Alpha is a Misnomer

Alpha is a Misnomer: On horses, wolves, the Cold War, and our need to know who is in charge

Who is actually in charge in a herd of horses?

For a very long time, we thought we knew.

We built entire systems of horsemanship around dominance, hierarchy, and the idea that a good human needed to establish themselves as the leader. Somewhere along the way, the language of Natural Horsemanship became tangled up with Alpha wolves, Cold War thinking, and our very human desire to arrange the world into neat little pyramids with somebody firmly planted at the top.

There was just one problem.

The wolves weren't actually behaving the way we thought they were.

And, if we pay close enough attention, neither are the horses.

In this episode, I follow the Alpha from David Mech's early wolf research through the Cold War and into the rise of Natural Horsemanship — and then back out into my own pastures, where Bentley, Max, Pepper, and one world-class dork named Julian have been quietly dismantling some of the things I thought I knew.

Because horses certainly have dominance relationships. They move each other. They compete for resources. They have friendships, alliances, preferences and grudges.

But dominance isn't necessarily leadership.

Sometimes the horse moving everyone away from the hay isn't the horse anyone follows when something strange appears along the fence line. Sometimes the big, bossy gelding is actually the anxious wingman. And sometimes the horse you are absolutely certain is terrorizing a mare is, in fact, desperately trying to hide behind another horse because she will not leave him alone.

Twenty-six years into making horses my profession, I'm becoming considerably less interested in deciding who is in charge.

I want to know who knows something.

And Julian, world-class dork that he is, is still trying to teach me how to pay attention.

In this episode

David Mech and the history of the Alpha wolf • what captive wolves taught us — and didn't • the Cold War and our cultural obsession with dominance • the rise of Natural Horsemanship • Pat Parelli and the commercialization of leadership • dominance versus leadership in horse herds • what Bentley taught me about Max • the unfortunate prosecution of an innocent Julian • confirmation bias in the pasture • and why changing our minds may be one of the most important things we can learn to do.

Written and read by Kim Carter

Stable Roots on Substack: Seeing the understory in our everyday lives.