feel uncomfortable, doesn't mean they do.

It would be good, if you had a place to dump the horse poo regularly, but maybe just ask around the neighbours, who might be happy to use the poo to fertilize their gardens. They might even be grateful, because its actually not cheap to buy. Around here, where we live, there are several neighbours we call the 'poo collectors', because they come here with their wheel barrows every few weeks and clean up the section.

If it is really your front yard, meaning you live right there, its probably okay for you to put a bucket of water there that you can fill up every day. Otherwise its more convenient to install a self watering place.

Under the shelter you put a trough for his pellets and make a corner for his hay. All you need to do now, is source a place you can buy those nearby.

How much to feed to the horse is of course different for every one. Best is to try it out. Start by giving him/her about 1 liter of pellets twice a day and as much hay as it eats. The horse will generally not eat more hay than it needs. feeding too much hay is not a problem, feeding too much pellets or oats can be a problem, because they contain a lot of protein. Too much protein can be bad for horses.

Also, too much 'energy food' (pellets or oats) may have a similar effect on the horse as alcohol on a human being, making them drunk-like and unpredictable/harder to handle.

Hello, got any grass?

(Please excuse any typing mistakes, its a bit tricky with those hoofs on the keyboard.)

My name is Gato, and I am a horse. I'm 26 years old, and I used to work as a Polo horse in Germany, when I was young. One day, one of my stupid riders hit me on the head with his bat and I had to quit. I didn't like that job anyway. Too much stress and noise scaring me. I never got over the fear of swinging objects around me.

After I quit I found myself a new home with a teenage girl, who didn't let me work very hard at all. Brilliant! I just had to take her out once a day for a walk in the bush, which was fun. Something different every day. Like freshly grown grass blades or newly dumped paper rubbish that I had to examine from a safe distance. She (my owner) never did understand how frightening and exciting these changes can be.

Anyway, she took me through a number of stables, all about the same, a small square inside and a big muddy paddock outside (that I had to share with others) during the day. Could have been worse, I guess.

Three years ago, my life took a sudden change, one morning she woke me up and put me into the float again. I don't mind the float. It's kind of fun driving along the roads, but I didn't quite expect to spend the next four days traveling. Admittedly we stopped for the nights in cool new places, but it was a loooong journey.

Apparently I now live in Spain. First I took the drastic change in temperature for Global Warming, before I was told that this country has a hotter climate. People here laugh about my name. Gato is spanish for cat. Very funny. But I really can't complain otherwise.

I've got a space of 300 m2 to myself and an open shelter, where I can walk in and out of whenever I want. But thats only where I spend the nights...During the day that same girl (she's a bit older now, and I still don't know her name, I just know she's the one that brings me food and stuff), takes me out to my paddocks. I've got five of them. Big ones, too.

In spring its all full of really juicy lush green grass. Being in Spain though, that only lasts till June or so. Then it all turns into hay (imagine that: hay that grows directly out of the ground). Not bad either. Towards autumn food gets a bit scarce on my paddocks, I am told I have to wait for the rain falls.