What Horses Want

Do horses want to go to work for a living? Probably no more than we do. However, we know the difference between having a job we love and a job we hate. We also know which one makes us want to get up in the morning and start our day, and which one we dread.

Our horses are completely dependent on us for their care and well-being. I think it's fair to ask them to work for us, but I also believe that what we ask them to do should enrich their lives, not take away from them.

When we ride our horses using rough hands, harsh words, and brutal legs or spurs, we are doing ourselves and our horses a huge injustice and disservice. If you are a "cowboy" type rider, you will never experience your horse's true potential...because he's responding to you out of intimidation, fear, and pain, not understanding, participation, and partnership.
Now I'm not saying that you aren't getting the results you want. What I am saying is that you aren't getting the results that are possible, and your horse is silently (or maybe not so silently depending on how cowed or tolerant he is) suffering through his own experience.

Strive to work with your horse in a way that respects his body and his mind.
He will thank you for it and be better for it...and so will you.

The Key to Horse Training Success

Whether you're developing a partnership with your horse, trying to improve his trust, build his respect, or enhance his performance one thing is more important than any other when it comes to achieving success:

CONSISTENCY

Every moment of every day you need to work on keeping your horse in a respectful and relaxed state of mind. With horses things change minute by minute, and you need to stay on your toes so that your horse never has the opportunity to think that his relationship with you has changed. In other words, if he's acting disrespectfully or fearfully, you need to resolve the issue right away in order to preserve a safe and successful partnership.

Just this weekend I was getting ready to turn a horse out of his stall. I opened his stall door and he took a very deliberate step into my space while he carried his head "above" me in a dominant and dismissive way. Normally this is a very respectful animal, but he was excited about getting to go out and he forgot that I am the herd leader. It wasn't a huge deal. I wasn't in any danger and he wasn't being aggressive, however I know from experience that if I didn't reinforce my position as leader that I would have problems with him for the rest of the day and probably in the future as well. Since he didn't have a halter on him yet, I chose to "bite" him in the muzzle with my fingertips. Then I "bit" him in the chest and used a firm tone of voice to back him up a couple of steps to move him out of my space. He took it with a sense of calm understanding and acceptance, and he was an angel thereafter.

I am very uncompromising when it comes to equine behavior in regard to maintaining a cooperative relationship that is founded on trust and respect. That's how horses interact with each other. If they didn't the balance of power would be constantly changing in the herd. That kind of inconsistency would be unproductive, a waste of energy, and it would put the herd at risk.

Besides, I don't want my horse to be in charge. The risk is too great to me, and I'd rather do more with my horse than watch him graze all day!

What Your Horse Needs to be Good

Your horse isn't much different than you. He wants to be relaxed, comfortable, and be able to cope with the world around him.

Relaxation is important to a horse because it's the opposite of stressed. Stress triggers the fight-flight response, not to mention that it's just plain stressful!!

If you don't comfort, you have discomfort. No one, horse nor human, wants discomfort. So, to make sure your horse has what he needs to be comfortable chose properly fitting tack, a good therapeutic saddle pad, and ride your horse in a way that's appropriate for his level of condition and conformation. Also make sure that his feet are properly balanced. Try wearing crooked ill-fitting shoes while you stand on your feet all day for weeks on end. It's not fun! Oh, and don't forget your horse's teeth. An experienced equine dentist can take care of the points and hooks that can tear up your horse's teeth, the inside of his cheeks, and make it impossible for him to move his jaw properly when he carries the bit.

Last but not least, help your horse negotiate his world. Don't expect him to understand what you're asking of him or to brave all the time. Everyone needs a compassionate helping hand every once in a while. When you're handling your horse, he relies on your leadership and guidance to feel confident and capable of handling anything that comes his way.

What Stress Does to Your Horse

Stress is a normal part of life for all living creatures. On the physical side stress stimulates our bodies to grow denser bone and stronger muscles. Mental stress teaches our brain how to cope with challenges. These are both positive outcomes of feeling stressed, yet if the stress is more than the body or the mind can handle the consequences are different. The physical body begins to breakdown and psychological strain puts the brain into a continuous state of anxiety.

Horses handle physical stress in the same way as we do. The strain muscles, tendons, and ligaments. This can happen over a brief period of time when a horse is used harder than his level of condition can handle. This might mean a day or two off work to recover, but if they use their body incorrectly over a period of time, they can become chronically sore and will be more prone to serious injury.

Emotional stress takes its toll on a horse as well. A horse's mind is programmed to perceive stress as a threat on his life. It's this "flight or flight" response that makes horses unpredictable and potentially dangerous to themselves and others when they become frightened. Low levels of stress, such as being handled poorly, all levels of abuse, being continuously confused, or any chronic mental or physical discomfort takes its toll on the horse's mind.

I have observed and ridden horses that were anxious and worried and calm, confident, and relaxed. The difference is profound. An anxious horse is unable to perform well and can be downright dangerous if he's "triggered" and releases all that pent up energy. It can be explosive. On the contrary, a horse that is comfortable and confident can focus and perform to his full potential. He is much safer to be around and on, and he can handle the unexpected with far greater ease. Not only that, he can be a true collaborative partner in the training process and want to participate in the training process with you.

That's why I developed my "Performance Through Partnership" training methods. I want horses to benefit from their lives with people, both physically and emotionally. I think that the alternative, horses being used at their expense for our own personal gain, stinks. It is unnecessary and benefits no one.

If you want to be a true partner to your horse, leave your ego at the door and always strive to do what's right by him. That's what being a genuine horseman or horsewoman is all about.

Where does the time go?

It's been awhile since I've written a new blog, but I didn't realize how long it's been! So much has been going on at my new training/instruction/clinic location, Free Spirit Farm, that there hasn't been much room for anything else. I had my first clinic there this past weekend. It was a huge success! Everyone, horse and human alike, learned a lot and gained a deeper understanding of one another, relaxation, confidence, and much improved partnerships! If you weren't able to attend but still want to enjoy the benefit of my "Leadership and Connection" clinics, I'll soon have the dvd of the entire weekend available on my website. You'll get the whole thing from beginning to end of both days so that you can see and apply the principles yourself and strengthen the relationship with your equine friends at home.

Other than that, I've been working with quite a few horses. They are all challenging and rewarding in their own ways. Here's something that's recently struck me as I've been working with a really wide range of horses of different ages, backgrounds, breeds, and experience...

It's really easy to mess up a horse's mind and his body.

All you have to do is scare them a few times or make them feel insecure in some way, and you've got a real problem on your hands. Now, some of you may not think the problem is that big of a deal. So Princess doesn't like to have the halter put on, or she won't let you groom her. You've got a few tricks up your sleeve. You feed Princess her grain and then slip the leadrope around her neck when she isn't looking. Sure, she pulls back and has a little fit, but then you can slip the halter on, no problem! Grooming's a cinch because you put her in the crossties. She fidgets for a few minutes, but eventually she gives up and quiets down.

We as humans can manage and cope with just about anything. Horses don't have it so easy. Every time "Princess" has a problem, it is ignored and she has to live with these feelings of anxiety. The lesson she learns is to tolerate her experience when she's with you. Unless you help her resolve her fear/anxiety, she will never improve and will most likely get worse.

I think it's our responsibility to help our horses negotiate their environments with confidence and grace. There is no reason for them to have to become resigned to the way they are being handled or treated. That causes detachment, disconnection, and stress. A horse that is stressed is not as safe to be around as one that is calm, confident, and self-assured. He's also not as enjoyable to be around, and he'll be less capable of performing well the tasks that are asked of him.

So, don't feed into your horse's insecurities by "managing" them. Retrain your horse to understand what's being asked of him. Ask him to respond to you in a way that respects his equine point of view. Help him return to a calm confident state-of-mind when he's feeling anxious, and your horse will always be a joy to be around and a true partner.

Growing Horses - When is it Time to Back Off?

So, this filly I bought, Spring, just had a growth spurt. She was grossly underweight when the people I bought her from rescued her. She was still very scrawny when I brought her home, too. With the good food she's getting, her body is kicking into gear and off she sprouted.
With a sudden increase in height, and when it looks like the "grew and inch overnight" that is pretty much what happens, tendons and muscles are suddenly stretched more tightly than usual. This is normal, but can create soreness in the horse. Likewise, they are suddenly dealing with a higher forehand or hind end, and that can be quit awkward.

Spring, and any horse going through this period of growth, needs a few days for her soft tissues to adjust to the increase in bone length. If you work a horse through this, you will likely encounter resistance (because they may hurt of feel uncoordinated), lack of balance, and poor quality gaits. Each horse is different, but with room to move around and a few days of either really light work or time off a youngster will recover nicely and be ready to continue in his or her taller frame.

I will caution you to remember that these 2 year olds are YOUNG! They are going through dramatic physical changes. Respect that by giving them breaks in their training (which should be appropriate for a young horse anyway) when they need it, and you'll have fewer problems and less downtime in the long run.

Young Minds

About 3 weeks ago, I bought a horse. She's a 2 year old Quarter Horse filly. I named her Spring. Her background is sketchy. I purchased her from the people who own her sire. She bought her off someone who'd bred their mare to the sire and then didn't do much with the result, namely Spring. When I first brought Spring home, she knew nothing. She hadn't been handled much at all, and there are suspicions of abuse. Before I could close her stall door that night, she busted out. Fortunately I was able to get a rope around her neck and return her to the safety of the stall. She kicked quickly and violently when a friend stroked her hind end as she passed by the door a couple of days later. Did I mention that she'd pin her ears when someone approached the stall?

I had to intimidate her to the back of the stall to prevent her from charging the door and subsequently running me over when I wanted to get her out. While she wasn't overly spooky, she was bent on not seeing me as a leader, nor did she think that I had any value at all for that matter, when I led her the first few times. Catching her was a challenge, so she spent much of her time outside of her stall in a small pen. I never put it passed her to kick out if she thought she had a decent reason. She was in need of a trim, so my farrier and I had to wrestle this clueless youngster in order to take a few swipes at her feet with a rasp.

For all intents and purposes, this filly appeared to be belligerent, aggressive, hyper, and unpredictable. She wasn't. She was lost, afraid, defensive, and uneducated. Given a leader to follow, which did take some convincing, consistent, calm and predictable handling, this filly has made a dramatic turn-around in her behavior and connection with me.

It would have been easy to call her "crazy" throw a chain across her nose, yank her across the yard, and tell her to "knock it off." Instead I have worked to build her confidence, help her relax when she feels stressed, taken into account her age and her uncertainty, and kept things simple and low-key. Now, three weeks after she arrived, she waits patiently away from the door while she's haltered in her stall. She leads on a loose line, usually happy to follow from a few feet back. She stops when I turn to face her, or forgets and calmly accepts a reminder. She's letting me touch her all over. She's easy to catch, well, relatively. She likes to walk away at least once and then comes over to me when invited. I suppose she wants to play a little hard to get still. She has a way to go on the connection front, but it has only been 3 weeks.

Horses have their own personalities, baggage, and motivations. In spite of that, we have a huge amount of power when it comes to shaping how their interact with their world. Did I bring home a bad horse? Nope. I brought home a good horse with problems. There are a lot more of those around than you'd think. Horses that are downright bad are few and far between. They are usually just misunderstood and mishandled.

Horses are simple creatures. They want to feel safe. They want to be comfortable. They want calm and competent leadership. They want to feel secure and relaxed. Give them that, and they can't help but to be good.