FHOTD attacks again

You've done it yet again, Cathy. You know, the more and more I am around people, the more I really do like my dog! And horses.

I'll make this short, but I read the ad Cathy posted prior to its being removed (which always happens after Cathy attacks an individual - the media piece is removed). The other photos of the horse in question did reveal a horse who is pretty thin. However rather than using a select photo or two and writing an educational blog on thin horses and breeding - how to body score, how to put weight on those hard-keepers (we'll have one here soon, promise), etc etc, Cathy posted the actual ad for her followers to harass the sellers. This way, though, she can claim innocence - "I never told them to harass the ad posters!" No, but you broadcasted this horse, slapped the owners in the face (yes, the horse is too thin, but there is always another side to the story and Cathy could have politely, respectfully, and compassionately helped the ad posters out with a little education rather than tearing a strip off of them - people learn nothing from that), and provided your sheep with the means of verbally abusing the ad posters - resulting in the ad being removed from Craigslist. As far as Cathy's followers: why do you think it is ok to verbally abuse people over the internet when you wouldn't dream (I hope, anyways) of doing so in person, at say your workplace? A little education, in place of snarky commentary, could have gone a long ways to helping that horse. Seems like the Dalai Lama isn't just needed in Calgary...

On that note, I don't want people to harass Cathy if they disagree with some of what she posts either. We should all be demonstrating compassion toward one another; it would make our world a whole lot better place. In that light, I struggle with even posting this blog, but at the same time, I feel like Cathy should be called out on what she is doing, and I'm not verbally abusing Cathy. *sigh* call me a hypocrite, that's just my two cents.

Heavy horses

The “heavy” horse is the horse you’re under the impression will never be nimble enough to turn on a dime (I know I have, and clients of mine have been!), or who is constantly leaning on your hands (aaah, we love our OTTB’s, but they can love to lean!). How do you lighten such a horse up?

If you’re under the (typically, false) impression your horse cannot pick up that shoulder and give you a clean, light turn on the haunches – you might want to re-think the situation. It usually is not that the horse can’t physically do it (unless it's a skeletal/muscle issue), it is often that he won’t do it – either (1) due to lack of respect for his rider, (2) due to tension, or (3) because he has never been taught to be light.

1 - If it is a lack of respect that is the issue, the job is yours to earn your horse’s respect – play games on the ground that get your horse moving his feet more than yours: moving his front end around, moving his hind end around, backing up. Use assertive body language and increasing phases of “ask” until you get the response you desire. The Parelli 7 games are one great way to earn respect, roundpenning with plenty of changes in direction can be another. You can also earn respect under-saddle by working on impulsion through transitions, etc.

2 - If the issue is tension in the horse – circles circles circles – work on all sorts of patterns that include bends and circles. Keep your own body relaxed and free of tension. Earn your horse’s trust (not only in you, but in your leadership) and be consistent and fair. Challenge your horse and work on some wet saddle blankets! Use exercises that encourage relaxation and suppleness (Jane Savoie has some fabulous exercises that address such) so your horse does not 'lock up'.

3 - Teach your horse to release to pressure by asking him, first on the ground, to release to various points of pressure you apply on his body. Ask in increasing phases (hair, skin, muscle, bone) and release the instant your horse responds. Have long phases to start, and shorten the phases as your horse understands your request and thus as you ask more of him. Keep yourself light and always allow him the chance to be light!

For the horse who is leaning on your hands – quit giving him something to lean on! It’s as simple as that! A leaning horse is the result of a vicious circle - horse pulls, so your hands brace and harden, horse leans further, your hands toughen up even further...and so it continues. It's a two-way street. If you take away the contact, your horse no longer has anything to lean on. The first thing we did for my mom’s OTTB when we first got him off the track, was to remove all bit contact under-saddle and ride him on a looped rein. It was a little hilarious, because he felt like a fish out of water, floundering about as he tried to figure out what he was now supposed to do. No one was directing his every (leaning) step!! He had to take responsibility for himself, think for himself, and be light – there was no longer anything to lean on! He was a little confused at first, but quickly figured it out. Once he had a solid foundation, we then took it back up to the next level – contact. This is not to be confused with asking the horse to pick up the bit, which comes as a result of progression along the dressage training scale; picking up contact on the horse who is ready for it consists solely of picking up the slack in the reins to the point where you can subtly feel his mouth at the end of your reins - that's it. At that point you start developing the horse to where he eventually picks up the bit of his own accord, as a result of the exercises and patterns you're asking him to perform (using bend and inside leg to outside rein). For the less enthusiastic or established leaner, you can do two things when he goes to lean: close your legs and close your hands. Your legs should gently but abruptly bump him, effectively driving his hind under him a little more and causing him to pick up his front end. Simultaneously, close your hands abruptly as he reaches down to lean, allowing him to "hit the end of the rein". Lateral work and poles on the ground - exercises that require increased engagement, will also prevent your horse from leaning.

Please make sure to not confuse a horse reaching down and stretching over his back with a horse who is leaning - a horse who is leaning is putting a lot of weight in your hands, you will feel your arms and shoulders being dragged downward. The horse who is stretching over his back should be doing so while remaining engaged (at least mostly) and should be light in your hand. If you're not sure what your horse is doing or why, consult a professional.



Many times I feel horses are thrown into contact work without sufficient basics. A horse should be light on a loose rein first, should be responsible for himself (ie, maintain gait, self-carriage to a limited extent, and balance), and should know how to think for himself, first. He should be very responsive to weight shifts, to leg aids, and should be soft, supple, and relaxed. There should be no resistance on a loose rein and there should also be no dependance on that rein for control; it should be an intimate means of communication! Only then should the slack be taken up in the reins and the horse progressed up the training scale. At that point, the rider is solely taking up slack in the reins - not pulling on the horse's mouth or trying to initiate contact by the horse or what.

Another tip for the leaner is: impulsion. Transitions as well as changes in pace within a gait (such as a trot) work to get the horse working more off its hind end. A horse on his hind end is, obviously, not on the forehand and in a position to lean. A little squeeze when your horse goes down to lean forces him to step under himself better for a moment or two, which causes the poll to come up. In dressage, you work to the point where eventually the poll is the highest point in the collected horse - obviously he is not leaning on your hands by that point! You don't have to be a dressage rider to achieve the same lightness and level of collection, but you can do the same or similar exercises. Really effective can be to squeeze and bump gently with your hands simultaneously, as previously mentioned. Don't nag at your horse, but only correct him when he actually makes a mistake. On the note of exercises, I have found the book: Progressive School Exercises for Dressage and Jumping, by Islay Auty, to be extremely beneficial - I use it on a constant basis, whether working my western horses or my dressage and jumping prospects. A specific exercise you can do is to set up 4 pairs of cones, one pair at each "corner" of a 20m circle (creating a "+" or "x"). Space each pair of cones 3-4 feet apart, along the circumference of the 20m circle, with the goal of riding between each pair. Start by riding the circle at a walk, then progress to a trot, then finally a canter - don't progress to the next gait until the former is well-established. Ensure your horse is bent, supple, relaxed, and balanced going around the circle. As you ride between the pair of cones, slow the horse (if you're working on contact, don't pull back, just close your hands and relax your seat). As you leave the pair of cones, open your hands and allow the horse to move out again (you should just have to open your hands, if not, give a light squeeze - if impulsion is a problem, play some Point-2-Point or other such simple exercise). The goal is to teach the horse to sit back on his hindquarters and work off his hind end - by slowing he sits back in the first place, by asking for impulsion afterwards he works off that hind end. With the western horse, your hand and seat cues are essentially the same, even if you are working off a loose rein (if your horse has trouble "hearing" you, use heavier reins or shorten up the rein length).

Keep in mind also that the horse who is leaning is likely doing so due to lack of strength and balance. He is using his rider as a 'fifth leg' so as to balance, as opposed to using his hind end. The ultimate object is to work the horse in such a way where he has to increasingly engage (ie, lateral work, poles, hills) so he develops strength and the habit of carrying himself in a more uphill manner. Horses with a downhill build (ie, top of butt higher than top of wither) or with a low-set neck (ie, below the point of shoulder) will have a stronger tendency to lean and will have more difficulty rocking back onto their haunches - be patient! Such a horse will have limits to his ability to move in a more uphill manner. Horses, just as people, can also be lazy, which means they are not driving from behind and engaging as they should be. Same principles as previously mentioned all apply.

Last but not least, our horses are a reflection of us, so a tense body or hard hands = a hard mouth and/or a heavy horse. Keep your body and hands soft!! There is many a time I have had to consciously remind myself to lighten up my hands or legs – instantly the horse I am riding would lighten up as well. Tension in your own body can also reflect as tension in the horse too. Often, too, we just have to give our horses the chance to be light with leg aids - they sometimes surprise us! Always be as light as possible but as effective as necessary - make your corrections to be effective but always return to being light. On a related note, be sure to maintain correct position, as a leaning rider will also create a leaning horse who is on his forehand.

Don’t think your horse can be light and responsive in his mouth, or that he is physically capable of being light in his body? Think again - he can feel a fly landing on a single hair. It's about the horse's mind and responsiveness to your aids, not about whether or not he can feel you. He feels you - your job is to teach him he can be light.

Leaving halters on

I have to go back on my word a bit in regards to leaving halters on hard-to-catch horses…there are special circumstances where I feel leaving the halter on can be ok. Special and rare, but they exist.

This comes about as I admit to leaving a halter on our newest horse, Cody. Where we are at for the month of September and part of October (until the Thanksgiving weekend), there are no facilities to make catching Cody easier. I cannot really lock him into a paddock as he would not have enough feed (the horses are on grass - hay out here isn't feasible/worthwhile; they'll be back on hay upon returning home) and he would have no water (not really feasible to pack it to him every day). In addition, even in a small paddock, it would probably take a good hour or more to get a rope on him. He remains suspicious of people (though he is coming around), but is particularly suspicious of ropes yet (we haven’t done too much work on it yet and will tackle it more directly once we return home). Working on ropes with him is something I want to take on while I have a rope and halter on him – doing so at liberty (unless in a roundpen, which we do not have right here but do have at home) would just result in him losing trust in me and then being impossible to catch. Anyways. So in the mean time, due to his substantial fear issues, I am leaving a rope halter on him – one that easily comes off in the event he catches himself on something (and it has come over an ear a few times). I do not advise someone to leave a halter on a horse who just doesn’t want to be caught (for whatever reason) – in that event, there is a lot you can do (usually): walking down the horse, cornering the horse, approach and retreat, using body language to have the horse face you, bribing the horse (short-term while you work on the issue from the other side – getting the horse to the point where he enjoys being with you so much he wants to be caught), etc etc. We’ve discussed leaving halters on horses and hard-to-catch horses in the past. Leaving a halter on a horse can be dangerous and is a last-resort option; it is also a temporary option as you work on a horse’s fear-based reactions. I still cringe when I see pastured horses with halters on, particularly foals (because they haven’t been taught to release to pressure or to think situations through). On the other hand, I can understand the odd time where leaving a halter on a horse is necessary. So, what can you do to make your horse as safe as possible while wearing her halter?

1. Either have the halter as loose as possible (while still staying on) or as tight as possible (while remaining comfortable to the horse) – not in between. It has always been a debate throughout my years with horses of which option was best (I think Pony Club usually recommended a snug halter), with pros and cons on either side of the fence. If you have the halter on snug, the possibility of a foot becoming entangled is reduced, yet if the horse gets his halter caught on anything, there is less chance of the halter coming off in the event of an emergency. However, a snug halter reduces the risk of something being caught in the first place. With a loose halter, there is more of a chance the horse could get a foot caught, but the halter can also come off the horse’s head in an emergency. Either way, use a breakaway halter or rig one by using a breakable tying material (thin baling twine, etc) to tie the halter together rather than doing it up as usual. This allows the halter to break apart in the event of a caught foot or other. My recommendation would probably be to have a snug, well-fitting halter that will break apart should the worst occur.

2. Check the pasture/paddock and remove anything (possible) the halter could be caught on.

3. Make it a temporary “solution” while you work out your horse’s catching issues – the longer that halter is on, the greater the risk your horse could be injured. The minute that horse starts being possible to catch (even if it takes 15min and takes some work), remove the halter. Be willing to do what it takes to catch that horse and to improve future catcheability.

One-sidedness

Just as humans, horses will have the tendency to perform better on one side than the other. Our OTTB Link, is quite obvious yet in his one-sidedness when he is under-saddle: his left side is slightly less responsive and he is less inclined to relax and soften completely when travelling on the left rein. On the ground, however, his right side was the side that gave us so much trouble at the start - he was downright reactive and untrustworthy on that side and if he was ever to kick at you, it would be from that side.


What are some reasons for one-sidedness?

Brain studies rule out the common myth that horses lack corpus callosums, or that a horse's corpus callosum is under-developed. Transfer of information between the right and left hemispheres occurs easily.

The function of a horse's vision can also have a part in a horse's "apparent one-sidedness" (more on horse's vision in the future).

Since we, as humans and creatures of habit, typically only handle horses from the left side (something stemming from those sword-wearing days), we have the potential of creating one-sidedness. Always saddling, haltering, etc, from the left side, can (in an extreme case) create a horse who is unused to people on his left side and who lacks trust in people on his left side. Mounting a horse consistently on the left side, for example, can change a horse's musculature. Longeing a horse unevenly - more on one side than the other, will create a horse stronger on one side than another. One myth I want to dispel briefly is that horses off the track are one-sided because they are only worked solely in one direction. This is completely untrue, as anyone who has any horses off the track can appreciate. Horses on the track are worked on a track with a broad turn that feels much as if the horse were travelling in a straight line - it is not like longeing a horse on a 20m circle. Also, racehorses are taught to pick up both leads as equally as possible.

Another reason for possible one-sidedness is chiropractic misalignment. A horse who is sore or uncomfortable on one side (perhaps imperceptibly so) will favour one side versus the other, which can further exacerbate the problem by building up muscle on the side the horse is using more.


How can you tell if your horse is one-sided?

Sometimes a horse's one-sidedness is obvious - either to the rider, to a spectator, or to both; other times the changes are so gradual we don't notice them with time or the one-sidedness is imperceptible to us. Being acutely and consciously aware of your horse's movement is vital to figuring out if your horse is experiencing one-sidedness. Have a professional set of eyes on the ground (both with the horse under-saddle and without wearing a saddle - assessing movement as well as musculature). Assess your horse without the gadgets and equipment - loose wearing just a halter and lead or even at complete liberty, in an arena or (preferably) roundpen. Is he arced to the outside in one direction, without you there to (perhaps inadvertently) support and direct him? If you and your horse are at an appropriate level to do so, liberty riding can really show where a horse is at - a one-sided horse will arc on circles and/or along straight lines.


How can you fix one-sidedness?

First off, try to make sure your horse does not become one-sided in the first place by working each side equally (both mentally and physically). Ensure your horse is properly chiropractically aligned. Mount equally from both sides and, preferably, from a mounting block, which reduces the strain and pressure on your horse's back and whithers. If your horse is already one-sided (whether to pressure or muscularly), work the "off" side more often than the "good" side, until your horse is "even". Persistence!!