Chronos and Kairos. The two definitions of time. "Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time lapse, a moment of indeterminate time in which everything happens."
Time matters to humans. Equus sense of time...and other animals sense of time, is different. A friend reminded me the other day that quality of life for any animal is worth more than quantity of life. It resonated, once again, SO strongly.
You can try and keep a horse safe by feeding it, rugging it, stabling it, fencing it off from it's fellow equines, and really truly believe you are doing the right thing. Sometimes that horse might stay alive five years longer than a horse in a herd, not ridden to within an inch of it’s life, in a large paddock. Perhaps.
But would your horse choose that lifestyle?
Let's put it another way...would you prefer to be housebound, only able to talk to friends through doors or windows, have your food prepared and placed on a table for you, have help dressing and undressing, have your hair brushed, be told where and how you can exercise, have to wait to be given stimulation, every single day of your life? Some might say YES!! But if you'll recall, that's how life was for the very rich a couple of hundred years ago. What resulted? Boredom, inbreeding, boredom, lack of social skills, health problems including lack of exercise and becoming overweight, suppression of female (individual) rights, boredom...
Caring for your animals is a kind and lovely thought. But we must always question our human definitions of 'care' and 'support'. Know your horse. Understand their physical/mental/emotional requirements. Whatever decisions you make on behalf of your animals…whatever choices you make for your horse…remember…they have no similar sense of death, or indeed time. Except perhaps that time on their own, with no stimulation, in a stable or a boring flat empty paddock, can be interminable.
Your dog/cat/bird/donkey/horse wants QUALITY of time, not quantity. It wants to run, and play, and LIVE and be as free and comfortable as possible. On it’s own terms. Not yours.
Horses want quality. Humans want quantity.
Be kind, but realise what is ego and what is not. Care for your animals the way THEY want to be cared for, not the way you want to care for them. If, in the end, you have to make the hardest decision of all, remember…for them it is about the quality of time they have spent with you. (Not at shows, or performing. But with you.)
Quality. Not quantity.
photos (c) KAW
