Here's something I learned from an early mentor, a 17-hand leopard appaloosa named Benny.
I was in the barn grooming him, getting ready to tack up for a ride.
He was good at ground-tying and would stand there for you until hell froze over or you asked him to move.
It so happened that one of the barn cats had very recently had a litter and one of the kittens was wobbling down the center aisle, on the prowl.
A little grey puffball.
Tiny tail sticking straight up like she was giving the world the finger.
Eyes watery, not having been opened for long.
She paused at the feet of this giant gelding I was brushing and peered up at him.
Benny gradually lowered his muzzle to investigate.
And as soon as he got his nose within range, that puny week-old kitten gave him a hiss and a swat of her mighty paw.
With a snort, Benny crow-hopped his 1100 pounds backwards and sideways about two feet, which happened to be where I was standing, and his hindquarters knocked me into the tack-room wall. He rolled his eyes, showing lot's more white than he should, pretty sure he was about to be the kitten's dinner.
The kitten sauntered off, maybe to pick on someone her own size.
Despite getting a huge bruise on my ass where I hit a doorknob, it was so ridiculous I had to laugh.
Bennie turned to me and stared balefully.
He was not amused.
It took a little while for what my equine mentor had so perfectly demonstrated to sink in, because I'm only a human being, and human beings are not as smart as horses. But it finally got through my thick skull.
Here's the thing:
If you conceive of yourself as prey, then any predator, no matter how fragile or puny, is a threat to you.
If you conceive of yourself as a predator, then no prey, no matter how big or powerful, frightens you.
What you ARE is important.
But what you BELIEVE you are is equally important.
So you have to be very careful what you believe about yourself.
sj
8 comments:
SJ....so true. I have had a few surprises from my horses over the years. You still have not told me about your own horse...
Lori
About my horse?
I think the Bard put it best:
When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.
~William Shakespeare, Henry V
:)
sj
SJ....do you ever give a straight answer? Like the quote from the Bard...but here's what I would like to know. Is the grey horse in the photo yours? Does he have a name? He is an Arab? You do Western games on him? Blah.blah.blah....
Lori
So, I BELIEVE I AM a goddess. And, not one of those silly Elizabeth Taylor goddess in the greek robes with their hair coiffed just so. More like a primitive goddess who eats meat, howls at the moon, and teaches kittens to stand toe to toe with horses. What do you think that means?
An interesting observation from the world of ethology (animal behavior):
People mostly keep predators as pets (dogs/wolves, cats, ferrets), and keep herbivores in the barn. Why?
Herbivores, because they are eating stuff that is not what they are made of (grass is mostly cellulose, a carbohydrate, whereas animals are mostly protein), have to spend a very large part of their time eating. The rest they spend sleeping and being paranoid about predators.
Predators, because they are eating stuff that is exactly what they are made of, spend most of their time sleeping (conserving energy), and the rest of the time hunting, playing, and maintaining social relationships (which involves a lot of copulation, when it's in season - ask any lion).
In general, predators have to be smarter than their prey, especially if their prey is bigger than they are (this is also why predators that hunt big prey are so social - ask any wolf).
Finally, as anyone who has mucked out a barn can tell you (and I've mucked out a lot), herbivores produce prodigious quantities of shit. Once again, that's because their digestive systems are going through a huge quantity of semi-indigestible stuff to get the proteins they need to build their own tissues.
Predators not only produce a lot less shit, they also tend to hide or bury it, so that their prey won't know they're around.
So,which are we: predators or prey?
As Spartacus would probably say, it all depends on your point of view...
- Ursus utopianis
First Guardian of Lyonesse
A question, Mr. MacNeill -
Is there any other species that is both predator AND prey?
Most predators are also prey at some level, because predators are certainly not entirely averse to killing and eating members of their own species. This is certainly the case for humans, along with African lions, spotted hyenas, etc. The only exception I can think of might be killer whales/orcas, as I have never heard or read a report of them killing and eating each other. This might be due to the fact that they are rarely observed at sea at all, and so cases of such intra-species predation would be unobserved even if it were relatively common.
Interesting. I would have thought there WOULD be a natural aversion to eating one's own kind (my human sensibilities?).
Thank you for your response, Mr. MacNeill.
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