A while ago, I wrote about the incredible equine veterinarian dentist, Geoff Tucker, who doesn’t drug his patients, or use a speculum or hang their heads from the barn rafters.
He treats his patients with respect, honesty and his bare hands.
Wow!
Here is my previous blog about Dr. Geoff Tucker. There are many awe inspiring videos of him treating brand new to his practice patients, without sedation and without speculum. The horses seem very relaxed. Amazing.
But that isn’t why I’m writing about him today…
Click to go to Dr. Geoff Tucker’s website. The videos are incredible!
THE TEN IRREFUTABLE LAWS OF HORSEMANSHIP….
OK, I figured anyone who continually floats horses’ teeth without sedation or a speculum… he must know a thing or two about the nature of horses.
So when I was looking through his site for my last post, I found this little book that he penned, “The Ten Irrefutable Laws of Horsemanship”.
I bought it. Read it… and then got busy and forgot to write about it!
Well, today is the day.
I reread the book last night and thought that I needed to share these simple but absolute rules. Very important.
Here’s a guy that is confident enough to put his unprotected hands in horses’ mouths every day – and yet he has a tremendous respect for the horse and the horses’ power.
Here is a link to the e-book. It is free.
Click to go to the free e-book.
Contents:
Introduction
Law 1
A Horse Can Hurt You and Even Kill You
Law 2
The Horse That Can Kill You Is Your Own
Law 3
When Doing Anything With A Horse, Always Use A Halter And Lead Rope. Stay Connected
Law 4
Always Place Yourself Between The Horse And The Exit
Law 5
Become The Leader
Law 6
To Be A Leader Of A Horse You Need To Know The Personalities Of Horses
Law 7
Seek First To Understand
Law 8
Then To Be Understood
Law 9
The Law Of Energy
Law 10
A Horse Is A Horse
Conclusion
Bibliography
www.theequinepractice.com © Geoff Tucker, DVM
MY FAVORITE CHAPTER #6
The book is small and easy to read in one sitting. I keep it in my nightstand and whenever I am training a horse, I read it again.
Here is my favorite passage:
LAW #6 – TO BE A LEADER YOU NEED TO KNOW PERSONALITIES
” Almost 2000 years ago, philosophers thought that our personalities came from
our body fluids. They named them Sanguine, Melancholy, Choleric and Phlegmatic. I
will briefly describe them here but you can read more from hundreds of books written
about this. My favorite is Personality Plus by Florence Littauer (see bibliography)
” Before I describe the personality types, you need to know 2 things about them.
First – we are blends of these with one or two being dominate. Ideally we should be an
equal blend. Second – since becoming a vet in 1984 I have worked with over 44,000
horses and I have seen these basic personality types in horses.
” Sanguine – the life of the party, loves attention, loves the spotlight, fun to be
around, makes friends easily, energetic, emotional, loves people, charming.
” Choleric – demanding, dominate, strong willed, independent, confident, goal
oriented, good under pressure, loves the competition.
” Melancholy – organized, orderly, thinkers, analytical, artistic, perfectionist, needs
to complete things, avoids attention, faithful, compassionate.
” Phlegmatic – Low keyed, easy going, doesn’t get flustered, takes his time,
peaceful, everyone likes him, balanced but hides emotions.
” Have I described your horse? In my business I need to know what the dominate
personality of the horse is as soon as I enter the stall; 9 times out of 10 it’s easy.
” Become good at this because your ability to communicate with your horse is
proportional to your understanding of his personality.
” For instance you would never say to a dominate choleric horse, “Excuse me, but
would you like to walk with me out to the paddock?” His answer will always be
determined by him and not you; “yes” if he wants to go, “no” if he doesn’t want to, or
“maybe” if he thinks there might be something in it for him but he needs to be sure first.
” You best be on your game when you walk an excited sanguine horse out to the
paddock because there will be a lot of dancing.
” Have fun learning these and play a game with your friends and family.
Determine their personality then determine their horse’s personality. Become good at
this improving to the point of being confident in the shortest amount of time. Don’t be
frustrated if you don’t get it right away especially when people cover up their true
personalities or hide behind them because of life experiences. Luckily, the horse
usually wears his personality on his sleeve. That’s why we like them so much.
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I’m so sorry. I hope you made a complaint.
Oh how I wish that dental vet was in my territory. Maybe I would still have my lovely elderly mini mare. She had some “old horse” dental needs and minis don’t have the best dentition in the first place. But. Ropes and the rafters do not even begin to describe what the local vet here did to her. You know that horses do not usually scream, right? Because in the wild that would attract predators. My little girl screamed in pain. Twice. Because she could not keep standing as she was in such terrible pain from her upended neck she literally hung from the ropes with her front feet off the floor. I told the vet STOP we are STOPPING THIS NOW and the vet was not only super nasty to me he billed me $1300 for what he did to her. The worst thing though was that she was so traumatized that she quit eating for nearly a day and when minis go over about 18-24 hours without food or water they either colic or go into liver shut down and liver shut down is what happened and it happened very fast while waiting for another vet to get to her. We lost her the day after that horrible vet did his version of miniature horse dentistry.