#pottoka pony

[horsesarecreatures]

Pottoka Foal, Basque Country

Photo by wilsonaxpe

[anon1987]

Flight animal fallacy - horses have a flight instinct. They are not flight animals, any more than a dog is a fight animal. Saying horses are 'flight animals' justifies using training to override their desires by painting them as irrational creatures incapable of making healthy decisions.

The reality is that horses in their natural habitats - the wild horses you mentioned - are not constantly anxious creatures that we see in domestic horses. They're brave, curious, and capable of reading a situation before reacting to it. Lucy Rees has a serious of videos available where she talks about what she observes watching the herd of Pottoka ponies she studies. I'd also recommend you read Equus Lost.

That video you posted is fundamentally the same thing as the first, just been trained in different ways. The horse is learning that instead of investigating the bottle, sniffing it, pawing it and hearing the sounds it makes, actively taking an interest in the world around them - instead they have to stand still and have the bottle applied to them. Clicker training is fundamentally still about control, you are still controlling the horse's behaviours. It's a better method of control than negative reinforcement, and control is sometimes necessary to give the horse veterinary care, but it doesn't change the fact that it is control.

Francesco di Giorgio has a method of 'desensitising' which is not about control, or training a horse to behave in a certain way to get reinforced (whether than reinforcement is positive or negative), but rather about giving the horse opportunities to investigate the world around them and gain a fuller, more enriched understanding of it. I believe it's called something like 'owning the tools'.

Oh yeah there's a part 2 of the horse desensitizing that I love.

🐎: Hey what's with that tiny predator, the one you're hold- WOAH WHAT THE FUCK WHY IS IT UP SO HIGH

[nachetevet]

“The red swing”. The #pottoka is a #pony , which inhabited almost unchanged, from the Paleolithic and to the present day, the mountainous territories of the Basque Country and Navarra. #fujifilmxpro2 #xpro2 #xf16mmf28 #XPhotographer #esfujifilmx #fujistas #fujiadictos #zonephotographer #fotonline_es #batpixs_nature #bestnatureshot #lensloves_nature #raw_allnature #fiftyshades_of_nature #horses #lovehorses #renegade_rural #natgeo #natgeotravelerlatam #natgeoyourshot #rinconesconencanto #navarradefoto #navarragrafias #igersnavarra #estaes_navarra #pasion_por_navarra #turismonavarra #estaes_navarra (en Elizondo Navarra España) https://www.instagram.com/p/CErTqnJiPmX/?igshid=jfgc4rul7cqy

[sandra1219]

Pottaca in a Foggy Meadow. Urkiola, Basque Country, Spain by Jabi Artraraz on Flickr.

The Pottok or Pottoka ( Basque- pottoka), is an endangered, semi-feral breed of pony native to the Pyrenees of the Basque Country in France and Spain. 

[nachetevet]

“Summer Love” The #pottoka is a #pony , which inhabited almost unchanged, from the Paleolithic and to the present day, the mountainous territories of the Basque Country and Navarra. This alpha female was attentive when we came or left the house requiring some caresses and some nice words... 😍😍 . . . . . #fujifilmxpro2 #xpro2 #voigtlander40mmf14 #XPhotographer #esfujifilmx #fujistas #fujiadictos #fujixpassion #zonephotographer #fotonline_es #batpixs_nature #bestnatureshot #lensloves_nature #raw_allnature #fiftyshades_of_nature #the_gallery_of_magic #horses #lovehorses #renegade_rural #natgeo #natgeotravelerlatam #natgeoyourshot #rinconesconencanto #navarradefoto #navarragrafias #igersnavarra #estaes_navarra #pasion_por_navarra (en Valle del Baztán) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEEc76LoBc2/?igshid=1jtkvek0isqgi