"fine"

The word so often used to shut down conversations and shut us up when advocating for better welfare.

I remember in the past trying to speak to yard owners about the mouldy hay they wanted me to feed my horses, “its fine” or expressing concern about chemicals being sprayed onto fields “they’re fine”. The patronising undertone and the rolled eyes to try to make you feel stupid and hysterical for caring about completely logical health concerns.

I remember going out to see a horse with issues under saddle, when I pointed out his extreme lip flapping upon seeing his tack and that this was a sign of stress the response was “he’s fine” and “he’s always done that its just a quirk he has, he’s definitely not stressed”.

You see the really defensive push back more now people are becoming more educated around behavioural signs of pain and stress in horses. People are asking questions about the so-called exuberant/joyful/quirky behaviour and what it might really be symptom of. They are met with “the horse is fine” often with ”I think they know horses better than you given they compete at xyz level/they would never hurt a horse they are so kind/the horse wouldn’t do it if he didn’t want to you can see he loves it/keyboard warriors/turmeric brigade etc”. None of these responses provide any evidence that the behaviour isn’t coming from stress/pain beyond “because we said so”.

It can be frustrating when conversations about behaviour and welfare are shut down in this way, because that is what these statements are doing. “He’s fine” is not a conversation, its a full stop.

I wouldn’t want to project onto anyone else their reasonings, but I know when I used to bleat this stuff back to people defensively it came from a place of discomfort. What they were saying was either inconvenient to me or it was making me feel uncomfortable because if I acknowledged what they were saying I would have to stop what I was doing and I didn’t want to.

“It’s fine” because if I acknowledge its not I need to buy a whole new bale of hay.

“He’s fine” because if I acknowledge he’s not I’ll have to confront the fact that he is not enjoying being ridden and that makes me uncomfortable.

“He’s fine” because the narrative that this behaviour comes from a place of exuberance makes me feel comfortable and means I can justify continuing to train horses this way, which is the only way I know how and my entire career as I know it depends on it.

Often when we hear “my horse is fine”, what we’re really hearing is “my horse is fine because I said so, I have no evidence to back this up beyond my feelings and you’re making me uncomfortable and defensive.”

Everyone is entitled to think whatever they want, but when the welfare of an animal is being discussed and their opinions are spreading misinformation that could harm them I obviously have a problem with this.

So few horses I see day-to-day are “fine”, we are so used to seeing horses living in chronic high-stress states that it can be really hard to see the wood for the trees. If we see a behaviour in one horse and acknowledge they are not okay, then we also have to acknowledge that same behaviour we see in many other horses on the yard and perhaps re-assess how we’re doing things, and that is difficult for people. But change is happening and I admire anyone who continues to advocate and speak up for the horses. 🐴