Somewhere around 600,000 years ago the early ancestors of Equus Caballus appeared. There are plenty of disputes over the equine fossil record and what it means, but whatever else might be said one thing is absolutely certain, they've proved themselves as great survivors. Long after countless other species have fallen into extinction the horse is still with us, in large numbers and across a diverse range of environments - from the bitter cold of Mongolian winters to the searing heat of high summer in African desert.
During that long journey of development the horse has collected a range of behaviors that have supported its existence and underwritten its survival. Together, the environment in which horses live, and the genetics it has inherited, determine which behaviors are triggered, how and when, and an understanding of how the process works can go a long way towards creating good methods of management - and happy, healthy horses that co-operate with riders to perform their tasks safely and with that flair and grace that we find so spellbinding.
Human and Horse have been in some kind of relationship for thousands of years; first as hunter and prey, then as master and slave, and although some owners are still quite content with that master/slave type relationship an increasing number of horse-keepers have begun to look for another way, in which partnership and harmony replace slavery and compulsion. The search has produced some interesting consequences in the areas of use, management and training, and has created major challenges to traditional methods and attitudes.
Sometimes these challenges have been met, and honest attempts made to update old practices using newer techniques and research findings, but very often, and a little sadly I guess, those at the leading edge of the search, the pioneers of a new more ethical horsemanship, have been attacked and their work dismissed or deliberately misrepresented. Despite the reactionaries the movement has grown, and while there are still diehards that find the challenges just too hard to deal with, the wave of change has now become so large and strong that it's just a matter of time before it spreads into every part of the equestrian world.
Since the White Horse project began 17 years ago W.H.E.E.P. has been at the forefront of that wave, running natural family and bachelor groups of horses and attempting to fill in some of the many gaps in what's known about the social behavior, psychology and development of the horse, and, as a result, has been been able to throw some much needed light on a number of areas where there was a lot of misunderstanding and myth. That basic work continues - but the challenge doesn't stop there. Horses don't exist in isolation, along with us and all other species they have to inhabit an increasingly fragile world. It's not enough to try for a limited harmony that includes just us and our horses, the wider environment has to be looked after too. For all the talk about 'holistic' horsemanship there's often very little mention of the ecological impact of how horses are kept. To have any real and lasting value 'holism' must be based on sustainability. And it's there that next stage of the challenge lies, and where the focus of the project is directed for the coming years at the new farm.