Horses as our reflections

An important part of working with horses - whether training or simply riding, is keeping in mind that our horses are a reflection of us - both in an emotional sense as well as physically and in general.

We have the power to create either a calm, thinking partner, or an emotional wreck of a horse. To create a calm and thinking horse, you teach the horse to think through situations, to solve puzzles and think for themselves (to be responsible for themselves), and to therefore remain calm. You develop what is already there in the horse to mold a rounded, balanced horse. It requires a lot of forethought on your part as well as self-awareness - your body language, how you hold yourself and how you interact with your horse. Creating an emotional wreck is easy in a lot of cases. It involves acting unfairly and unpredictably - acting like a predator around a prey animal, which comes easy to us. It involves lacking self-awareness and consideration.

Our horses' mental and emotional states also reflects physically. We've already discussed this topic in a previous blog (muscling), but suffice it to say that a horse who is very developed as a prey animal is going to have the associated muscling: strong underline from a tensed, raised neck, a "banana" shaped back, etc. A horse who is more developed as a partner will have a stronger topline. The horse who is not fully developed emotionally but has been taught to carry himself correctly may exhibit physical traits in both aforementioned areas.

In general, our horses will reflect us as well. An independent seat is vital to encouraging our horses to carry themselves the way we desire; if our horses reflect us and we wish them to carry themselves in a particular fashion, then we must also do so ourselves. Some examples:

- Maintain a straight seat on corners, without leaning into the corner. When you want to go, say, right, you put weight on your left foot to push off to the right, correct? So if we want our horses to balance themselves efficiently as they corner on the right rein, we need to balance ourselves even slightly to the left so that they may do the same. Leaning into the corner going right will cause your horse to also lean to the right, which creates an unbalanced corner.

- If you want your horse to bend his ribs on a circle bend your own on the circle.

- Turning say, for example, off the wall, lift the weight ever so slightly off your inside thigh so that your horse can push off his outside. If I fail to do so when riding one of my more advanced horses at liberty, they likely will not turn, even, because I am blocking them. Open that door. Still applying weight to your inside thigh while asking your horse to turn to the inside is contradictory and can be confusing to the developed horse. I find a lot of times I catch myself (usually on green horses) actually stiffening up my inside leg when applying leg pressure with my outside leg for a turn. Once I consciously catch and correct myself, the horse relaxes with my leg and bends as well, rather than keeping their barrel as stiff as my leg. The weight shift is infinitesimal, imperceptible - it should not be anything major or noticeable - but it still has to exist.

- Many might disagree with me on this one, but if you want your horse to round his back, do so yourself! For both back-up and collection, I ask my horses to round their backs by rounding my own and tipping my pelvis - just very imperceptibly (else it becomes a bad habit). As I further develop a horse and we work our way up through refinement, the physical changes I make become less and less observable to the spectator's eye - they become minute, refined, quieter, as the communication becomes more intimate with the horse. It only makes sense to me, just as a reiner rounds their back to ask for a sliding stop, because they are asking their horse to round their back and slide!

- Keep your hands, elbows, and shoulders soft for a soft mouth. A horse's mouth can become calloused and physically hard, but not as often as people seem to think, and those callouses can wear off! In my opinion, there is no such thing as a horse doomed to a wrecked mouth forever. That damage can be undone. Hard mouths develop into soft ones with soft work. It's just that easy. Horses doesn't respond lightly to soft work? Keep going further back into the basics until they do respond and you have something to build off of (one of the most important things I ever learned from John Lyons). I start all my horses from the ground up, so we establish a strong foundation where they are taught to be light and responsive to begin with. With that strong foundation, any horse with a previously hard mouth can be ridden in a gentle snaffle, in a rope hackamore, at liberty - whatever you so please. Some horses have the tendency to lean on your hands (get back to the basics and take away contact - no contact and they have nothing to lean on, then work them back up), or to just be heavy and grow increasingly dull. We own one Warmblood who is such and I am currently working with another who is the same way. A couple weeks ago I was working with her and was becoming increasingly frustrated because she was so heavy! She stopped backing up softly and even just stopped backing for me period and was the furthest thing from soft I could imagine - very tense and brace-y. Finally, I relaxed my hands. BOOM, she relaxed her jaw. Our back-ups returned to being soft, her collection was soft - everything became soft. With some horses I find you can have the tendency to play off each other - the horse is a little hard, so your hands become hard, so they become harder, and your hands become harder. The vicious cycle continues until you are both frustrated and the horse (as in my case) maybe even stops working. I find the horse being hard to begin with depends largely on respect - build that back up (even within that session) and the horse becomes softer and more responsive. Then keep your hands soft, and the horse stays soft!


Another "reflection" of you you will often encounter in a horse, is in your (in)ability to catch them. "You find out what your horse thought of your last session the next day when you go to catch him" - Jonathan Field. You also find out what your horse thinks of you or people in general! A partnership can take awhile to build up - from days to years, so sometimes it is a work-in-progress. In the mean time, the horse might be difficult to catch but steadily improves as your relationship with him improves. However if you've been working with a particular horse for a number of years and he is still hard to catch, you might want to re-evaluate what you are doing with him or how you are working with him that causes him to re-think being with you. I was riding with a pair of individuals the other day who were lamenting on how hard their one horse had been to catch, how this particular mare was just being a b****. She was also a b**** when it came to bridling (long-shanked curb), which resulted in a fight between horse and human, with said horse being injured somehow in the process. It's not the horse! Things such as the aforementioned events have more to do with us than we realise. In this case, the mare was sending out clear signals she didn't like being ridden by refusing to be caught and by being difficult to bridle. If your horse is hard to catch (regardless of its past), ask yourself why. Oftentimes it has to do with us.

Keeping in mind that our horses are our mirrors is vital to our work with them - it can mean the difference between a successful partnership and a great one, or an unsuccessful one and a successful one.

Eating grass

We all have dealt with it, or still deal with it. So, how do we stop it?

I felt Parelli's take on the situation was great, so I am posting it here (in green):

I often hear people say, "I never let my horse eat grass when I'm riding", and guess what...their horse is one of the worst! He takes every opportunity to lunge at the grass, even unseating the rider to get at it. If we think about it from his point of view, he's surrounded by delicious grass and then gets punished for wanting to eat it. This is just like taking a small child into a candy store and expecting him to have enough self-control to ignore all that candy. It's a pretty tough thing to ask, right? By being more considerate, we could give him some time to eat before asking for his full attention, then allow him to eat it now and then, but only when you invite it. Be sure to give permission rather than just letting him plunge his head down. Invite him by using the Porcupine Game... simply lower his head to the ground when you want him to graze. It's a great way to improve Game #2!

I am of the opinion that respect has a great deal to do with a horse plunging its head down to eat without permission. Remember that whatever you have on the ground is always halved in the saddle, so if you have say ok respect on the ground, you will have little to no respect under-saddle. If you've got an absolutely fantastic level of respect on the ground, that will carry into the saddle. The more often you have that fantastic level of respect on the ground and the more you work to further build it, the more respect you will have under-saddle. On that note, respect is not forced, it is earned. You earn it by representing a firm and assertive leader, but never an aggressive one (if you feel angry, get off and walk away). You get it by way of body language and backing up said body language, but you do not get it by simply using the end of a crop or leadrope. If you create a resentful horse, that resentful attitude will follow you in amongst that grass - the horse won't care that you asked it not to, it's going to eat when it wants, what it wants, and however much it wants! Respect is earned also by being persistent and fair.

Another factor that plays a role in whether or not a horse will be constantly insisting on eating grass is rules and boundaries. If he sometimes gets away with snatching a mouthful here or there, with no rhyme or reason, he'll think he can get away with it other times. Why not?

First off, I always ask people who don't want their horses to eat grass: why not? Sometimes it's that they don't want to have to wash off the bit, sometimes it's that they think the horse will somehow get its legs tangled in the reins (not if you're watching!), and other times they think it will create a disrespectful and rude horse. What I always remind them though, is that this is a partnership.

part·ner·ship (pärtnr-shp)
n.
1. The state of being a partner.
2. a. A legal contract entered into by two or more persons in which each agrees to furnish a part of the capital and labor for a business enterprise, and by which each shares a fixed proportion of profits and losses.
b. The persons bound by such a contract.
3. A relationship between individuals or groups that is characterized by mutual cooperation and responsibility, as for the achievement of a specified goal: Neighborhood groups formed a partnership to fight crime.

Mutual cooperation. To me, I read that as both parties cooperating, and combining the interests of both parties. When working with our horses, that means considering what they want to do as well - after all, they're already doing what you want to do!

This is how things work with our horses:

A horse I do not deem to have a very high level of respect for me yet, is usually not allowed to graze (they're often the type of horse that does not get treats, either, until their overall p.o.v. shifts). Once I have earned a fairly high level of respect from them, they can graze to their little heart's content, provided they abide by my rules:

1. If you feel the need to grab that long, tantalizing strand of grass whilst walking, be my guest, but you are not slowing down to get it. This includes in-hand as well as under-saddle. On the ground, my horses have 12' of rope to play with. If they want to eat, they soon figure out to jog a couple steps ahead, grab a bite or two (by that time I have walked past and they are at the end of the 12' rope), then jog back next to me or ahead of me again, without ever hitting the end of the rope and without ever getting in the way of my path. Under-saddle, it means they are not yanking the reins out of my hand to grab a bite - they work with what they have, and the continue at the pace we were. On the ground, they hit the end of the rope and/or lose their grazing privileges if they do not keep up. Under-saddle, they meet a light squeeze and then (if necessary) a spank if they slow overly or if they stop without permission.

2. If I answer "no" to your question of "may I eat grass now?" (ie. if you bump my hands lightly and I don't give you your head), the answer remains "no" until I dictate otherwise. Don't keep asking, or I will have you working hard so that your focus is on the work at hand in lieu of the grass.

3. If I allow you to eat while stopped (this is where I like Pat's method of telling the horse it is now ok to eat grass, via applying pressure to ask them to lower their head), you may continue to do so until I pick up my reins and energy and squeeze you lightly forward.

The best thing I ever learned about getting a horse to quit eating grass was from John Lyons. He said to spank your horse rather than kick it or pull on the reins. Horses don't like to be kicked (I mean, would you?), and who has reefing on the reins ever worked for anyway?? So from then on, when a horse went to dive their nose down into grass, I simply gently spanked them with my rein ends (rhythmically, swinging my reins from one side of the haunches and across my body to the other side). Never had a problem after that.

Earning a high level of respect from your horse is key though, as is working in partnership with them. If you are working in partnership with them, they might gently ask, every once in awhile, if they can eat grass, but they will do so politely and not every stride. Also, if you are working in partnership with them, you are allowing them to eat grass here and there (take your time coming in from their paddock to work, let them eat while opening a gate, etc), out of consideration for their wants and needs, and so your horse will respect you for that as well. Horses respect a leader who is fair, whose rules they can easily understand. The above three rules are pretty easy for a horse to understand, I find. The other key though is prior and proper preparation (respect, etc), as it prevents a lot of mayhem in the first place.

Personally, any horse I ride is permitted to eat - over the last 6 years or so that I have really developed my horsemanship, I have never had a problem with a horse being excessively rude while eating. If they are a little more rude than I'd like, I revoke their grazing privileges. Once I feel they are again respectful (either during that same ride/walk or during another session altogether), then I return their privileges. My horses are always chomping away happily while still complying with everything I ask. If they are still doing what you ask, what more could you want? Why not allow them to do a little of what they want, while still doing what you want as well?

Stallions

For anyone curious, this is the Parelli cradle bit. It has been featured in the comments of Shame in the Horse Show Ring (a good blog to consider reading if you want to be aware of what goes on in the ring). For anyone actually interested in reading about it rather than just guessing at its use and effectiveness via photos, check out the bit on the actual Parelli website. It was devised and created by the Parelli's in conjunction with Myler. Essentially it is kind of similar to a Baucher. For basic flat work, you attach the rein to the primary ring. For refinement - collection, higher-level lateral work, etc, you attach the rein to the smaller ring, which provides a little leverage action. Sort of like using a curb, at the appropriate time in your horse's training, for subtler communication. A soft but knotted chin strap sits beneath the jaw, and a knotted nose strap sits right below the noseband; a string attaches to the nosepiece and ties to the browband, keeping the nosepiece from dropping too low. The knots provide something uncomfortable for the horse to lean against and work much the same as the knots in a rope halter. The bit itself is a basic snaffle with sweet iron and a low port (no hard pallet action, but providing some tongue relief), that locks and won't collapse on the horse's tongue. It is a very mild bit but has the ability to be used for refinement work as well. Personally, I currently use it on three of my english horses and have had great success with it. The horses seem to love it and they are happy to engage their behind as the work progresses and encourages it of them. Unlike a lot of the bits out there, this bit was not designed for control a.k.a. torture. It was designed to suit particular horses and to help horse and rider communicate effectively and efficiently. Is it expensive? Heck yea, but, so are a great many quality bits. Do you have to purchase the much-too-expensive-for-my-taste (but really nice!) headstall with it? Nope, the bit goes on any headstall (I actually do not own the Parelli headstalls).

As noted in prior blog entries, you do not NEED any equipment, but certain tools will help you with certain jobs.

So, on to the topic at hand I very briefly wanted to discuss today: stallions. Until I have worked with every single stallion in the world, I will never profess to know all there is about them. Since that is highly unlikely, I will have to say that I will always be learning about them (as goes with all horses). In the mean time, I will admit that my work with stallions so far has been very limited and due to my limited exposure to riding and working with stallions, I cannot propose to hand out advise except to warn and really impress upon people that stallions are not like your typical gelding or mare. I have had stallions sneak in on me when my back was turned, then boom, they are right there, in your face when you turn around - and you are left unable read their expression or intentions. You would never have known what hit you. They will challenge your authority - even the mild-mannered ones, they are meant to do so. They are a huge challenge to your horsemanship to tackle, so please please please, if you are considering raising or keeping a stallion, take a look first at your skills. Gain some experience around a few other stallions first. Stallions should be well-mannered, docile creatures, but just as some geldings and mares are very high energy, so are some stallions. Some have assertive horsenalities or some other factor that will play a role in the management and skill required to keep such an animal well-mannered and docile. Exercise is key, along with as natural a lifestyle as possible and a relationship composed of a high high level of respect coupled with trust. If you can't maintain that respect at a sufficient level, you're going to find yourself in trouble. Trouble is, how do you know what level of respect is "sufficient"? Which is where experience comes in to play. If you haven't got the horse (and preferably, stallion) experience, stay away from stallions and breed to outside studs.

Do horses need jobs too??

How much do you value giving your horse a job?

I feel a sense of disappointment sometimes when I realize how the world has changed. It used to be that we used horses for our livelihoods - every horse had a job. While there are still a large number of individuals who still use horses for a specific job (plowing fields, working cattle, etc), the proportion of horse people who do so seems to be shrinking. I feel a great number of individuals particularly neglect the benefits of cross-training and giving their horse a job to do outside their competitive discipline.

Personally, I believe that horses, just as humans, need a purpose. They need something to do, and endless circles and patterns in an arena can only do so much. At the very least, the healthiest thing we can do for our horses is to keep them well-rounded and mentally stimulated. Barrel horses should also be out on the trails, team penning, reining, even doing some jumping. Dressage horses should be jumping small courses or heck, even working cattle. When horses have a specific job to do, they tend to focus on that rather than spooky objects, the bit in their mouth, or resisting the rider. They have something to look forward to because they feel like they are accomplishing something important. It also gives them incentive, a reason to perform and to do as their rider asks - they see a valid reason for moving off the rider's leg immediately, or going sideways, etc. Later, the rider takes the horse into the arena and the horse can feel like it is practising for the job that required those same maneuvers. Giving a horse a job builds that horse's confidence and gives them pride in themselves.

As we become more urbanized, our horses consequently do as well. They become accustomed to riding in quiet, flat arenas as opposed to working in unpredictable weather on rough ground and out in the middle of nowhere - something I think does not suit the horse very well (this change, that is). Sometimes we can only do so much, but I really push any clients I return horses to, to give their horses jobs to do. For example, I have been encouraging the owners of a big paint I am currently working to take him out to the hills and put him on the trails. There, he is concentrated on his feet and on navigating bush as opposed to the rider on his back. I put 60 days on another client's horse and advised the client to take it easy, but to take the horse into the mountains to climb steep inclines, cross deep rivers - get that horse thinking and working in partnership. My own horses have unfortunately been stuck working in rolling prairie fields and arenas far to long, due to time and accessibility constraints, with only the odd romp in the mountains. I finally am taking three of them up to Tomahawk, Alberta, to ride miles a day, work cattle, fix fences - whatever need be. Link, a Thoroughbred we picked up off the track last fall, has progressed in leaps in bounds each time I take him out to the mountains. It's like each time I take him out, our partnership blossoms into something new and I come back with a new horse. I can't wait to see our progress after living the simple life for a month.

There is just something about keeping and working a horse in as natural an environment as possible and of giving said horse a job to do, that makes them a better balanced individual more willing to work in partnership with you. Many horses never leave the arena or track though, as for whatever reason a lot of professionals find no need for, or even turn their nose up at, versatility. Dressage horses working cattle??! Hell no! Why not though? I could feel the utter surprise run through Link when he encountered uneven footing in the mountains our first time out. He had no idea what the heck was going on after living in small paddocks at home and in stalls on the track, only ever working on flat surfaces. He adapted quickly though and came out of it all the better. I don't care if we do make it to the international levels in jumping one sunny day, that horse is going to still play in the mountains and work cattle whenever we can.

In my opinion, I think versatility keeps our horses fresh and their minds (and bodies!) healthy and healthy. I think we need to strive to give our horses the same purpose we seek ourselves. I believe it can even make the difference between an "untrainable", "dangerous" horse, and one with a successful career, or even a "great" horse and a superstar.

On another, slightly related note, a show trainer for gaited horses mentioned in Horse Illustrated's most recent issue the need for our horses to get out and play every once in awhile, particularly when they're stalled. She went on to specify though that your horse should be booted up and only turned out in a small area. Obviously this is not the first article to exist to say the same (for any horse, not just gaited). I understand the need for bell boots perhaps, but whatever happened to just allowing our horses to be horses? Are we overprotecting them as we seem to be doing with our kids? When will the day come when we only turn our horses out, in a 10x10 padded paddock, covered in bubble wrap? Anyway, don't underestimate the benefit of turning your horse out and allowing him play time.