A wild horse being broken in by an experienced villager. An alternative picture, here on Picasa, had just a bit too much blur to be used, but showed the danger more clearly.
Day Three Hundred and Fourteen - Horse Breaking
A wild horse being broken in by an experienced villager. An alternative picture, here on Picasa, had just a bit too much blur to be used, but showed the danger more clearly.
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Slightly worrying this one. but it captures the struggle really well. The horse does not look pleased. The dog looks unsure also.
ReplyDeleteUncle Lionel definitley makes it look easy
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteStill living in the 1800s huh? That's just wrong, and sad. For torturing people, a man could go into jail for a lifetime, but torturing wild horses is completely fine with everyone? "Horse breaking" can be done differently. It's called COOPERATION and it usually involves earning TRUST.
ReplyDeleteHi e,
ReplyDeleteIt's true. I was really shocked by how harsh the horse breaking was. But I don't photograph holiday brochures - I photograph real life in a real village in the middle of the Amazon. Life here IS still in the 1800s in some ways. Life is hard. People struggle to survive and the priorities of life are just different. But things are changing. Civilisation is coming with its machines, jeeps and tractors and intensive farming and 9-5 and super-highways. Generators will provide 24hr electricity and people will build houses with tiled roofs and solid walls and glass windowns. They will instal AC and flatscreen TVs and horses will be pets kept in stables with plenty of fresh hay.
Meanwhile - if it's any comfort, the horse threw the rider and stamped on him half way through the process!
I think E needs 2 weeks in the Rupununi and a reality check...the word is survival..then add your judgements and then try to enlighten them. You are very welcome to come and clearly invited to experience the real world.
ReplyDeletegreat shot!!
Hm... If survival is really a key factor, then I would have though that having a willing equine partner after a few hours of communication would be preferable to a traumatised victim after a few weeks of 'breaking'.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that horses can be quite violent (namely, trampling you, as Broscombe's account shows ) when they're in pain and convinced that you're the enemy is probably something else to be taken into consideration.
Just a thought.
Really good quality photography, by the way.
Yes, good photo. You captured the evidence to convince me that this horse is a stallion, so perhaps that is why the breaker is hanging off its mouth so violently, but just because the horse is a stallion doesn't mean his mouth hurts any less than would a mare's or geldings mouth from severe pressure from the bit. If this breaker doesn't have access to modern saddle starting techniques/resources that show there is a less dangerous and less contested way to start a horse under saddle, it is very sad. It would be nice to think that, if informed, this man would make the less violent choice also, to gentle a horse into cooperation - not to break its spirit and its body. But then again, perhaps this man might be like those who enjoy seeing animals tortured. We can't know that from the photo, but his smile seems to reveal that he is happy with the current situation. I'm certainly not. Another detail stands out in your photo. I haven't seen a person ride using stirrups the way this man is using them - not so much without shoes, but with the stirrup iron shoved between his toes for safety, I guess. Yes, thought-provoking photo. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThis is disgusting. This man is experienced, all right--experienced in causing a horse pain. This horse is clearly being "broken" in every sense of the word. I have trained horses, and I don't have to be so abusive to an animal as this. They certainly don't have bleeding mouths. Your photograph is beautiful, but there is no reason why training a horse should be "dangerous."
ReplyDelete