Haste is easily one of the top issues that I see with horses and their humans. If we take the time to watch horses in the paddock, going about their day to day lives, they really don’t do anything quickly, unless there is a perceived threat or they are playing. With the exception of those 2 things, horses pretty much go about their business at a snails pace, and much of the time with no agenda, and no time frame. Humans on the other hand usually do things at a fairly quick pace, with an agenda, and many things to ‘fit’ into their allocated time frame. For example we may arrive at the paddock before or after work, either trying to get stuff done before we have to head off, or before the sun goes down. In that time we may have to unrug, groom, saddle, ride, unsaddle, re rug and feed. So we are trying to get things done efficiently, often rapidly, and we end up never truly being present in our interaction. The horse becomes a tool for our enjoyment, and we become a discomfort for him - something that he must endure or tolerate for an hour or so, until we leave him alone once again. This is because we are operating on two different energy frequencies. Humans exist in a constant state of ‘to do’ and horses live in a constant state of ‘nowhere to be, nothing to do’. When we start to become conscious of our energy, and mindfully add pause to our day, the horses are drawn to us. The simple act of not immediately approaching your horse when you arrive at the paddock will provide pause and space for the horse to connect. Kind of like a knock at the door. I don’t like people ‘dropping in’ to my house unexpectedly, but it would be much worse if they just walked in without knocking. A knock at least provides me some space to gather thoughts, finish what I’m doing and ‘change gears’. It’s the same at the paddock - if you arrive and walk straight out to your horse it’s like not knocking - it doesn’t give him time to mentally shift to your arrival. Adding these pauses into your interactions will get your energies more in sync and your horse will begin enjoying your time together Photo Equinox Images Wildrag Buckaroo Bunkhouse Vest TukTuk Clothing
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Sometimes we face challenges when it comes to our horses, and often we over complicate these challenges by getting in our own road, instead of focusing on the simple stuff. Some common ways we complicate things; We think that what we know or what we are doing is 'too simple' and so we start looking for 'the next best thing' or some magic training techniques. The truth is - horses are pretty straightforward, with basic needs, and if we stick to those philosophies, we will be doing right by our horse. Our timing sucks. We know what to do and how to do it, but it doesn't work because our timing in the release, or our body language reading skills aren't that great - if your timing is out, no technique is going to work as well as it could! We fall into the 'my horse is different / special' trap. No, no its not, it has simple basic needs that you haven't been fulfilling - either by not understanding them, or by overwhelming your horse with too much, too early. We don't do it long enough. We do what the coach said, but we do it for 10 repetitions and 2 days. It doesn't work, so we think its not working. Head to the gym and show me your results after 2 days. This stuff takes time! Physical, mental and emotional work takes consistency and time. Horses (nor humans) get 'fixed' overnight, so stop trying to make it happen! The 'quickest' way to help your horse, is to observe his body language, understand what he is trying to tell you, and give him what he needs - not what you want. The greatest example of this is the anxious or nervous horse. Your anxious and nervous horse wants to move his feet, and feel unrestricted, and yet when we see a horse that is nervous or anxious we want to either stop him, or we want to collect the reins to prevent him from bolting. Both stopping and collecting him add to his nervous and anxious state, but make us feel better (like we have 'control'). The best course of action is to walk on a loose rein to allow him relaxation - we must still control the direction and speed, its not a case of letting him go where he likes, but a matter of understanding his mental and physical needs (movement and freedom) and facilitating that to help him relax. Either leading him, or riding him at the walk on a loose rein will fast track relaxation, and yet it sounds just too simple! Our ‘gut feelings’ are those little ‘niggles’ that we get. A resistance, butterflies, unease. Things that happen on a physical level, which are our intuition telling us that we aren’t in alignment with our true selves.
In today's modern society, there are many things that have caused us to be out of touch with our instincts, or cause us to override them even when we have them;- We’re busy - often we may be in a constant state of ‘unease’ and so it has become normal to us to feel that way. It's not ‘in our gut’ and so we don't think it's a ‘gut feeling’. Sometimes our instincts can present as tension or unease in other areas of the body. We underestimate our knowledge, so we ignore what we think, and listen to others. We have people telling us the opposite of how we feel, and sometimes those people are professionals, so we push our feelings aside and listen to them. We are simply ‘out of touch’ with our bodies and how they actually feel. When it comes to our horses our instincts can be there to help us; Stay safe - sometimes that uneasy feeling that says ‘ I don't think I should ride today’ is your intuition telling you that ‘somethings up’ Slow down - we may be following a method or training program, and our intuition may tell us ‘hey my horse just needs me to go a little slower on this one’ Find a ‘bigger issue’ - our instincts may be telling us ‘there is something not right here, maybe I should call a vet / body worker / hoof care professional’. Protect our horse - I see this a lot with training, clinicians or coaches. A student may be uncomfortable with what they are being told to do to their horse, and yet they will continue to do so because ‘the coach must know what they are doing’. Often this is true - the coach does know what they are doing and what they are looking for, but, this doesn’t always align with how we are wanting to relate to our horses. Particular red flags in this situation is when you are being told your horse is; Deliberately annoying you Ignoring you Being a jerk In certain circumstances it may feel that these are true, but we must remember our horse is simply doing what he believes he needs to do at the time, to remain safe. As soon as we start taking things personally, it brings us to a point of conflict, when, it is our job as the human to be constantly seeking resolutions. If something you are being told to ‘do’ to your horse doesn’t feel right, don’t be afraid to speak up, at the very least it should be ok to take a pause and talk more about the circumstances. Practice tapping into your intuition by having more awareness on how you feel in your body - not just on an emotional level which can be reactive, but on a deep level. Meditation can help with our consciousness surrounding this. Green, young or uneducated horses need a certain approach if you are to be successful in their ongoing training. A green horse is one that has a limited amount of training, riding or exposure to things. So you can have an older horse, that hasn’t had many rides, or hasn’t been out and about much, and they are still considered to be ‘green’. As a general rule I would consider a horse that has spent more time ‘not ridden’ than ridden, to be green. For example if you have a 5 year old horse that was started as a 3 year old, he has been ridden for 2 years, and unridden for 3, so he could still be considered green or young in his education. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, being a horse that may have gone straight into a training program and has been ridden every week for 2 years, he could be considered pretty broke. The other exception to this rule is how much education is actually being put in. The horse may have been under saddle for 2 years, but if the rider is just ‘riding’ and not actually taking the time and making the effort to educate, then basically you have a horse that is used to having a rider on, but may remain very limited in their education. I see a lot of horses that still need to be taught their basics, even though they have been ridden for years. In either case, it is important that we are sensitive to the green horses needs, and we set them (and us) up for success in riding. This may mean going through our checklist every time before we ride, to ensure our, and our horses safety. The purpose of going through our checklist is to look for and identify any ‘red flags’ and address them before hopping on. Different trainers are going to have different checklists, mine includes the following as a priority, and I will add other things in as appropriate to the horse or the situation. * Bend. The horse must be willing and soft in a bend, in both directions, by following a feel, not by me pulling their head around in the halter * Hindquarter yield. The horse must be able to shift his hindquarter smoothly, willingly without brace or tension * Forward. The horse must be able to walk, trot and canter with the saddle on without rushing, humping, bucking, and change directions These are my 3 main checks. On a very green horse I would go through my entire checklist which would include turns on the haunches, sideways, unravel, watch my energy. The investment you make to ensure that your green horse is ready is vital for your safety, and his confidence. Here you see Leah and Ranger at a recent clinic - Ranger is a green horse just coming back into work after being started under saddle in July. In the photos you see Leah completed ground work, and tested the water with her weight in the stirrup, and her body above him, before just jumping on his back. Leah had also completed all her other checks, and once she had all ‘green lights’ her and Ranger enjoyed a great ride together. Take the time, tk xo Train with us; September 3 & 4 Cowboy Dressage Clinic Wauchope September 3 & 4 Self Carriage Clinic Gold Coast Hinterland September 10 & 11 Advancing Clinic Invitation Only September 17 & 18 - AVAILABLE TO BOOK - HOST US Back to Square One
We hear this term often, and for various reasons. People often feel that they are “back to square one” with their horses, either relationship or training wise, after they have had time off, after they have had an accident or fall, or after something negative has happened - maybe a pull back, a poor transport experience. Whilst any of these things could be considered a ‘set back’ that may need work around it, they aren’t necessarily (and more often than not aren’t even close) to “back to square one”. Our horses are intelligent, curious and social beings, who don’t ‘forget’ their training, simply because they have had a break or some time off. Absolutely their training is shaped by experiences, but one poor experience, won’t necessarily override 100 good ones. More often than not it is the human that is remembering the ‘bad thing’ and is focused on that, rather than the 100 ‘good things’ that happened before it. Let’s use a fall as an example - you’ve probably ridden your horse multiple times without incident, and yet after a fall we can feel like we are beginner riders again, and yet our horse probably doesn’t even remember that we fell off, and he certainly doesn’t put the significance on it that we do. Riding is as much a mental game as it is a physical one, and it is important we control our focus to the reality and not the stories our mind plays out. If you can relate to this, take a minute to write out all the great experiences you have had with your horse, and on another page write the ‘bad’ stuff - you will likely find that the good will far outweigh the negative. Happy trails Tk Train with us August 7 - One Day. Laterals to connection and collection. Maclean Nsw August 13 Cowboy Dressage Gathering Glenreagh NSW August 18 - 27 Cadillac horse course 10 days, Glenreagh NSW September 3 & 4 - Connection & Self Carriage - Gold Coast hinterland QLD September 3 & 4 - Cowboy Dressage clinic Wauchope NSW Way back in early 2006 I was at a clinic with Ken Faulkner. Ken Faulkner - Australian Horsemanship It was the first session of the day and a student walked in (or at least tried to) leading a stunning black mare, she was about 4 or 5, and she strutted into that arena with almost flames coming out of her nostrils! The owner was struggling to keep her in control, and so the Ken asked if she would like him to work with her. He proceeded to work with the mare to help her become more focused on him, instead of everything else around, and she began to settle and calm down. When he returned to the group the owner said to him “she can be really naughty” and he said “no, she just has her party clothes on, and she’s not ready to go to a party”. He went on to explain that the mare was in peak physical condition, shiny, well muscled - ready to enter a royal show, but she had not yet received the education she needed to be able to ‘handle’ her party clothes. Over the years I must have heard Ken use the term “party clothes” a thousand times. And it’s true - there are many ways to say it; Too much feed, not enough work. Over fed and underworked, Etc. I get it, we all love a good looking horse, myself included, but if we are going to feed them, rug them, stable them, or any combination of the 3, we must understand that this is fuel - fuel for a body and a mind that might not yet be ready for it. And fuel that the rider may not have the skills to ride. Horses are made to eat grass, walk long distances to find it, and that’s about it. Through domestication our horses travel less distance, have high nutritional food available year round, have it delivered to them. This lack of stimulus surrounding forage, coupled with energy that has no way of being burned off, can often lead to; Stereotypical behaviors such as; Weaving Fence walking Wind Sucking ‘Bad’ paddock behaviors such as; Chasing Destroying rugs Chewing Fence walking Poor behavior in handling and riding such as; Mouthiness Jig Jogging Short attention span Not wanting to walk Reactive A few ways we can avoid this issue: Have a diet custom made for your horse - his workload, his access to forage etc. we use and recommended CEN Horse Nutrition - use tkh5 at the checkout for discount Adjust feed to workload (for a lot of people this means to reduce feed during the week when feed is minimal Put the work into your horse before you put his party clothes on! Understand it is ok (and actually normal) for your horse to drop condition in winter. Remember we aren’t suggesting you have horses in poor condition, we are suggesting that you have your horse in a condition that is relative to his workload. Enjoy the ride! Xo Train with July 30 & 31 - Liberty clinic, Port Macquarie NSW August 7 - One Day. Laterals to connection and collection. Maclean Nsw August 13 Cowboy Dressage Gathering Glenreagh NSW August 18 - 27 Cadillac horse course 10 days, Glenreagh NSW September 3 & 4 - Connection & Self Carriage - Gold Coast hinterland QLD September 3 & 4 - Cowboy Dressage clinic Wauchope NSW I recently saw a video of an (imo) unskilled colt starter, using archaic and frankly cruel methods to start some horses under saddle. The claim was that all horses buck, and the correct way to teach them not to was strap a saddle on, leave them in the arena to ‘figure it out’ and to come in and chase them either on horseback, with a quad, or with a car, every couple of hours, until they just didn’t react anymore. Those of you who follow my page have seen my many articles on learned helplessness, and can probably come to your own conclusions about what is happening to these horses mentally. Those of you who are reading and think those methods are needed, should probably step aside and let those of us with the skills to do it without, do it. I’ve started plenty of colts and none found the need to buck with the saddle. The point to this post is the other part of his video - where he says “this will upset the snowflakes”. “Snowflakes” being used as a derogatory term to somehow undermine anyone who disagreed with his method and stuck up for the horses. I just wanted to let you all know, When enough “snowflakes” come together it becomes an avalanche. Avalanches destroy anything or anyone stupid enough to think they can stop them. My friends, continue being part of the avalanche for the horse I was late to the mechanic today. My car was booked in at 8am sharp, and I rolled in the driveway at 8.05. Many may read this and think that ‘5 minutes’ doesn’t really matter, and I guess 100 years from now it won’t. It did however get me to thinking about something my mentor said to me many years ago. I was attending his clinic, and I was already ready to go in the arena, like many others. It was about 8.55am for a 9am start and I was chuckling about one of my fellow attendees who was ‘faffing about’ still brushing her horse and saddling up. I said “I don’t think she is going to make it” as I saw his gaze cross over to her. “You watch how it reflects in her horsemanship” he said - and then he had my full attention. I must have looked at him with a quizzical expression because he went on to say “it’s true. If you watch the people that are late, then watch them with their horses and you will see it makes a difference”. Over the years I have learnt that there are many areas where this is reflected. Rushing. Usually when you are running late you have a ‘hustle’ in your movements. This is picked up on by the horse and can translate into confusion in aids and a general air of anxiety in your interactions. ‘Good enough’. If you thought that 5 minutes wasn’t really a big deal, this can translate into a ‘good enough’ attitude. “Oh he did the movement, it wasn’t perfect, but it was ‘good enough’. Good enough is the enemy of excellence. Loss of training and learning time. Every 5 minutes is 5 minutes you could have learned something, trained something or taught something. Did you know that if you miss 5 minutes per day on a 5 day week, over the year that is 21 hours of training! It would be remiss of me to not mention the impact to others. Turning up late to a clinic or lesson is not only disrespectful to your coach who has made the effort to be on time, but is disruptive to your fellow students. Back to my being late to the mechanic. I had allowed 1.5 hours to get there, and it is usually about an hours drive, however certain things happened at home which caused me to get on the road late. At 7.55am I was still all set for being on time, but then was caught in roadworks just before the mechanics shop. This caused a delay of 10 minutes. I could ‘blame’ the roadworks, but at the end of the day preparation is not about leaving 45 minutes before your appointment when you know a ‘good run’ gets you there in 45 minutes. It’s about leaving an hour or an hour and 15 minutes before to have time for any ‘unexpected’ issues. As we practice this preparation in our day to day life, it is reflected in the quality of our horsemanship. Tk Train with July 30 & 31 - Liberty clinic, Port Macquarie NSW August 18 - 27 Cadillac horse course 10 days, Glenreagh September 3 & 4 - Connection & Self Carriage - Gold Coast hinterland September 3 & 4 - Cowboy Dressage Wauchope Shine by CEN Horse Nutrition The good, the bad, and the ugly. As horse owners, at some point we are going to restrict our horses movement. Tieing him up, trailering, stalling, stabling and riding are all ways we can restrict the freedom of movement of our horses, and a necessary part of horse ownership. But did you know that the way you restrict movement has a huge impact on your horses mental health, and can promote calmness and confidence or shut down and learned helplessness depending on the who, what, when, where and why? It is so important that we look past the apparent success of our task, and consider the body language and processes of the horse. For example, a horse that is tied, trailered, stalled etc and goes through a phase of distress or fight (calling, pawing, fighting against ropes or panels), and then arrives at a place of ‘calm’ could have succumbed to the final phase in the prey animals survival mechanism - acceptance of death, and is simply demonstrating this. It is often after this acceptance phase that ‘learned helplessness’ kicks in, as the horse also arrives at the understanding that he has no further options. Prior to the acceptance of death phase comes; Do the opposite of what the predator says Run away from the predator Fight the predator Push into pressure And finally Accept your fate. This is why the idea of ‘letting him figure it out’ in the cases of separation anxiety and situations of that nature can appear to have ‘worked’ as the horse gives up his options. Restrictions of movement can also result in a horse that appears more trainable, quiet and accepting, as he believes he has no alternatives. I am not suggesting a world in which we do not restrict the movement of our horses, as this would be both unrealistic and unsafe, but one where we consider how we are training these things. Take hobbles for example - You can throw a set of hobbles on a horse, let him fight, struggle and figure out he can’t go anywhere, and you’ll have a horse that is ‘hobble trained’, but he will also have a little bit less spirit. Introduce the idea of hobbles through training and confidence building, and you’ll have a happy and confident hobble trained horse. Teach a horse to be trailered by loading him and then ‘quickly shutting the back’ so he can’t escape will teach him he can’t leave the trailer - but he may still be worried and tense about it. Teach him to load confidently and with time, and you’ll have a horse that trailers confidently. Teach a horse to look to you when he is anxious or worried because you know what to do, makes him feel confident and happy in your presence, rather than teaching him he can only rely on himself, even after asking you for help. In closing, it is crucial that we remember that one of a horses natural coping mechanisms to stress is to move their feet. Taking this away doesn’t remove the desire or need, it simply causes the horse to shut down and look for alternative coping methods, for example stereotypical behaviour such as weaving, crib biting or a complete disconnect to the environment. Tk xox I’ve had the pleasure of judging Cowboy Dressage for the past 2 days at @black_horse_lodge gathering. Over the course of teaching, I meet a lot of riders who don’t compete. They may have competed in the past and no longer want to, or they may never have competed and feel nervous about competing. I personally gave up competition for nearly 10 years, as I felt it brought out the worst in me, and was no longer a benefit to my horses. I returned to competition when I found cowboy dressage, and more recently ranch. Competition can offer both the horse and rider great benefits; 🐴 Measurement of progress. Competition can offer us valuable insight into how we are progressing with our training. Judges feedback gives us unbiased evaluation of our and our horses skills. 🐴 Testing our training. Our horses may perform perfectly at home. The competition environment can give us great feedback on how our horse performs with external stimulation. 🐴 Inspiration. Heading out to a competition can help us become inspired as we watch fellow competitors perform on their horses. 🐴 Motivation. A competition deadline can be the motivation we need to continue working our horses in adverse conditions like weather. The gathering over the weekend was well run, a fun, encouraging and friendly environment for people to show their horses at their best. If you have been avoiding competition, why not nominate - it could just be the best thing for you, and your horse. Huge thanks to Leigh and Paul at Black Horse Lodge for their hospitality and organising a fantastic show, thanks to all the volunteers, my super scribe Candy, and congratulations to all the competitors - you were great! @cowboydressageworldevents #cowboydresssage |