August '10 - Soap Box

It’s the last day of winter today. I can’t wait until warmer weather and sunny days. However, the forecast for the first few days of spring is for rain and more rain.

The Not Very Mellow Cremello

I new horse came in for starting last Friday. It’s a 4 year old Australian Stockhorse cross gelding. The owner has had him since he was a yearling. It seems the owner feels he is a very quiet, easygoing fellow, but this is far from the reality. Bear is an extreme case of a shut down horse. I have only had 3 sessions with him and today was the first day I got him to express his true feelings. To start with he would not acknowledge a person was in the round yard with him. I have never had a horse that tried so hard to ignore me. He tried walking through me, around me, over me and under me over and over again. Some people might think he was a slow witted, but I believe he is so shut down that he can’t try anything other than what he has known for four years.

Each day I have been able to get him to be incrementally better, but today I got a deep change in him. But unfortunately it took putting the fear of God in him to motivate a change. I had to do something so tremendously huge in order to make him come out of his withdrawn state. The result was a nuclear explosion. He bucked, twisted, roared, kicked, reared, galloped and hit the fence of the round yard several times before it was over. He finished a quivering, sweaty mess. But once it was over, it really was over. Bear suddenly became focused and responsive. It was a new horse and one that was finally giving me something to work with.

We often see horses that have become shut down due to their handling. And often the process of waking them up can be quite traumatic for a horse. But I don’t know anyway around it and still have a horse in a good spot when you finish.

It will be interesting to see how bear is tomorrow. I am predicting there will be a much bigger try in him.

Starting A Horse

Hello Ross,

I’ve been a long time reader of your site, but this is my first letter. I check your soap box every day and am always excited when there is something new to read. You may be surprised to know that you have several fans here in Ireland and many of us have a copy of your book too.

The reason for writing is to ask about starting a horse under saddle. I have been riding for 12 years, but Kafka is the first horse I will have started.

I have been wondering if a horse bucks a lot when he is saddled for the first time, does that mean he will buck when he has a rider for the first time? I am not a rodeo rider so I would like to avoid getting bucked off when I begin riding him.

I know I will have lots of other questions to ask you as I begin working with Kafka, but I don’t want to bug you too much just now.

Best regards

Rose


Thanks for the kind words Rose and it’s exciting to know that I have friends in Ireland.

In my experience there is not a high correlation between how a horse responds to being saddled for the first time and how he responds to a rider for the first time.

If a horse bucks a lot when he first experiences the saddle, don’t let that put ideas in your head that he will do the same when you get on board. Hopefully, by the time you step into the saddle you’ll have got your horse emotionally in a pretty good spot. You want your horse to feel that having somebody on his back is just the obvious next step – you don’t want it to be an “oh my God” moment.

On my old web site I had an article on preparing a horse for his first saddling, but it got deleted when I built the new web site due to the burden of importing all those photos. However, if you check out the Horse Talk section on this site there is one article on “Safety Checks Before Riding” and another on “Horse Breaking: FAQ”. Both articles might contain some helpful hints. I think you’ll find the Safety Checks article particularly handy when it comes time for your first ride on Kafka.

Take your time getting everything right before riding and don’t get on the horse until you are confident that you have prepared your horse well.

The best piece of advice I can offer to anyone thinking about breaking in a horse for the first time or two is to find the best trainer you can and make him/her your mentor. Suck them dry of all their knowledge. The first few dozen horses you start you will be learning the mechanics of breaking in horses. There won’t be much feel or finesse. But as your techniques get better and even become second nature you will start to move beyond the structured methods and develop your own style and feel.

I broke my first horse in at 15 years of age. My mentor was a brilliant rider who used very mechanical methods to train. I use to start horses in 10 days and think I was a better horseman if I finished them in 8 or 9 days. My approach to starting horses today is unrecognizable from the approach I used back then. And I take a lot longer now because I am aware of the little things that make a big difference to the outcome. When I was younger I didn’t know those things existed and I know my mentor didn’t know about them either.

In any case, feel free to ask anything that might be bothering you about starting your horse and I’ll do my best to help if I can.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lesson weekend

We had an excellent group of lessons on the weekend. Here are a few photos from the Saturday lessons. Click on the image to enlarge.

A Video Of Good Horsemanship

On the weekend I was asked if I could put up on the web site an example of a YouTube clip that in my opinion showed good horsemanship. In the past I have posted some clips of Bent Branderup and Phillipe Karl as examples of good dressage. I urge people to check out these fellows and judge for yourself. Many will find Branderup’s style of dressage very different to what they are use seeing in modern competition. The basis of his training is a strict adherence to the principles and practices of some of the classical masters such as Pluvinel and Baucher. Because of this many of the movements and the style of riding are no longer found in modern dressage. However, his horses have a level of okay-ness about them that is rare to find in modern dressage.

Recently, a link to the video below was posted to a web site and I found myself enjoying it very much. There is no question that there are aspects of the performance that are not great, such as the level of engagement in some of the dressage movements and the horse shows some degree of crookedness at times due to tension in the neck. However, the horse displays a good degree of focus and softness in many things. Notice he looks at the handler when he comes out of his stable. This is so rare among most high-level performance horses. The amount of trouble the horse carries in his work is only a fraction of what you see in the majority of horses.

The poster has added several other video clips of the same horse and handler and you should check out those too. But the one I have posted here is by far the best. I hope you enjoy it.

How Repetitions In A Session?

Hi Ross – here is a question for you upon your return from Sydney .
My float loading with Mr W had dropped off for reasons I don’t want to go into here, but I am now doing it every day with him.  My question is about how many times he should go in and out of the float in one session.  For example, yesterday I only put him on 3 times.  The first two times were a bit of a struggle with him standing at the bottom of the ramp refusing to budge, but did so in time and he went on.  The last time, he went on well and he backed out really well – one step at a time on my request.  It was so good I just let us finish on that good note.  I have read in some material that you should do a certain number each time.  I just wondered what your thoughts and advice were on this.
Thanks.
Michelle

It’s an excellent question and it has much wider implications than just being about float training. The answer to your question is relevant to all aspects of horse training in general.

Horses learn from repetition. It takes most horses many attempts at a task to learn the task. The more something is repeated, the more it is reinforced and the more solid and predictable the behaviour becomes. But there are some variables that affect the number of repetitions required for a behaviour to become learned.

Sensitive horses tend to learn something much more readily than dull horses because they are more highly motivated to find a way out of pressure. They have a lower threshold for enduring pressure and often search harder for an answer to avoid it. Therefore, it may take a sensitive horse fewer repetitions to learn a task than a dull horse. When working a dull-ish type of horse sometimes it can seem that each day starts out just the same as the previous day – as if he really learned nothing from the previous sessions. This is usually an indication that the lesson was not learned well and the change achieved in previous training was not as deep and lasting as it appeared.

Fear can often get in the way of learning. Some horses are so fearful that the fear gets in the way of understanding a new task. Their heightened survival instinct acts as a wall that interferes with their ability to process the training clearly. These horses often become reactive rather than responsive.

Another factor is the reward. Most training involves the release of pressure as a reward for a task performed correctly. This is negative reinforcement. But some training uses positive reinforcement such as the use of a food reward. Many horses are highly motivated to search for an answer when they know there is a food treat at the end. They can learn to perform many mechanical tasks with not much repetition in an effort to be given a food reward. But this brings its own set of problems when you use positive reinforcement with horses.

In addition, the number of times a task needs to be repeated can depend on the clarity and consistency of the trainer in teaching those tasks. Obviously, a highly skilled person will require less time than a novice trainer.

Furthermore, it often takes less time for a horse to learn a new task than it does to re-learn a task previously learned badly. For example, if a horse has learned to put up a fight about going into a float, it may take more repetitions for him to become a reliable float loader than a horse that had never experienced float training before.

Back to your original question.

For all of the above reasons, the idea that there are a set number of times a person needs to repeat a task in order for a horse to learn is nonsense. It is treating horses like mechanical devices rather than complex animals.

My personal experience is that the number of times you repeat any task in a session is somewhere between not getting a change in his thought and drilling to the point of madness. Rarely is the number ever critical. You use your own best judgement.

In fact, I believe that even if you don’t get a change or you do begin to drill your horse, it is unlikely you have done any irreparable damage. Almost all problems can be fixed the next session. If you stop short of getting a real change in your horse the training will simply take a little longer. And if you get to the point of drilling your horse, you’ll see deterioration in the way he is working. In which case, just stop and fix it the next day.

I know I haven’t given you a number that you may have been looking for, but I hope you can see that there is no set number of times to repeat something. The answer to your question is “it all depends.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I want to thank everyone who has contacted me to offer their sympathies over the passing of my dog, Milly. Your concern and well wishes are deeply appreciated.

I am presently breaking in a couple of horses from opposite ends of the spectrum. The Shetland is called Dakota and comes from Project Hope. This is a photo of Dakota with Riley to give you an idea of how big he is.The Clydesdale cross is Bandit and is shown here with his owner, Sarie, getting help to learn to lunge.

Click on the images to enlarge

We have a couple of days of lessons this weekend. However, if anybody who is coming along is concerned about the weather, please call us so we can let you know if we have to cancel or not.

Next week Michele and I go to Sydney for some family matters and we will be back on Thursday. I promise to reply to e-mails when I we get back to Victoria. It also means that next week there won’t be much updating of the web site. Sorry about that.

Race Horses

I just want to briefly talk about horses that have been used for racing. I am using the widest possible meaning of the term “race horse” because I want to include both thoroughbred (TB) and standardbred (STB) horses.

In our work we see many TB horses that have raced and about 25% as many STB horses. Many people buy them after their career on the track has ended because they are fairly cheap. The racing industry consider them to be waste and don’t really care much what happens when they finish racing They are discarded easily and people who are interested in a horse for pleasure or competition can pick them up cheaply.

However, the average buyer needs to be aware of a couple problems with these horses that may offset their affordability.

The most obvious and common issue that we see is that many of them are not physically sound. Both gallop and harness racing are very demanding activities on the body of a horse and most trainers begin the training when the horses are very immature. Horses don’t physically mature until around 5 or 6 years of age, yet race training begins at 2 or 3 years of age. The result is very frequently that a 5 or 6-year-old racehorse is broken down. This is a bigger problem in TB than STB because STB tend to have a more robust build and harness training does not involve carrying a rider. The lack of weight bearing exercise is to the advantage of the STB.

The second major problem is that racing of either form involves a high-pressure training regime. It is extremely rare that their training does not psychologically scar a TB or STB. In my opinion, breaking a horse for racing is not breaking in. Most horses can barely carry a rider let alone have softness and focus. When somebody asks me for help with a TB or STB that has recently finished their career, my advice is to re-break them all over again as if they have not been started. Many STB are not broken in for riding and are considered broken in if they will carry a saddle and rider without bucking.

But even re-breaking a horse will sometimes not be enough. I have seen a few really nice horses that have been too damaged by their experiences of being trained for racing to be salvaged as riding horses. I think STB can be a little more forgiving that a TB because STB are often quite stoic. That doesn’t mean they feel any better about their training than a TB. It just means they will swallow their stress and keep it down inside, whereas many TB will wear their trouble on their sleeve. You’ll know when most TB are worried. But for some STB you may not find out until you are already in the middle of a storm.

Both TB and STB are wonderful horses and many make great riding horses. I believe that in Australia we breed some of the best TB in the world. I have had many TB in my life and not one of them has been a disappointment. In fact I was probably a bigger disappointment to them than they were to me. People should not dismiss owning an ex-race out of hand. Riley, LJ, Lincoln and others were all ex-gallopers and fantastic horses that I would never pass up having again. But I believe you need to be even more careful when buying a TB or STB that has raced, than most other horses.

It would be a dream of mine - albeit an impossible dream – that no horse would be allowed to race until it was broken in to be a riding horse at the age of 3, and it had been used as a riding horse for at least 6 months before beginning it’s racing career. But as Darryl Kerrigan from the film “The Castle” would say, “tell ‘em he’s dreamin.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

R.I.P. Milly

Today I lost my dog of 17 years. We took her to the vet because it was time. Milly was a different sort of dog who lived by her rules. She figured that she was special enough that if a person wanted to be part of her life they had to prove they were worthy. He was a very good-natured dog, but was more interested in watching than participating in activities. She use to watch my other dog Bix, run around the round yard keeping the horses in line and I’m sure she thought Bix was a little touched in the head to put out that much energy for not much reward. Anyway, she’s gone now and I am very thankful for the part she played in my life.

Training For Obedience

In my blog entry of 11 August I discussed the idea that Natural Horsemanship and Traditional Horsemanship were fundamentally the same. The differences between them were found more in the language and the equipment than the effect and outcome for the horse. I made the point that most horsemanship, no matter what label you put on it, concentrates on obtaining a calm obedience than it does on producing an emotional well being for the horse.

I came across the video clip below and to my mind it brilliantly illustrates that calm obedience and submission that I talked about.

Foal Trying To Nip

Hi Ross,
I was just reading Aimee’s email to you about her horse trying to bite her when she halters him.  Sometimes (and not every time) Mr Willoughby tries to nip just as I am doing up his halter.  Given that he is 5 months old, is there a different reaction I should have rather than having a fit in front of him? – and if I did have a fit, to time it properly the halter would not be done up and would fall off him – would that matter? It’s not a big problem, but I would like to keep it in check.
Thank you.
Michelle

I wouldn't be too forgiving of the nipping. In Aimee's case, her horse is far more experienced and confirmed in his habits with her than is the case with you and Mr Willoughby. But nevertheless, I wouldn't let Mr W's behaviour become habitual and would be interrupting him every time. It is probably a dominance behaviour that you can deal with by moving his feet. If you are in the process of haltering him and he tries to nip you or chew the halter you can abruptly move his feet while still keeping the halter around his head (even if it is not done up). Try backing him up or moving his should towards you or away from you. Mix it up a bit. It should be abrupt enough to gain his attention and interrupt his thought to bite, but not so abrupt that it frightens him and he gets away from you. You can also lower his head or flick his muzzle or ear or blow sharply on his face or stomp your foot - anything that will interrupt his thought to nip. It shouldn't take long to change the behaviour, but it will require you to be vigilante to make sure you catch it every time. I hope that helps.

Pony Problems

Hi Ross

Hope u and Michele aren't to bogged down in the mud and that ur work areas are starting to dry just a tad.

Charlotte had her first riding lesson with her lease pony today. Let me set the scene, she has ridden this pony in the round yard a few times and has ridden her in the arena with ponies cantering, horses being lunged etc and experienced a fairly good ride (not brilliant as the pony doesn't bend on the right rein etc we are working on that).


This morning was a very windy hairy day. Trees had gone down and taken out three paddocks, a horse jumped out of his paddock and came bolting to the tack area to find his friend, all in all it was a bit hectic but I thought holly was taking everything quite well. She's very girthy even if you are just touching her not saddling her (mainly when she is not paying attention, when she is she is fine) but she was fine. Charlotte walked her into the arena where her friend was already riding her pony. Holly had never seen Tubby before and decided that that was the direction she was going in charlotte allowed her to go forward a touch and asked her to turn away this made holly turn more towards tubby so charlotte asked again to go to the right and made a point of it holly obliged with her feet but obviously not with her mind and charlotte released to early to which holly wax going to tubby. Charlotte pulled back on the reins (not the best of ideas) and holly gave her a nice little rear. Charlotte then decided her ride was over and climbed off. Well in comes mother (who of course knows best) climbs on the horse asks for a turn to the right a turn to the left a back up believing all the time she was getting a softness and then it felt like out of nowhere a rear appears and as I ask her to go forward it happens oh so swiftly, I'm eating sawdust. Needless to say holly then ventured with me to the round yard for some groundwork and then a bit in saddle, totally cool as a cucumber she was, back into the arena and not to bad there either. Question is and I know it's hard to say because you were not present but obviously I missed something before I ended up on the ground what to do or how far do you go to change a horses thought when in saddle, do you suggest getting off and continuing on the ground if you feel like if you get any stronger your going to go flying.
Irena


Clearly things were going on with Holly that you and Charlotte were missing before it was too late. But that's okay. A person can only deal with issues to the best of their abilities and you were doing what you could to help Holly forget about Tubby. Anything you can do to help a horse feel better is what you need to do. There is nothing wrong with getting off a horse and doing groundwork if that's where you are best able to get a change. And if you can get a change while in the saddle that's okay too. Some people believe you must ride through every situation to show a horse he can't win. I disagree. There is no win/lose here. It's about helping the horse be a better horse to ride and if getting off helps to get a change in a horse then it is better than riding through something that you may not be able to get a change. So I don't think you did anything wrong.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here is a photo of the colt that I mentioned in my last post. He is settling down well and I am pleased with his progress. The photo was taken about 3 months ago and he has filled out considerably since. He is a pretty nice fellow and I think if he wasn't going for racing he could make a very nice riding horse.

Horse Talk

Thermoneutral Temperature of Horses


Hello Ross, Could you please point me to that article where you explain about rugging and the horses thermoregulation and why it is not necessary to rug (you know the one I mean!) I know I have saved it somewhere, but can't find it.... Thanks!

By the way, I haven't rugged Saruman for 4 years, was always a bit reluctant with Loki because he is so much of a wuss  - or so I thought! Anyway this winter was Lokis'(my 16.2 "difficult keeper" arabian) first winter unrugged!

Well, he has done beautifully (better than all the years he's been rugged - and it's freezing and wet here in Warburton). He has a beautiful thick coat, and has held his weight beautifully on 3-4 biscuits of grass hay and a small hard feed, (with balanced minerals). Anyway - he looks fantastic, hates his rug – and I have been totally converted!

Thanks, Miriam


I can't find the article you refer. However a Google search found this article from a Canadian government fact sheet http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/05-045.htm, which states:

"Adult horses acclimatized to mild Canadian winter temperatures had an estimated thermoneutral zone between -15°C and 10°C (5°F to 50°F). The thermoneutral zone is the range in temperatures within which a horse can maintain its core body temperature."

The thermoneutral temperature will of course vary depending on rain, wind, humidity and time for a horse to acclimate to a new location. But the Canadian fact sheet does support the notion that horses are cold weather animals and rugging them in our relatively mild winters is without doubt unnecessary for their comfort.


The article Miriam referred to is in the Horse Talk section under Myths and Misconceptions No: 13

Another Round Question

Hi Ross,

I have another question about the round yard.  You say that 6 foot is high enough for a round yard but I notice the one you use looks to be well above your head height (in the photo’s of horses learning how to be tied up etc).  Also when riding around the yard – is 6 foot high enough – wouldn’t you be sitting well above the top rail?  Is 6 foot optimum or is higher better?

Sorry to ask so many questions but we are novices in this area and want to do this as best we can.

Thank you.
Cheers
Michelle


Since you are not planning on breaking in wild horses that are likely to leap out over your fence, I don't think you need be too concerned whether your fence height is 5ft, 6ft or 7 ft. Any of those heights will be sufficient for your purposes - even when riding in your round yard. The height of the fence in our round yard is 6ft measured from the base board and we have never had a horse attempt to exit over the top.

Aimee and Nicky


How are you? I hope you and Michele and all your furkids are well.

 
I was reading your blog on your website and I was inspired to write to you about a few of the topics you raised. The first one that got me thinking was your story about the 2 year old thoroughbred colt you're working with at the moment. I have seen some similar nasty behaviour from Nicky, particularly in regards to trying to bite when being caught, and he has once or twice gone to lash out at me. With the catching/biting thing, this is something he would do more or less every time I go to catch him, on varying degrees depending I guess on how he is feeling or what else is distracting him at the time I go to catch him. I normally carry a flag or a dressage whip to help me feel a bit safer when I go to catch him, and when he does this I might wave the instrument around a bit to try to deter him. To a degree this has worked, in that it usually lessens his determination to land the bite, or best case scenario he doesn't try to nip while I'm putting the halter on. But on reading your blog (plus having thought this for a while anyway), I don't think I'm doing enough to deter him from this behaviour, as the next day the whole process starts again. Having said that, I'm not keen to just go ballistic on him without more experienced supervision, as there might be something more subtle that I'm missing. I understand that his inclination to bite relates to the way he feels about being caught by me, and the way he feels about what's going to happen after he's caught. So I try to make sure I give him a good pat when I go to catch him, and I'm trying to be more clear in my general handling of him (although as we've discussed before, this does tend to lapse due to the physical and mental limitations of being on a 'high brow' traditionalist based agistment). I don't think Nicky actually gets all that much out of me patting him. He'd much rather be somewhere else, so instead of standing and relaxing into it, he gets distracted and looks elsewhere, and then I feel like I have to ask something of him to try to get his attention again.

 
So there's a question in amongst all of that somewhere, but maybe you might find it hard to comment without seeing the behaviours of both him and me!

 
I read the email you received from Chach's owner and thought about how amazingly different horses can be. I remember you saying when we visted you what a nice horse he was, and it sounds like he's trying really hard to do a good job for him owner. If I took Nicky on a ride like that I would have been on my ass in the first five minutes. Will Chach's owner accept $50 for him? ;-P

 
To keep you updated on where I'm at with regards to selling Nicky, the short answer is in no man's land. I had definitely made up my mind - I took him to a lesson with Jose (Mendez), dressed him up in a white saddleblanket and bandages, dragged Ben along with the camera, with every intention of having my lesson and advertising him on the internet that night. As you could probably guess, he worked fantastically, and felt like heaven on four legs, and Jose said I would be insane to sell him, as did another friend who was watching. Plus he has been going rather well under saddle since then.
 

But issues on the ground persist, and it would take a 100,000 word thesis to really articulate where my head is at in regards to the decision I need to make with him. I gave Jose my details and told him that if the right person came along, they should give me a call and we could discuss things. Apart from that I haven't advertised him.

 
I was hoping that we could tee up a time at some stage to have a bit of groundwork session, either at one of your lesson days, or some other weekend when you've got some time, or even if you'd be prepared to come see us at home to get an idea of what the day to day issues are? I'm happy to fit in with whatever suits you best. I felt awful about not being able to get him on the float to get to the lesson day - I felt really terrible about taking away that time when you could have been making money with someone else booked in to my spot. I honestly didn't think he would throw that big a tantrum about going on the float.

 
I know it must frustrate the hell out of you to read my ramblings, and I guess the reality is that there's probably an equally nice horse out there who has a more willing temperament that I would be better equipped to handle. But at the moment I've got the one I've got, and regardless of whether I end up moving him on or if God forbid I decide to keep on keeping on, I'd really like to improve on things if at all possible. I've given myself another month or two, and then I'm going to need to bite the bullet and jump off the fence. (How's that - two cliches in 8 words.)

 
Anyway, I'm sure you've had enough for now. I have many more words but they definitely need to be saved for another day!

 
Hope to hear from you soon,
 
Aimee. 


I think your observations about Nicky are accurate, but your execution in dealing with him is falling short.

You are right that carry a flag or whip to catch him is doing enough to make you feel safe, but there is no longer term change in Nicky's behaviour. Every day he continues to feel he wants to bite you and every day carry the whip is just enough to prevent him. It's not good enough. This needs to be over and one with and after the first or second time you halter him, the biting issue should be history. If you are going to carry the whip or the flag don't just block him from biting or use it to threaten him. If he thinks about biting, whack the ground in front of his face so hard he will jump so high his tail won't be able to catch up with his body. Don't hit him or punish him in any way, but have a fit - make him think you have the worst case of epilepsi ever recorded. Then go and pet him gently to show him everything is okay and continue to halter him. Doing just enough with the flag or whip to keep safe is just making him more and cranky. Change his thought.

I also agree that patting Nicky is probably achieving nothing. You would be better off leaving him alone when you want to reward him. He is so uninterested in you that getting in his face to pat him is probably more of a nuisance to him than a comfort.

I'm glad you have a good ride on Nicky in your lesson with Jose Mendez. But one good lesson does not change your relationship with Nicky. As things stand, for you to have a good ride you have to wait to get Nicky in a good mood. You are struggling to help Nicky when he is not in a good mood and are at a loss of what to do to ensure every ride is a good ride. I don't think you should change your mind about selling Nicky just because you had a good lesson. Before you change your mind I think you need to make big changes in how you work with Nicky and how he feels about the work. Every day you should be expecting it to be a good session - not hoping it will be a good session.

Chach is for sale, but I think you might have to go a wee bit higher than $50 to make a sale - and he would be worth it.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A Dangerous Colt

I have started handling a 2 year old thoroughbred colt that has become unruly. He has had very little handling - just enough to be catchable and be held for the farrier for trimming. He has been a really easy colt to handle until about 2 months ago. Since that time he has been more difficult to catch and begun pulling away from the farrier. Last week the vet arrived to do a health certificate on the horse for insurance purposes. It was a disaster. The colt ran through another horse, and tried to double barrel it. When I tried to catch him he attempted to bite my arm and then spun around and kicked out at me. He nearly ran over Michele even though there was no reason for him to run right at her since she was many metres away and standing in the middle of the paddock - he had the choice of running in any direction and he chose to run at her.

I spoke to the owner of the colt and told him this can't go on and convinced him to employ me to work with the horse. On Monday I put him in a yard adjoining the round yard at home. Yesterday I began to work with him. When I tried to catch him he tried to bite my arm, but got a rude shock when he did. Then he spun around and kicked at me. Clearly he was too dangerous to let him be that close, so I got the lariat and roped him. I worked him from a distance and had him responding to the lariat around his neck within a few minutes. Today I was able to walk up to him and halter him immediately. I worked on touching him all over and keeping his eyes on me at all times. Within about 15 minutes he was like his old self again - easy to handle, willing to go along with the pressure and placid.

I will continue to work with the colt over the next few days and have the vet come out for the health certificate examination early next week. But it makes you wonder why the horse turned into a feral monster. It would be easy to assume it was the result of surging testosterone - and maybe that's right. But the fact that he so quickly changed back into the quiet, easy going fellow he used to be with so little effort from me leaves me wondering if something else is going on with the horse. I guess I will find out in coming days as I put more pressure on him and ask more from him. I'll keep you posted.

Horsemanship: Natural vs Traditional vs Good

There is no such thing as Natural Horsemanship as a training concept. It is a brand name used for the marketing and repackaging of traditional style horsemanship. Its like Hoover has come to mean a vacuum cleaner, but it’s actually just a brand of vacuum cleaner.

Tom Moates wrote an excellent chapter about this in his book "A Horses Thought - A Journey into Honest Horsemanship." You can read what Tom has to say about Natural Horsemanship by going to his web site http://www.tommoates.com/pdf/EH-Issue

NH started out as a term Pat Parelli adopted for his school of horsemanship that he was marketing. He used the term Natural Horsemanship as a catchy branding. Since then however, it has become synonymous with what many people consider is a type of horsemanship. It has taken on a wider meaning that extends beyond Pat Parelli’s specific systematized training. The term has become much more general in its meaning. So general in fact that most people can’t really define what NH is anymore.

Nevertheless, NH is used to distinguish one form of horse training from more traditional styles of horsemanship. But I think this is again just a marketing strategy. It’s almost impossible to pin point anything that makes NH different from most traditional training systems.

(i) both NH and traditional use negative reinforcement principles.

(ii) both NH and traditional are based on (a) flooding techniques; and (b) approach and retreat techniques.

(iii) both NH and traditional rely on ever increasing amounts of pressure to make a horse respond.

There differences between most NH trainers and most traditional trainers are superficial and just around the fringes - such as the type of equipment. But even here it is hard to distinguish the two. For example, many people believe that NH does not use gadgets, but Monty Roberts is considered an NH trainer and he uses the buckstopper. Also, many people believe that NH trainers use rope halters, but Mark Rashid uses web halters and John O’Leary (who calls himself a traditional style trainer) promotes the use of rope halters in training. You could tally a list of gear that many people feel belong in one camp or the other and discover that there are trainers of either persuasion that use the same equipment.

Setting all that aside the biggest factor that makes NH and traditional training indistinguishable is that both forms rely on coercion to achieve obedience and submission by making the wrong choice almost impossible for a horse. Both schools of training set out to force a horse into specific behaviour by taking away its options. They make the one option that the trainer wants the horse to choose the only possible option. This is the path to forced submission.

The concept of NH as a principle of horsemanship that relies on the understanding of a horse's nature is a crock. It's not true. The prey/predator argument, respect/disrespect and the alpha herd boss concept are only labels that are useful for marketing by NH people. They are catchy and appeal to your average horse owner who thinks by understanding these concepts that they are gaining an understanding of their horse. Both NH and traditional trainers use them even if they don't label them that way. These labels have no relevance to a horse. The vast majority of NH and traditional training is almost identical with only wallpaper thin variations. But there is a huge difference between these two ideas and good horsemanship in my opinion. Most NH and traditional training are directed at teaching a horse calm obedience and submission. But GH recognizes that resistance is derived from bad feelings inside a horse. GH trainers believe it is anxiety that causes resistance and bad behaviour. So GH training is foremost about minimizing the anxiety and the behaviours that go with it. GH attempts to address the root cause of behaviour and resistance.

But NH and traditional are mainly aimed at shaping the behaviour of the horse - irrespective of the causes. There is only minimal attempt (lip service if you like) by NH and traditional training to address the causes of poor behaviour and consider the horse's mental and emotional state in the training process. Study the training of Tom Dorrance (GH) and Pat Parelli (NH) and Andrew McLean (Trad) and you’ll see that despite the hype and claims of these trainers, Parelli and McLean have far more in common with each other than they do with Dorrance.

McLean and Parelli rely on the repetition of specific techniques or exercises to shape the behaviour of a horse. They treat the horse like a computer – type in command A to get answer B. I don’t mean to pick on Pat Parelli or Andrew McLean because they are just examples of what is really a worldwide phenomena in both forms of horsemanship.

If you read Tom Dorrance’s “True Unity” you’ll quickly be aware that he views horses from the inside. He is less focused on what a horse is doing than why he is doing it. He is not so interested in technique as he is in understanding “why” rather than “how. ” Rather than trying to shape a horse’s responses through techniques of submission and obedience, Tom tried to work with the emotional state of a horse to minimize resistance and build a “try”. This is vastly different from the approach of either NH or traditional horsemanship.

I believe NH is a sham and con job. In people’s minds it supposedly is the same thing as GH – it claims to do what GH actually does. But clearly it is just traditional horsemanship in another form. I view both NH and traditional horsemanship as McDonald’s Horsemanship. They are to horsemanship what McDonald’s hamburgers are to fine cuisine. They cater to the average horse owner that comprise masses, but fail to provide the best there is for both horses and people.

Report of A Breaker’s First Ride At Home

Hi Ross.
 
I rode Chach on yesterday. He was brilliant as expected. I did about 5-6km so a big ride for him. I led him down the main road from my house (as there is no shoulder so you have to be ON the road) then at the first dirt road I did some groundwork, he was a bit distracted by some potato farming machinery making a tonne of noise so he made me work for his attention but after 5mins I was happy to get on. He met about half a dozen dogs that run the fences, a bicycle, a double trailer logging truck, lots of cars, a motorbike. We rode past the skate park which was full of kids on scooters, bikes, skateboards etc (being a sunny Sunday arvo n all). Lots of noise, we crossed the road at Gembrook main Street, had a few canters in spots. He was pretty much perfect. Quite forward and wanting to trot on the down-hills but he was slowing and trotting off my seat only and I had no resistance on either rein the entire ride. The only thing he found scary was the motorbike. That was about 100 meters down the road from my place while I was leading him and it was only a lane width of road away, he had a jump forward and got it over it straight away.  We were waiting to cross the road a bit later on in our ride and I heard the big logging truck coming before I could see it, I jumped off pretty quick, didn’t think he’d be very fond of that. He barely even looked at it!  Yet, the silly bugger kept springing over the white lines on the road, that was amusing. We went up and down gutters and he was quite diligent about where he was placing his feet, he was so good. I kept checking in with him and he was always there so we had a very easy ride. I think Chach probably went to bed with a head-ache though, it was a lot to take in on one ride!
 
Belinda.


You certainly seem to have put Chach in the deep end on your first ride out! It would probably have been less eventful if you had taken him Luna Park in St Kilda. But I'm very glad he made you proud. He is a very nice horse so I hope you get to enjoy him for a bit before finding him a good home.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The program I am using to write tonight's Soap Box has gone haywire. I have already written my blurb several times and keep losing it in cyberspace. I must apologize for the lack of "editorial" (for want of a better term), but my frustration level has reached maximum. So I apologize for the brevity of tonight's entry. I hope to have everything on track in a day or two.

Pushy Pony

Hello Ross

It's great that the second part of the story is there to be read but yet again I have to wait a month to read more.

I have been working with Charlotte's lease pony for a week now as she is at the riding school so that Charlotte can hop on her. She's a funny sort very sweet thirteen year old Arab cross Australian riding pony. It's amazing how every horse that you have the opportunity to work with challenges you in so many ways. Holly pretends I don't exist. I can jump up and down around her, step towards her to move her on and she just ignores me. Today I had I challenge that threw me. I asked her to square up near a cross country jump so that Charlotte could sit/stand above her. As I asked her to cross her forehand and the scoot her hind she kept pushing against me. I am use to a horse moving away from pressure this on pushes into it and the more I made it an issue to move away from me she decided that she needed to go up because she was not going to stand near this jump. I did persist and she finally decided to stand near it but it took a great deal of effort as she just kept pushing on me. What is the reason that a horse will push into the pressure, I'm totally confused. (jump wise I think she loathes them she was used for jumping and games and can't walk over a trot poll she has to jump them, this has been most amusing teacher her it's ok to walk over things)

Irena


It's great you are experiencing the quirks of very different horses - wonderful experience for you.

Many horses will push into pressure. It is especially common in kid's ponies that have been around awhile. Because kids are kids, ponies often learn that pushing into the person causes the person to cease the pressure. It's like when a horse crowds you on the lead rope and you step out of the way to avoid being stepped on. The action of a person getting out of a horse's way teaches the horse that crowding or pushing on a person if a good thing. It is the same thing for your daughter's pony. It has learned that pushing on people or into pressure is a good idea. I'm sure the previous owners never meant for the pony to learn this, but inadvertently this is what they taught Holly. The main thing is that you persisted and got a change. In time and with repeated reinforcement that people don't move, but ponies called Holly do, it will get better.

You can teach a horse anything if you time the release of pressure correctly. Years ago I taught a horse that when I pulled on the lead rope to come forward, it was to back up. I did this for a trick. All I had to do was hold the pressure not matter what it did and only released the lead rope when it tried to step back. This is pretty how much how Holly learned to push on people. When she did, the people took the pressure away - simple. That's why she pushed on you when you asked her to line up by the jump - she was expecting you to take the pressure off her when she crowded you. I hope that clears up your confusion.

Lunging At Liberty And Outside Rein In A Turn

Hi Ross
 
Just thought i would let you know that I am very happy with Meg and we are taking baby steps but I am learning so much from her!
 
I would like to ring you up to discuss what the instructors have been telling me what to do and to ask questions... Eg. When lungeing at liberty is there a reason you would prefer to get your horse to turn in towards you when changing direction or does that depend on the technique one is using? I am of the opinion that what I have learnt from you is that the horse would move away from the pressure and hence turn outwards and away. Some people seem to have the theory that this is not desired and that you want the horse to turn into you, but I can't see why if you are then asking him to  leave and continue on the cirlce anyway.
 
 I have other questions regarding "analogies" of when you turn the horse with the reins,  what your inside and outside legs and reins might be required to do (If required, I guess!). Eg. open one door but keep the other closed. I really dont have a clue about what my legs should or shouldnt be doing!
 
Meg saw her first mechanical cow today from halfway up the arena at the western club and i let her watch it then continued with the lunge work on lead which was good because she new that "cow" was there but when i asked her to check in it was fairly easy to bring her back.  We had a few horses cantering around including a stallion so it was good to keep her focus. I got in the saddle and just walked  her round a bit (too many in the arena to do much so I left it on a great note.) I was very happy! I rode her in my friends western saddle ( I think I would really like one!) but I think the fit is a bit tight at the wither so back to my stock saddle! I did work Meg in the round yard before I left home which I think help[ed, but could have done that on the lead rope I guess at the grounds. 
 
I might ring you this week unless it doesnt suit.
Also, keep me as an emergency option if your clinic numbers are lacking. (Just as a last minute option- just in case it does work in with watering and cows, and someone pulls out unexpectedly. No guarantees of course!).
 
Happy days up here! Hope you are having them too! Great rain and even better sunshine at the minute. All the grass looks terrific! Just waiting for the locusts now! And grain is going through the roof becasue of Russia's heat wave!  Farming- "the great uncertainty!" (A bit like horses!)
 
Amanda


I'm very glad to hear you are happy with how Meg is going at the moment. It's great you are getting out and about with her and doing stuff - it's the best thing you can do to make headway in your relationship with her.

Every instructor is going to do things differently and tell you to do stuff a certain way. If you are going to sort out what's best for Meg you have to (i) see how she responds; and (ii) understand why you do it that way - benefits vs problems.

With regard to lunging at liberty and asking for a change of direction by having the horse turn into the middle (inside turn) or outside towards the fence (outside turn), what you do and how you do it will depend.

In my view on green horses (remember I said green), I prefer to only ask for outside turns for several reasons. When a horse is learning, it is more important to teach a horse to yield away from pressure (which is what an outside turn does) than yield to fall into an open space (which is what an inside turn does) because most of his life will be about yielding away from pressure rather than being drawn into a vacuum. Secondly, when a horse performs an outside turn and comes out of the turn facing the other direction you start on one side of him, then go through a blind spot behind his tail where he can't see you at all and then you appear on his other side. This is called changing eyes and it can be a very big issue for some horses. Many horses get frightened when something that they see out of one eye suddenly disappears and re-appears on the other eye. Working through the outside turns can really help a horse overcome his fear of changing eyes and having objects in his blind spot or even behind him. Thirdly, when a green horse is drawn to turn on the inside most will be stiff through their body and fall onto the inside shoulder. But with an outside turn the fence encourages a horse to not crash on his forehand (because the fence is in his way) and will shift his weight onto his hindquarters in the turn and push off from his hocks coming out of the turn. It also helps a horse to flex his body in the direction of the turn. This is helping to establish a familiarity in a horse of what a correct turn feels like. And lastly, when you ask for a change of direction by asking a horse to turn to the inside, you must draw away and open up space for him to turn into - you sort of create a vacuum. So he yields into the space that has been opened up by the trainer. But then the trainers suddenly closes that space again and drives him away in the opposite direction. From a green horses point of view this can appear that he did the right thing by turning towards the middle, but then got punished for it by being chased away again. Many green horses can become really confused. I have seen horses trained in this way become really frantic about their turns and try to rush through them in the hope they are doing the right thing and won't get punished.

When a horse is further along from the "green" stage, I have no problem with asking for inside turns. But until they are soft, correct and calm about their outside turns, I don't recommend them.

Having said that, I had one lady come to a 5 day clinic where I worked her horse in the round yard at liberty. She had taught him lots of inside turns, but they were rushed and tight and her horse was clearly troubled about them. He couldn't slow down or do an outside turn at first. After about 10 mins I finally got the sweetest outside turn that was soft, calm and correct. I was thrilled that he finally started to feel better. However the owner was horrified. She told me he should never be allowed to do outside turns. I asked why and she told me that it showed he was disrespectful. But I said that he did what I asked so how could that be disrespectful. She then asked, "what if he kicked you?" I asked back, "why would he kick me - he feels good finally?" She didn't stay the rest of the clinic and took her horse home mortified that I was teaching her horse disrespect. So you have to be careful how you go about handling people who believe that inside turns are the only turns a horse should do.

With your regard to the use of the outside rein in turns, I wrote a short piece that concisely explains my opinion. It's on the "Myth and Misconceptions" folder (Myth No. 5) on the Horse Talk page. Read it and if you have any other questions about it let me know.

I'm glad somebody is liking the rain. I'm over it. I haven't had a day out of my gum boots for nearly 3 months! But I guess we get a lot more rain here than you do in Echuca.

Click on the image to enlarge

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We've had lots of rain in the last couple of days. Hard to get any work done because the rain keeps coming down and it is harder and harder to find anywhere that the footing is not too slippery or heavy.

The vet was out today for the annual circus of microchipping the thoroughbred foals. Each year about this time the yearlings have to be microchipped and hair follicle samples need to be taken from their manes for DNA testing. The needle used for inserting the microchip is huge (about a 14 guage) and few foals handle it with dignity. But overall I was pleased how they dealt with the trauma. It helps to have a vet who knows what they are doing and present themselves with certainty without trying to bully the foals.


Help/Support

The other day a client was holding her horse on the end of the lead rope. I walked up to the horse with a tarpaulin in one hand. As you might expect the horse tried to circle away from me. I told the owner to help her horse and support him. But she allowed him to just scoot away and did her best to make sure she was giving him enough space to ensure she didn't get trodden. When I said she needed to do more to help him, she asked, "What do you mean by help him?" I realized I hadn't explained myself to her and she didn't know what I was asking. She thought "helping him" meant reassuring the horse whilst allowing him the freedom to do what he wanted (in this case, to evade me).

I often talk about helping a horse or supporting a horse and it never occurred to me that people did not know what I was talking about. So I'm really glad my client made me realize what an idiot I had been for not clarifying my meaning to people.

For me, helping a horse or supporting a horse are interchangeable terms. They mean to do what you need to do get a change in how a horse feels. In the case of the horse moving away from me with the trap I would have helped the horse by inhibiting his movement away from him. He wasn't so scared that he had to flee. But he was unsure enough that he'd rather not let me get too close. In this instance using the lead rope to inhibit or discourage, but not prevent, the horse's evasion would have been enough for him to decide to try harder to let me approach him with the tarp in my hand. It would be about giving him a choice, but weighting the choice in our favour of him not moving. I wouldn't making moving impossible, but just hard enough that not moving was the obvious easy choice. That way, he still gets to choose the option that works best for him rather than the owner making it impossible to move and giving him no choice at all. This is what I mean by helping him. You are helping him to make a change in how he feels and weighty that change so that the right choice is the easy choice.

Another example comes to mind from a ride I had last week. I expect lots of you have had this experience too. I was riding a horse down the trail and came across a puddle that covered half the road. It was a good opportunity to work on the horse's confidence. I pointed the horse to the middle of the puddle. He stopped just in front and then tried to veer left. I used my right rein to block him going left and then released it. He then veered right, but my left rein blocked him and again released when he stopped going right. He looked at the puddle, sniffed it and then started to back up. I used just enough leg to block the backing. He tried to go right again, but my left rein blocked him. Every time he evaded the puddle I tried to block him. When he changed his mind about going left or right or backing away, I sat quietly and left him alone. I never once told him to go across the puddle. I just discouraged him from leaving. I was helping him or supporting him to learn where he was expected to be, but I never said he had to cross the water. After a few minutes when it was clear to him that go around the puddle was just not working out for him, he leapt over the water. I never told him to go over the water - he chose to do it because it was the next obvious option to try. We repeated the crossing and by the third try he walked calmly across.

These are examples of what I mean by helping or supporting a horse. It comes down to helping him to make up his own mind, but it should never be about making him do something.

Some examples where training does not involve helping a horse are tying a horse up to something solid and letting him struggle to teach him to not pull back or using tie down equipment to teach a horse to have a head set or having 5 blokes manhandle a horse into a float. This type of training does not involve the horse making choices. It relies on a horse giving up the fight and submitting rather than understanding. Horses will do that - they are very good at submitting. But in my view that's not good horsemanship - that's "inconsiderate, crappy Horsemanship" and would probably be used by those fellow in the video clip of the foal racing in Cheyenne I put up in my last post.


Riding Around Kinglake


Hey Ross and Michele, Well I know people always write with questions and problems, but tonight I am just sending some pics of Saruman and I enjoying a trail ride a Kinglake.

It is amazing how much the area has rejuvenated already; it is hard to imagine the horror that swept through the very area pictured in these photos such a short time ago.

And finally, a photo of Michele's new Arab she doesn't know she getting yet :-D

Anyway - hope you are both well - see you in Spring!

Miriam

Thanks for the photos. I'm glad you are riding Saruman out and about. I haven't been through Kinglake since way before the bushfires, but I remember some terrific trails to ride. I'm sorry the photos are so small on the page, but they are so low resolution that enlarging them just caused blurriness.

Stories

Hi Ross,

I have been reading your stories in Chaff Chat every month and really enjoy them. Can I please buy a book from you? If you send me your details I will send you the money immediately.

I see that you are writing a diary of training a horse on your story page. I missed the previous entries. Is there anyway I can read the other chapters?

I would really like to come to your clinic in November, but I don’t think I can afford it. Do you allow spectators and if so how much?

With much appreciation

Anna


I'm glad you have enjoyed the Walt and Amos stories. I have e-mailed you information on how to purchase the book.

The new series of stories have only just begun and you have missed out only one story. I will archive the stories on this site and readers will be able to catchup on what has happened so far. I will be writing chapter three within another week and once that is done I will create a page where all the past stories about Satts will be collected. So please be patient and keep checking back. I will let you know when that job is done.

We do welcome spectators to the clinic. There is no charge to watch - just bring along snacks, a chair and lots of questions. We hope to see you there.

After the depressing clip of the foals at the Cheyenne rodeo, here is a light hearted segment from English comedian Eddie Izzard which I really like.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There are only 2 positions left for the 5-day clinic in November. If you are interested in attending, don't delay!


Restarting a Horse

Today I have begun to work a horse that was broken in last year by it's owner. The horse had a month or two of riding before being spelled last January. It's now time to bring him back into work.

The owner did not do a terrible job at starting the horse. But she knows things are not right and wants my help in filling in the gaps that she left in her horse. She describes the symptoms as sourness. The horse can get very snitchy and throw in a tantrum kick-out or pig root when he feels the owner bothers him. They are not so much directed at her, but he tries to express his dissatisfaction with the way things are.

The horse is a rising 3 year old pure Quarter horse. He still has a lot of growing to do and is built quite downhill. In the paddock he is a pretty mellow bloke who is not easily upset or intimidated. He is fairly sure of himself - almost cocky in the paddock. He is very smart and picks up concepts much faster than your average horse.

What I see in him that has gone wrong is that he has outsmarted his owner. He has learned to do as he is asked without actually committing much focus or interest in the owner or the job he is doing. He can back up, side pass, trot, canter, hind quarter yield etc while only giving a small percentage of his mental ability to the job. The owner saw the horse doing as she wanted and accepted that as being good. She did not see that he was not involving himself in the work.

I wrote 2 essays called "The Importance of A Horse's Thought In Training" and "Training Is Not Just About Moving A Horse's Feet" and it is posted on the Horse Talk page if you want to read them. In those articles I discuss the importance of directing a horse's mind and getting a change in his feelings before you direct his feet. These concepts are the basis of good training in my opinion. It can't be good horsemanship if these things are missing.

This is the case with the QH I worked today. He is a perfect example of training where the primary aim was to teach him a series of movements. Little attention was paid to the horse's thought or feelings. As long as he did the required movements the owner thought he was doing well. But this approach just teaches obedience and submission and fails to teach willingness and focus. But most of all it fails in the area of building a "try" in a horse. Smart horses like the QH can quickly learn to put out the minimum effort to satisfy the trainer and keep them out of trouble. This means they learn the "tricks" of go, stop, turn etc with only the bare minimum of mental participation.

As I told the owner today, it's like the horse has worked on an assembly line for the last 5 years. He does his job the same way every day without hardly noticing what he is doing. The sourness comes into it when the foreman comes along and tells him the way he has been working on that assembly line for 5 years is no longer good enough and he has to change. That's what happens when the owner tells the horse that the trot he offered was not good enough and she wanted more effort or the back up was too draggy or the heaviness on the reins is no longer acceptable. The horse gets shitty about it because he has been trained not to put out an effort.

The horse is a nice horse, but it will take a few weeks to start to establish a new attitude about putting out an effort and committing to the job. It is always harder to do something correctly the second time and if it was done well the first time. Of course, how do I then train the owner to see the difference and ensure she does not go back to her old habits too?


Sally The Shying Horse… again


Hi Ross
I can see what you are saying and it is something that you have said to me before and I think it is what I am struggling with the most. Max and I spoke about this and he agrees with you but is also unsure how to  help me with this so it’s up to me!
 
Thinking about your 1st response, how does this help her with the shying or rather to feel better about being with me? I’m not sure I understand the response in how it works? Whilst I do understand what to do, it’s the why I’m not getting.
 
Btw, it is raining persistently right now, just when we were getting some paddock back!!
Going to try to go to Aaron park on Wednesday, at least it will be dry inside!
Thanks so much Ross, appreciate your help greatly.
Louise


With a horse spontaneously shying (like Sally) it can be too easy for us to make an issue out of it. It comes down to expecting more from her. You might remember me saying that a "try" in a horse should always get better. What is a 'try" this week for my horse, is no longer a 'try" in weeks or months times. This applies to Sally and her shying. I don't believe Sally is as worried as she thinks she is. I just reckon she is not paying attention because she thinks you don't have enough of value to motivate her to be with you as much as you need. And since she would rather be thinking about other things, your intervention in her life is not appreciated. This just makes her anxious enough to cause her to be rushy, spooky and a little on edge at times.

By taking charge of the situation when Sally shies or rushes; and getting on with whatever job you had in mind, you direct her thoughts to a job. Her wandering mind becomes emptied of the things that were occupying it and you are planting a job in there. You now give her a purpose for why she should not rush or shy. She hasn't got time to carry on with unimportant shenanigans - she has important work to do with you directing the way.

A few years ago a client was having terrible trouble with her horse. She was bolting on her in the arena and out on the road. She had got to the point where she was about 90% sure of selling her. It was serious bolting and the horse had nearly hit a tree once - the owner was scared of her. Anyway, one day she had her in the arena and I watched. I noticed my client riding the horse as if it was about to come unglued - like she was sitting on a time bomb. Eventually she asked if I would ride the horse for her and tell her what I thought. I was in a hurry, but I agreed to ride for just a couple of minutes.

I walked her off and she tried to rush forward, but I shut her down with a huge NO that really woke the horse up. Then we walked to the scary corner at the top end where she had bolted on my client. The horse was not ridden on the top end anymore because the owner knew the horse would bolt. When I turned right to head towards the gate I felt the horse tense up and she took off. But within 2 strides I had her hq spinning around to where she almost fell on her arse. As soon as she stopped I told her to trot. We trotted all over that arena fast, slow and medium. I cantered her around the scary corner and down past the gate. When she didn't want to go forward away from the gate I whacked her on the arse. I had to do it a couple of times before she stopped leaning against my leg. I rode her all over that arena - fast, slow, stop and backup - I kept changing it up every few strides so she had to keep listening. The horse just got better and better.

The horse had been driven nuts by the constant nit picking on every little thing rather than just riding her. The horse developed a bolting habit out of frustration of not being able to do anything right. When I rode I told the horse to get over herself because we had riding to do. I made it clear. When she tried to bolt I shut her down and instantly went about riding her like I would any horse. I didn't ride her like she was a horse that might bolt. I rode her like she wouldn't even think about bolting. But I was ready when she tried to bolt, and then treated her like it never even happened.

I am not saying that you should ignore Sally's worries, but she had been ridden at home a few hundred times and there is nothing there that has killed her yet. I really think that you should consider the possibility that part of the problem is that you get sucked into her mentality that something is wrong by not offering more leadership. If you ride her like nothing is wrong and she just needs to listen to reins, seat and legs you might find she gains confidence in listening to you instead of trying to avoid you.

I don't mean to be hard on you, but I say these things with the intent of trying to help you. It is clear you are frustrated that you still struggle with things that have been lingering for quite awhile now. Don't be like my client and get sucked into Sally's behaviour. Show her you are worthy of her trust, focus and obedience. I know it's hard, but when it changes it will be the best feeling you ever had.

Racing Foals in Cheyenne

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The July Soap Box entries have been archived and can be accessed by clicking here.

For those people that have been patiently waiting for the next installment of the Story of Satan (thank you for those kind e-mails from people who loved the first chapter), the next chapter is now on the Story page.

Today every registered racehorse turns another year older. It's the official birthday for all racehorses in Australia. So happy birthday all you guys - that's a lot of carrot cake to get eaten.

5-Day Horsemanship Clinic

It's now official! We will be holding a 5-day horsemanship clinic in Garfield, Victoria from November 6 (Saturday) to November 10 (Wednesday).

The numbers are limited to 5 participants. Horses can be boarded at the clinic venue.

We attempt to cater to the needs of each person and their horse whether unbroken, competition or pleasure mount. All interests and disciplines are welcome. It doesn't matter whether you have a specific problem you'd like help with or want to just improve your relationship with your horse. Everybody is welcome.

For more information and bookings contact us. Bookings are accepted in order of deposits received.


Victoria To Require Compulsory Registration of Horses

The State Government of Victorian is about require that all horses in the state be registered with the Department of Primary Industry (DPI). It is expected that a fee will be involved to pay for the scheme. The compulsory registration is in large part the result of the fallout from the Equine Influenza outbreak of recent times. In theory it will allow the DPI to know what horses are where in the event of another disease outbreak. This is suppose to aid in the decision making process of allocating resources where they will be most needed if EI comes back or other are released in Australia.

I can see there are good reasons why this is an excellent idea. However, I can also see that policing the registration of horses is going to be an impossible task. Only conscientious owners are going to register their horses and the rest won't care. Also people will be lax in keeping the DPI up to date about the movement, sale, purchase, death and birth of horses. And of course it does not take into account the wild brumbies that cross state boundaries at free will.

I think the intention is a good one, but I have reservations about the government’s ability to make it work well in practice.


Shying

Hi Ross and Michele
 
Hope your workplace has dried out at bit for you and you are able to get some horses worked. I managed to find a small area of firm ground today next to my round yard and this is where I worked Sally. I kept her within this small area to ride her. I was really particular about how she went but she was fairly distracted and kept falling out towards the exit. I was able to get her going fairly nicely at the walk and included lots of changes of direction, walk-halt transitions, hq yields etc. Just like we have always been doing. I asked her for trot after I had got this going well and it just all fell apart. Had to shut her down straight off and just walked again till this was good, went to trot again and as we came passed what she considered the exit, she did this big (well I thought it was big) jump and shy, to me it was at nothing but she thought that she had to do this, I shut her down and worked her again at walk, through the same area, made sure she went through the corner correctly. This continued on and again in trot the same thing happened, she unseats me and this has been happening at home now for the last few rides, in different areas. I don’t see any signs of worry in her when I ground work her but as soon as I ride her in the same place as I’ve done the ground work she has these big shy's. You and I know that she shouldn’t, or rather doesn’t need to be doing this but it doesn’t happen when I ride out as I have said before.(mind you riding out is very limited) I can’t help feeling that I’m missing something big with her and I also don’t think that I’m offering her anything better (well I’m trying to, but having trouble convincing her that it’s a better deal).
 
Not sure that I’ve actually got a question, just the need to talk to you about what has been going on. At first I thought it was because she had been out of work for a few weeks, which I’m sure didn’t help, but I’ve been riding her regularly now for the last couple of weeks and she is not improving at home. It’s obvious that I’m not getting her mind and keeping it with me, I’m not helping her to feel better about being ridden. I ended the ride with allowing her to choose where to go whilst keeping her within a set area as Michele has shown me before, this did seem to help her as she felt more settled. I just wish I could get though to her that she doesn’t need to be so worried and anxious about being ridden. She is such a great horse and I would like her to be that great riding horse that you spoke about in your blog Ross, I know it takes time but I’m just expressing my frustration along the way. I’m going to try to take her out more and will consider going to one of your clinics depending on the dates. In the meantime I’ll keep trying to be better for her.
 
Well I hope you and Michele are keeping well, and warm.


We had a downpour of rain last night and the arena, round yard and paddocks are all saturated - there has been so much water there is nowhere for it to drain to. I'm sure everybody in the area is the same.

I can't be really sure what is going on to cause the "big" shy. But I would try my best to shut it down immediately and instantly go on pretending it didn't happen. If it's only happening at a trot, then it is probably related to the level of anxiety she carries in the trot. Be careful not to get sucked into her anxiety and turn the shying into a big deal. Once you have the shy and your balance under control I would not hesitate a second in trotting her out of there as if nothing happened. Tell her she is a dopey horse and you haven't got time to be playing silly buggers and get on with the job. Sally has had enough riding in her life not to be looking for ghosts to shy at. Do your best to ride her with confidence and when she does shy let her know that you don't care and she's got a job to do. I know we'll be seeing you in 3 weeks at the next lesson weekend, so we can look into it further then. But play with my suggestion and let me know how you get along.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________