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April 2008 • VOLUME 32 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
How I choose horses. Part 1. Scientific and theoretical. I can surely say that even if we use the most serious approach to the choice of a horse, even if we possess an incredible amount of equine, veterinary, behavioral, biomechanical knowledge, the “main” horses in our lives are not “chosen”, they “happen”. This rule holds true even when a horse has to be chosen for professional work in the cinema, show ring, for television or photography businesses, with the obligatory teaching of the horse the basics - or the whole - Haute Ecole. I understood this long ago, learned this lesson, accepted the rule, and believed in my destiny when choosing horses for myself. And I have to say, my destiny has not been mistaken one single time. Amazing circumstances and strange feelings were always the foundation of a choice. They always appeared during the very first meeting with the “main” horses in mysterious ways. Please don’t take this literally and imagine that when I see a horse’s eyes or a tail in the middle of a herd, I suddenly shout: “Oooh!” - and the next minute I am catching the horse… One must realize that only one horse of special well-defined advantages and certain age and color raises interest in the process of professional selection. Clearly, at first, coldly and without feelings we estimate a horse’s conformation, the correctness of the body, head-position, shoulders, neck plane, how the legs are set on, joint volume and so on… All this is assessed within seconds of study. The breeding and the bloodline have no useful meaning. It is not good if there is a bad English blood, but many breeds have already been spoiled by it, so we can not run away from this fact. If there is an external characteristic correspondence to a School horse’s cannon, that is to say “ideal” or “like-ideal” body composition, external integrity of bones, ligaments, tendons… we can let ourselves begin “to feel”. I still cannot set my feelings free, as I know that the computer thermography is ahead of me – the best and the fastest kind of diagnostic methods. I cannot let myself just “have” a horse. I choose a horse for very difficult, professional work, and its health is the most important factor. The thermographic process grimly demonstrates all inner, hidden problems of the horse. Computer thermography is rather a fast process: a horse is inspected fully for 30 or 40 minutes, and if your feelings have already appeared, you are waiting for the thermographic verdict with great trepidation. Thermography shows hidden problems of a back, a neck and legs. If everything Lydia finds can be healed and repaired, I can begin to feel with all my heart.
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