Monday, January 27, 2014

Equine Nutrition Course

I am starting a 5 weeks online course on Equine Nutrition (and so excited about it). It's time for me to go further on the subject as I want to understand and I want what is best for my horses. In Ayurveda, food plays an important role in promoting health and is therefore considered medicine. I read somewhere Let Your Food Be Your Medicine and I will even say Let Your Food Be Your Medicine And Not The Problem. Today people feeds grains, molasses, all kind of unnatural things for horses. Why? What are the other options for a complete and balance diet? I am not sure this course will bring me answers but at least it will make me think and research.


Course Summary
This course will cover many aspects of equine nutrition ranging from anatomy and physiology of the gastrointestinal tract to dietary management of horses/ponies affected with nutrition-related disorders. This course is designed to provide knowledge of equine digestion and nutrition for those with an interest in this area. The anatomy and physiology of the equine alimentary canal will be studied to provide students with a detailed understanding of the equine digestive system. Nutrient sources for horses will be discussed, with emphasis placed on the health and welfare issues surrounding the inclusion of various types of feedstuffs in equine diets. Students will also discuss recommendations on rations for horses and ponies performing various activities and will be able to make recommendations on rations for horses and ponies in health and disease.


Thursday, January 16, 2014

Parelli Horsenality and Ayurvedic constitution

Could Parelli actually have an ayurvedic approach to training? Well, I was surprised (and happy) to see that they use something very close to what we know in Ayurveda as the constitution or prakriti [See post to come on Ayurvedic constitution].

"In the Parelli program, we use four core horse personality (or Horsenality) types to categorize horses. Horsenality helps us understand our horses' innate characteristics and what motivates them so that we can create customized training plans for each horse!" Read more here.
And here is how the classification goes.
The four Horsenality types are:

  • Left-Brain Extrovert - dominant, likes to move his feet. If he could talk, he'd say, "You're not the boss of me! Play with me!"
  • Left-Brain Introvert - dominant, calm doesn't like to move his feet. If he could talk, he'd say, "I'm ignoring you... What's in it for me?"
  • Right-Brain Introvert - unconfident, doesn't like to move his feet. If he could talk, he'd say, "Don't rush me. Be gentle with me."
  • Right-Brain Extrovert - unconfident, fearful, likes to move his feet. If he could talk, he'd say, "The sky is falling... focus me!"




This is very inspiring for me and I can see how the Right Brain Extrovert is close to a Vata, a Left Brain Extrovert to a Pitta and then some combination with Kapha. [See post to come about the different constitution].
Yes, yes, definitively YES for a training that respect the personality, the nature of the horse!

In the Parelli forum some people were talking about how in the fall season the Right Brain Extrovert/Introvert (Vata dominant) was showing more of the extreme behavior. It all makes sense since it's the season when Vata is aggravated.
Isn't it amazing?