Real ethology with Lucy Rees, part 1: Meet the Pottokas

[@JyttesTrailCamera]

I'm late to the party here, but wanted to say thank you Lucy, for your work, your books, and most of all: you speaking on behalf of the horses! Your remark about 'unhinged horses living in lunatic asylums' is sadly spot on. It isn't really hard to give horses the life they deserve, even on pretty small properties, so why is it so difficult for people to change their ways?

[@monicagoold.equinetherapis6259]

LOVE LOVE LOVE, THANK YOU LUCY, FROM MY HEART, SOUL AND BEING.

[@JustASleepySloth]

Man this is so interesting! subscribed and going to be watching on for sure

[@Sofiarivassculptor]

Las personas que han estado cerca de mi, me decían que locuras por pensar de esa manera, is my desired that this way of thinking about horses become the standards

[@vibekekirk]

Does anyone know what breed of horses?

[@eponatv]

Hi Vibeke. They are Basque Pottoka.

[@vibekekirk]

@@eponatv Thank you ❤ they are beautiful

[@rockinghorsefrm]

Hard to believe this has to be a scientific study! Also hard to believe no one has made the connection to our own domestication and the horrific damage done to the human species. ......... that we must do it to the animals in our care. We TAKE care away from the horses and impose our own "standard" of care and it is wrong!

[@dangerousideas]

I just started to watch this mini-series, so please take that into account. I don't know why should we assume horses living far from humans would be in their "natural" environment. We've been domesticating horses for thousands of years, Both humans and horses been living here together for so long time, we could call our shared environment just as "natural". I am no horse professional, but I find it easy to argue, that humans and horses in some ways are meant for each other.

[@eponatv]

It just means the environment they evolved to live in. Horses have been domesticated for a tiny blip of time in planetary terms. Whether domestic or feral they have the same basic needs. Needs which are rarely met in domesticity.

[@dangerousideas]

@@eponatv I am not so sure about that blip, humans and horses go back pretty far into the past. I guess it would help to point out and show exactly what needs of those horses are, and where they are not met. I think the grazing shown in the videos is a good point, but I think it is just one point, and many horsekeepers allow their horses to graze most of the day on more or less open fields. I am sorry if I make dumb points, I am not educated in these matters at all, I just ask the questions with the knowledge I got. I am happy to be educated :)

[@eponatv]

@@dangerousideas No need to apologize. We know from studies into various species that their behavioural needs don’t disappear even when we breed them very far from the appearance of their wild ancestors. Even the shiniest Olympic show jumper has an innate need to be part of a social group (usually unmet because these horses are kept in solitary boxes and often travel and change hands), to roam free (almost never possible), to browse and graze (you are right that a lot of horse owners allow this but it’s far from all and it matters to the horses with whom they have the opportunity to graze as well) Some domestic horses live lives with humans that combine the safety and comfort of domesticity with the possibility to perform natural behaviours, including integration into a long term bonded social group (we’re talking decades here) - but that is still the exception. Add to this the pain and stress of a lot of equitation practices and life for a domestic horse is very far from natural or ideal (those are obviously not always the same) To me, 6,000 years is a blip on the 50 million year long time line of the horse’s evolution.