From Monty Roberts' The Man Who Listens to Horses
Horses had no answer to the [Genghis] Khan's cruelty, had no voice. But they did have a language. No one saw it, no one tried to see it, but that language has probably existed for 45 million years, virtually unchanged. We should put this into perspective: Humankind has been on this planet for only a few hundred thousand years, and already human language has fragmented into thousands of different tongues.
The absence of communication between human and horse has led to a disastrous history of cruelty and abuse. As a result, we did not gain the willing cooperation of the horse nearly as much as we might have done. Our loss has been considerable--the emotional connection with the horse has been diminished, but so has the performance and work we might have gained.
It is a balance I have tried to redress during a lifetime's work with horses. Happily, that work continues.
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