RESILIENCE is your bounce-back-ability. It is the capacity to recover well from set-backs.

An engineer might think of a materials elasticity, biologist of an organism’s plasticity. It’s the ability to adapt to changes in the environment, the facility to spring back into shape ready to go again. The term has become popular in recent times.

There is increased recognition that our journey is not smooth; that life presents its share of adversity; and that a key skill determining our ability to survive, indeed thrive, is the ease and completeness with which we recover. Thinking of Covid-19, we recognise the enormous challenge to life and to livelihoods, to mental and physical health. Both the immediate losses and long-Covid-19 – the longer-term damage wrought.

Those blessed with a well-developed immune system and good general health, surrounded with good supports, and a hefty dose of luck might fare best? Some of the same features that apply to our most enduring equines.

Breeding

We recognise resilience in our horses, though may not label it so. We breed and select for many characteristics – speed, stamina, conformation, a competitor’s temperament to name but a few.

For endurance perhaps but also for durability – not a teak-hard toughness, incapable of the slightest sway in any storm but a strength combined with elasticity – to endure, adapt and come again.

We see individual horses in our stables that recover better from a respiratory virus outbreak, respond better to medications, warm out of lameness when their blood is up.

We see ponies return to the feeder despite aggression from larger equines in the group. We make use of resilience when switching horses (and humans) in the jobs we ask them to do – moving from racing to eventing or upping distance with age – champion-chasers aimed now at the King George; aiming to run a marathon anyone?

We’ve also all seen ‘fragile’ in our equines – the incredibly talented horse that doesn’t withstand the rigours of training, whose temperament is deemed ‘suspect’, who suffers minor but repeated setbacks that keep him off the racetrack, out of the public eye and the record books. A change in surroundings, in training regime and routine can sometimes help and when they do I think of Darwin.

In the Covid-era one hears the phrase – build back better! It has the merit of most sound-bites – it’s catchy and easy to remember. But better, I think, to look and build in a forward direction.

Change is the one constant and the most successful future-surviving species, according to Darwin, were not the strongest but the most adaptable.

Humans, as a species, have proven success; though there’s a bit more doubt currently about how well we’re managing our influence on the planet.

As for individuals, we can all name successful examples from amongst people and horses we know – ones that achieve, over a time-span not one-hit wonders.

What is it that best defines these – is it strength, is it courage, or ability? Or is it a combination of characteristics that might be termed ‘resilient’.

Fragile vs resilient

Doing some field work at the end of winter for the Irish Horse Welfare Trust (IHWT), I thought about whether what I was seeing was ‘fragile’ or ‘resilient’. An older person now with 30+ horses and ponies in multiple locations travelling around to them twice daily giving sections of hay from the back of a jeep.

Spending lots of money and much time in a daily grind; on a treadmill, no end in sight. Trying to keep stallions from mares, but not knowing how many foals might be born this year. Not believing in conventional de-worming, not getting older horses’ teeth done, not providing proper shelter for most.

Was this a kind of resilience in action, persevering despite adversity? I felt a grudging admiration for this person’s spirit, and the push-back I experienced against ‘interference’. But the situation was truly on a fine knife-edge – native ponies faring fine, blood horses falling away – what happens to these animals if the person falters and fails? Perhaps this was someone showing perseverance and personal resilience in a fragile and inherently unsustainable situation. If you’ll forgive a plea here – all charities, animal and human, have experienced great losses in their fund-raising recently and an even greater call on their services.

The IHWT are supporting these horses, arranging feed supplies and veterinary/dental care, encouraging more sustainable animal husbandry. Support your chosen equine charity please, in whatever way you can. They are trying to help horses and humans, making difficult decisions in difficult situations.

Trial and error

There is no progress without trial and error; none of us is immune to mistakes. What’s key is the ability to recover, to get up and try again. Sometimes people miss out – through injury, perhaps or by making the wrong choice of which to ride in a race - and have to witness someone profit from their loss.

Worse, there have been some well-documented examples recently of high profile persons making major mistakes – errors that have not alone impacted on their personal and professional lives but also on the whole of an industry. While one can (and I suggest should) feel empathy for individuals – which of us has not made a significant mistake in life – one has also to recognise the wider responsibility that those in prominent positions hold.

I truly hope that the individuals concerned are resilient, that they are surrounded with key supports and wise supporters. I hope that they bounce back and as one of them said ‘vindicate their faith in me.’