Below you will find the first lesson of our online course on natural horsemanship, natural hoof care, and natural horse care. In a few hours I will begin a new program with a group of teenage girls that will use the online class as a famework for study. It will likely turn out to be the most important program that we have ever had in our horse lot.
The on line class can be taken individually and the cost is only $160.00. It is done at the student's own pace with an opportunity for one on one feed back.
It is not exciting. It is not glamorous or flashy. The program simply explains how we do what we do. Our program works.
Want to see the proof?
The picture above is from several summers ago at the end of a day that reached nearly 100 degrees. That summer this group of riders and I got seven horses and a donkey trained to the degree that each could be safely ridden in the woods. We did so without a buck. Not without a rider getting bucked off, but without a horse or donkey bucking a single time.
That is not the norm. That was a magical summer of horse training but it does show what is possible.
Subject: Lesson One
Concepts that are the Underpinning
This is not a cook book and horses are not cookies. Each horse is an individual, but each horse is a horse, and as a horse they all share certain inherited features that make it possible for humans to understand them and communicate effectively with them. Two of the major mistakes that people make with horses is to treat them as if they were dogs, or much worse, as if they were humans. This leads to problems in training and serious problems in the health of horses. Too many horses are loved to death by well meaning owners who simply have not grasped the concept that horses have radically different physical and emotional needs than either humans or canines.
The next key concept is that of time. I am constantly asked how long it takes me to get a horse trained well enough to be safely ridden in the woods. When I am feeling especially gracious and polite, I simply say that each horse is different. When I feel particularly candid I explain that the question is irrelevant and that I do not keep hours. Some training devices are dangerous but none more so than the watch and the calendar. Except for ignorance, the greatest threat to the safety of horse and riders are deadlines, self imposed or otherwise. I am fifty years old and have never relied on an alarm clock. I wake up when I wake up. I am much more punctual than my friends who rely on timing devices to tell them where thy should be.
Red Feather, a wild Corolla Spanish mustang, was the most athletic and most violent horse with whom I have ever shared a round pen. He has kicked and bitten me more than every other horse that I have known combined through out my lifetime. He is now well trained enough for an intermediate rider to take into the woods and is on the road to becoming a beginner level trail horse. I am proud to say that I cannot recall off of the top of my head when I first started working with him. Perhaps it was two years ago. While I have had Red Feather I have worked with probably a score of other horses and returned to his training off and on. I have no doubt that with intense work he could have been at the same level of training within 90 days. I also have no doubt that putting him on a timeline would have resulted in injuries to me and perhaps even fatal injuries to this great little horse.
We take our time. We move at times very slowly. But we move.
Time, next to control, is the most important variable in gaining a horse's trust and affection. Like modern parents, modern horse owners prefer to spend money on their horses instead of spending time with them. Neither your kids nor your horses need your money, but both are desperate for your time. Equally important is to spend time doing what the horse enjoys, particularly in the earliest stages of training. We are not genetically wired to understand, or even recognize, conditions that create pure pleasure in horses. As predators we are programmed to enjoy excitement. As prey animals they are programmed to enjoy peace. (Hunting is tremendously exciting, but being hunted is a serious impediment to happiness.)
Perfect pleasure for a horse is simply to be perfectly free from stress. A horse that is able to lower his head and relax, with a fully belly, and surrounded by other herd mates, free from concerns of threats from the very dangerous world in which his mind exists is perfectly happy. (Ironically, a happy horse and a sick horse can often look the same, but we will discuss later how to evaluate your horse's health each day.)
This is the perfect time to spend with one's horse, simply mimicking his movement (or lack thereof), his breathing --(that's right synchronize your breathing with his). Stand very close to your horse and occasionally use your fist to rub in front of his withers at the same spot that his herd allies chew. How long should this be done?--Start getting with the program now. Leave the watch at home. Forget measuring time. Stand there and enjoy your horse as he enjoys you while the two of you watch the sunlight fade into total darkness. Day after day, after day.
Unmeasured time is the best time of one's life, be one horse or human.
Control is the most important concept to understand and is the key variable to gaining a horse's trust and affection. Unfortunately, this concept is often misunderstood by proponents and opponents of what each side mistakenly views as typical of natural horsemanship. Natural horsemanship is not simply a way to try to train a horse by letting the horse do what ever it wants and it is not a system to relies only on rewards and ignores discipline. Natural horsemanship is best defined as a training system that relies on using methods of communication that a horse naturally (instinctively) understands.
Horses are not people. While we love autonomy and despise control through out our lives, nearly every horse must be controlled, by a human, a herd, or an individual horse, in order to feel safe. The control that we loath is the security that a horse craves. People often lack the self confidence and self respect to feel that they are justified in controlling a horse. Often people who are more timid and feel powerless in their lives feel that any effort that they make to control and dominate their horse will lead to a break down of their "relationship." This is even the more ironic because it is often those same people who allow others to dominate, or even abuse them, without complaint because they fear that standing up for themselves could damage that "relationship."
Anthropomorphizing is the practice of attributing human traits and emotions to animals. (It differs from animism which is a spiritual belief that animals and even inanimate objects have the traits of humans or assorted spirits). I was once called by a lady who was having a serious problem, so she thought, with a young mare. The mare was in a pasture with an older gelding. The gelding ran her off from her food, chased her, and even bit her on occasion. Much to the consternation of the owner, the mare not only allowed this behavior, she continued to remain close to the gelding. When separated and placed in an adjacent pasture she fretted, paced the fence line and even jumped out to get back with him.
The horse owner wanted me to do something about the mare because she was "acting like an abused wife." The owner was very serious about the situation and felt as strongly about the injustice of the situation as she would have felt if the horses had been human acquaintances of hers. When I explained that her horse was not acting like an abused wife but, instead was acting perfectly natural for a horse she was not at all satisfied with my response.
This leads to a discussion about the fundamental controversy between practitioners of natural horsemanship. What role, if any, should violence play in the horse-human relationship. I believe very strongly that it must play the same role that it does in the horse-horse relationship. The simple fact that bothers many people is that violence is a tool of teaching and communication between horses in a herd. Horses in a wild herd use violence to teach other horses important concepts that could one day save that horse's life.
The biggest advantage that I have over most horse people is that I have the opportunity to view interactions in groupings of formerly wild herds every day when I go to my horse lots. I observe a great deal of affection between the horses and I also observe a great deal of threatening behavior and violence. Many people do not recognize the threats which are often as subtle as a slightly squinted eye or a quick turn of the head. I use those same gestures and my horses recognize them for exactly what they are--warnings of imminent violent behavior should they not bring their behavior into line.
It is the next step in the analysis that is so important to understand. I have never seen any of my horses follow up the threats with beatings with a whip or heavy spurring. They follow up by kicking, biting, or most often simply charging the offending horse.
It is that violence that I seek to use. If one of my horses slams me with their head in an aggressive manner, I immediately respond with a fore arm to the horse's body and then charge the horse making it move its feet away from me. A horse that gives me an evil look in the pasture can expect to be charged by me and run off, just the same as would happen for giving that same look to one of the herd leaders.
I use violence that horses use naturally with each other, in the manner that they use it with each other, to the degree that it causes the offender to yield and move away from me with all four feet. There may be something less effective than tying a horse and beating it with a whip but I do not know what it would be. Such techniques cause pain to the horse's body but are destructive to the human's spirit.
As all of my riders know, we practice natural horsemanship not merely to produce better trained, happier horses, but to become better people.
Another important concept that ties into both natural horse care and natural horsemanship is that horses evolved to live and eat in a certain manner and the closer we can allow a horse to live in that manner the happier, healthier, and easier to train it will be.
Before one understands and can apply any of our techniques of training, horse care or hoof care one must understand the concepts that are set out above.
Future lessons will be more specific. For now get your mind ready to learn. Do not sip Joe Camp's book. Go out now and drink 'The Soul of a Horse" in one big swallow. We will get back to it more with specific details but for now read it, or re- read it, as an over view. Also, go to my blog, Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views and find the interview that I did with Joe last year. In fact, you might want to read that post before reading his book.
Assignment-- Consider why dusk to darkness might be the best time to spend simply standing with your horse as set out above, not from the perspective of your schedule but from that of a horse. Send me your thoughts at your convenience.
I hope that this introduction has started you to think and prepare your self for future more specific lessons
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