"Tug" here and it's more than a matter of fashion!
Hello everyone! My name is Tug, well actually my fancy name is "Lone Pines Ebony & Ivory". My home is in Spencer, WI with Tony and Mary K Lewis.
I've been at school here at Shades of Oak getting my kindergarten and 1st grade education finished.
I have definitely come to some conclusions while here in regards to fashion, we horses just don't look good in helmets!
I have decided they look much better on humans but it seems it can be a hard thing to get folks to use. I even have to remind my teacher to wear hers as she started her horsemanship journey when helmets were not even a thought in the industry, so she forgets sometimes.
I can easily remind her though as in the photo above, I just roll it around in the dirt and push it at her, she gets what I mean pretty fast. I'm teaching her too!
Being a horse I have this great curiosity and one of my favorite things to do is ease drop on what humans have to say and I hear a lot, let me tell you!
My teacher has lost some friends and acquaintances in horse related accidents where a helmet would have made a difference, I've heard other folks here say the same thing.
Sometimes they don't wear them due to vanity, ego, and sometimes even their friends and family might realize there is some risk to their chosen sport of riding and don't want them to worry or get mad at them for their choice of sport so they leave the helmet off .
There are even folks who don't put helmets on their children!
My goodness we horses take care of our young, I was surprised by this.
Now from my point of view on this from a horse, we don't want to hurt people. We do the best we can to understand what you want but sometimes that's just not to clear, we cant read your minds, but wish we could.
We are just trying to understand the human made world we live in and that's not an easy task sometimes. Sometimes were not ready for the pressures you put on us, we get scared and confused just like you can. We get put in situations
when we have not gotten to know you well enough to trust what you ask, although we try and sometimes what you ask is not reasonable.
Sometimes the only way you will listen to our troubles and /or pain is when we react, be it from heavy hurtful use of your hands, abusive equipment, mis-use of spurs. Although I heard my teacher say "When one finally really knows how to use them properly, you don't need them any more". Sometime saddles hurt our backs, we get pinched nerves, misaligned body parts. There are times we don't feel good or even hurt and yes sometimes we are abused , so we get reactive trying to get people to listen to us. We don't want to get mean or be naughty but we are trying to show you at times by our physical reactions and even being defensive. Please listen, then often those accidents we don't mean to happen can be avoided.
We like Humans, or want to if you give us a chance. Sometime when everything is great and we have wonderful handlers and riders those outside elements can happen taking us all by surprise, such as a ground bee's nest, the honking car, helicopters landing in front of us , you never know in this world when or what can happen out of all of our control.
So from myself " The Great Tug" please wear your helmets, it might save your life and save some of my fellow horses that lose their lives due to humans blaming us for the things that go wrong that are out of our control, but in yours most of the time.
Fondly, Tug
