The purpose of this article is to define the word “natural” in the “horse world”. The word “natural” is often misused for commercial purposes, mainly because it is appealing to people. One has to keep in mind the fact, that only a man has the direct and conscious ability to alter nature. Any altering of the nature will have repercussions and consequences, mostly negative in relevance to the natural life. It is therefore very important that we recognize and define that, which is genuinely of the nature and that, which is not. Understanding this, especially around horses, will help us deal with the truth, the nature and mainly with the consequences of our actions in altering the natural process of life in horses and on this earth.
The true meaning of the word natural should describe all of nature that was not in anyway altered by a human being. When we are aware of the changes that we have inflicted on the natural life, we will be able to see and understand better, the consequences that it will have, whether on our horse, our selves or the environment. By lying to our selves and calling unnatural things natural, we are only deceiving our selves, the nature and the life within as well. The worst part of lying to our selves is that the consequences and repercussions of the alternations will go unnoticed, thus they will proliferate and in the end they could destroy that which was altered (though the nature for most part has a remedy for that).
A hundred years ago, most horsemen were aware of it and almost nothing around horses was named or sold as natural. A simple fact remains, that the horses we use are domesticated and specifically bred – “redesigned” (unnaturally altered and used); therefore we must know and understand the consequences that it has on the animals so we can provide and insure proper compensations and adjustments for them in the altered environment as well as in their uses. Ignoring this, will lead to unnecessary suffering of these animals, which is in today’s world widely spread and growing.
The most contradictory terminology we can find, is in the food department and not only in the human foods but in the horse feeds as well. Next time you buy anything to feed your horse and it will say “all natural”, it is in itself contradictory and always a lie.
There are many idiotic terms in the horse industry like; the natural angle, the natural trim, the natural shoe etc. and among them all the “Natural Horseman” (Natural Horsemanship) must be the most idiotic term I have ever heard. The people that use it or that brand their theories or their teaching like that, cannot teach anything of any value, because they are completely ignorant of the truth, that there is nothing natural about capturing, entrapping horses and putting them to work. There is nothing in nature that OWNS another life; only the man thinks that, because he is not all natural (true).
In this day and age, the human race is more corrupt than ever, because in the pursuit of our interests we have turned our face from the nature and the truth within.
