The patience pole, or, the ‘tree of knowledge’ is an exercise in basically tying the horse up to a pole or a tree, where they will remain tied up for hours or days.
Sometimes it’s 5 hours.
Sometimes it’s overnight,
Sometimes it’s for days.
 
It’s a long accepted practice and approach to teaching our horses to have patience, manners and the skill of standing tied.
 
The result is a horse that is standing tied, appears to have ‘respect’ and ‘manners’.
 
But why does it work, and what psychological and psychological impact is it having on our horses ?
The patience pole restricts our horses movement - both from a perspective of moving from one place to another, but also from the perspective of lowering his head, scratching, self soothing, and having a full range of motion - for an extended period of time. Of course all horse owners restrict movement in this way - when trailering, riding and tying - and our horses must have this skill, but the patience pole is designed to extend this to the extreme.
 
When we look at our horses survival mechanisms a horses 5 steps to survival:
 
1. Do the opposite of what a predator asks
2. Flight
3. Fight
4. Push into pressure
5. Accept my own death
 
The act of tying a horse to a ‘patience pole’ causes him to go through these processes - and eventually accept that they cannot escape, cannot fight, cannot push, and are going to die here. The act of not behind able to scratch or comfort themselves, defend themselves, all cause a ‘shut down’ coping strategy to kick in.
 
The more we learn about our horses physiology, the more we must reconsider these types of practices.
 
A horse when stressed is in sympathetic nervous system - fight or flight - and when we restrict that process from playing out, we prevent learning, and growth.
 
For a horse to come back into parasympathetic nervous system - rest and digest - he must move his feet, graze, and lower his head - all prevented by the ‘patience pole’
 
When a horse is unable to process from sympathetic to parasympathetic as nature intended, he enters ‘freeze’ as a protective mechanism.
 
This article isn’t ‘anti tying’ - my horses will happily stand tied for hours, and if they were in an emergency and had to -
All night or all day, BUT, I don’t want to take anything from them, I want to educate them, nurture them to become confident, mentally and emotionally balanced citizens.
 
There are ways to teach your horse to safely and confidently tie without ‘letting him figure it out for himself’ and breaking him mentally and emotionally. It just takes a little bit more time, effort and skill than just tying him to a post and walking away.
 
For the horse
Tk

We had this little guy at a clinic recently. He is fairly green in his education, and he more recently had a bit of ‘spooking’ happening, and had gotten away from the owner on the ground (spooked at something, and pulled away).
 
Even though he has been being ridden, we noticed he was not comfortable with the saddle at all, and in fact was quite spooked when it made a sound (not great when you want to ride him!).
 
So phil started working with him on the ground. One of the first things Phil had to establish was that he couldn’t get away (this can be a huge, and dangerous issue), so Phil helped him by teaching him to look to him when he ran off, instead of running off - this began with Phil putting in a hindquarter disengagement to his focus (not needing to physically touch him).
 
This starts on a smaller circle, and then you continue to make the circle bigger, until he is able to come in on the 22’ distance - note this comes from the hindquarters and not from pulling on his head.
 
Phil also worked on establishing a better feel in the halter.
 
All of this was done with the saddle on - a great way to help him be confident simply moving around with a focus, with the saddle on.
 
Phil then asked him to circle at the walk, trot and canter - and at the start, the little horse would take off even at the walk.
 
Phil held space and gently guided him to a stop, or a hq yield when he got anxious, to help expand his ‘thinking zone’, so instead of taking off, he began to think that stopping was a better option, and the stopping allowed him to reassess the saddle and realise it wasn’t so bad. With Phil's kind guidance it didn’t take long until he was confident at the walk, and tolerating at the trot - he still took off at the canter - it is so important to realise that increasing the gait reduces the horses ability to remain calm about something he is worried about.
 
So Phil did the same at the trot - gently guided him and showed him it was much more comfortable to come back to a walk, rather than take off.
 
By the close of the session the little guy was confident at the walk, cautiously confident at the trot, and able to tolerate at the canter.
 
In future sessions the owner will work on increasing this confidence in all gaits until it can be relied upon.
 
The vital parts of this session were;
Phil remaining calm
Phil remaining connected to the horse
Phil keeping the conversation going
Phil showing the horse the comfortable spot
Phil giving the horse time to think, and also helping him
 
I often hear the train of thought - “just leave him, he will figure it out” - well, he might, but it’s going to be a heck of a lot more stressful for him than if you just helped him along.
After all aren’t we supposed to be the “superior” species.

An interview with Noelene

•    Why did you book into your TKH Clinic and what did you hope to gain from it ?

I had recently purchased a (very large – 17.3hh) warmblood gelding at the beginning of the year. It wasn’t until I got him home and was exposing him to different things/environments that I realised he had a frightening problem with anxiety that I just did not have the experience to deal with. His anxiety gave me anxiety which created a crazy and unsafe snowball effect!

I started to feel like a failure and thought this should have been something that I was able to deal with. I ended up selling him on, but I felt like I needed to do something to address my lack of knowledge and understanding of horses, not just focus on getting better dressage scores. So I started my quest to become a better rider and horse person!! I put a post on Facebook asking for recommendations for horsemanship clinics in Northern NSW and Tanja came highly recommended! I really liked how Tanja had a focus on helping female horse people especially to gain back our confidence.

I was hoping for a relaxing weekend, meeting new and likeminded people (absolutely ticked that box!!) and what I was mostly hoping for was some “tools” that I understood HOW to use and WHY I was using them to help an anxious horse be more controllable. Hopefully I could deal with a horse similar to my warmblood gelding again in the future.

•    How was your TKH experience different to what you expected?

Wow, in so many ways! I was expecting just to work on controlling and lowering anxiety levels in horses. What I didn’t expect, was that I would come away with an entirely new perspective on how to train my dressage horse. I have been to a number of dressage trainers in the past, most will have you riding circle after circle after circle. When you do get the movement right, we would then do it again and again.

I now look at training totally differently. To be able to teach the horse to break down more complex movements on the ground first then under saddle was a totally new concept to me. Also, the idea that I should STOP after getting the right move (even if so subtle to begin with) and let the horse have a breather…

sounds so simple right?  

Also, I use to feel anxious if there was something different going on, I.e my neighbour’s kids kicking a ball around, etc but now I see it as a training opportunity and a valuable way of teaching my horse to lower her anxiety.

I’m now looking for ways to slowly “introduce stressful situations” to my horse so we can work through it together.

•    Horsemanship is usually not synonymous with dressage training. How do you think the horsemanship has helped you with your dressage?

I know right! And I have absolutely no idea why. Tanja trains all of the same dressage concepts - such as self-carriage for the horse without pulling/bracing on the horses mouth or insisting on an impeding “frame”; to have a horse that is willing to move off subtle cues, be “sensitive to the aids” and changes in our bodies energy and to have a happy and relaxed horse are what I have always been striving for in my dressage horse!

I structure each training session differently now. I think about training one or two things each session and think about how I can ask for it using the subtle cues I have taught my horse on the ground. When she gets it right, even only just right to begin with, I stop and let her have a breather.

Also, I do strengthening exercises and stretches every day to help develop the muscles in her back which are crucial for a dressage horse.  

•    What surprised you most about the clinic?

You can have a horse that is HAPPY to do dressage work, that is willing and relaxed. You can perform dressage movements without harsh aids, over repetition, bracing on the horses mouth or creating anxiety in your horse. There is a better way to work with your horse.

Groundwork isn’t only to reduce anxiety and make your horse easier to control, it can be used to create a sensitive and willing partner.

•    What was the biggest take-home from the clinic?

I’m now starting to listen to my horse and use my intuition. I’d always felt like I wasn’t confident enough or experienced enough to really know what was going on with my horse, but watching Tanja work with the horses during the clinic has made me realise that I should be watching, listening and responding to what my horse is trying to communicate to me. Not just throw the saddle on and go.

I have always loved my horse, but I now feel like I’m starting to really SEE her.

•    Is there anything you'd like to add?
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Can a warmblood do Cowboy Dressage? lol