I was musing the other day on the Connecticut judge who found that horses are "a species naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious."  (See Horses are vicious beasts in Connecticut.)  I was musing on it because my horse was standing quietly while being petted by two very young children in a park.  She didn’t know the children, and they didn’t know horses.  One was patting her hock, and the other was being held up by his father to pat her nose.  I was allowing the children to pet my horse, in their total ignorance of any danger, because my horse knows children and I have total trust in her forbearance.

Animals, like people, have different personalities.  Some people are vicious, and a few animals are, too.  To say that an entire species of animal is vicious, though, is really a mind-boggling assertion when you think about it.  For example, I wouldn’t even say that TIGERS are “a species naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious.”  Tigers are powerful predators, and it is therefore inherently DANGEROUS to be around them, but it is also possible, and not uncommon, for a person to have a friendly relationship with a tiger.  In other words, most tigers are not vicious, so it seems inaccurate to say that tigers are “a species naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious.”

Like tigers, horses are inherently dangerous, but for different reasons.  Horses are mostly dangerous because they are large and flighty and can easily injure people by accident.  However, that type of danger does not make them vicious.  They do bite and kick, so they can also injure people on purpose, but most people who get bitten by horses are bitten by accident while improperly feeding a horse.  People are much less likely to be attacked by a horse than by another person, so to say that HORSES are “a species naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious” is so wrong as to be outlandish.

The judge clearly didn’t know horses and made his finding in ignorance, but in my opinion, ignorance is no excuse in this case.  A judicial precedent is serious business, and this judge’s finding could have ended every horse business in Connecticut due to suddenly unaffordable insurance rates.  Also, in my opinion, there is no such thing as “a SPECIES naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious” (emphasis added), and the judge should have recognized that fact.  I suspect that the wording he used comes from some poorly written law, but if so, he should have noted that, although a species (like tigers) may be inherently dangerous, no SPECIES is “naturally inclined to do mischief or be vicious” and therefore such decisions must be based on an INDIVIDUAL’S behavior.

At any rate, while watching my horse quietly endure the oblivious caresses of two very young children, I found myself pondering on the extent to which she was demonstrating the natural viciousness of her species.  Perhaps, like Monte Python’s rabbit, there is a species of vicious horses living in caves somewhere.  The horses I know, however, are of a truly gentle species.  I’m lucky to KNOW them.