Several years ago with the help of several young girls, the oldest about 14, we got seven horses and one donkey trained well enough to ride in the woods without having a single one of them buck a single time during the training process. This was all accomplished over one summer.
I never consciously stepped back and said "Now I am going to change our training protocol." In fact, I was not even conscious of having done so. But I gradually made the process more complicated without realizing that I was not getting the quality results that I once did. I had incorporated concepts from the outside into my training program without even noticing that they were not producing horses as happy as I once had.
We have still had a very successful training program, but I had forgotten what was possible. The irony is that the more advanced techniques that I learned the less time that I had to apply the basic nurturing techniques that are the true core of building a relationship with a horse.
And then Lloyd started spending time in the horse lot. At first I would watch him go rub a horse in the lot, talk softly to him, and constantly send signals through body language to the horse that everything was fine and that the horse was safe in his presence. It struck me that that was what I used to do and my first thought was that I missed doing it, not for what it did for the horse, but for what it did for me. Of coure, I did not have time to do that anymore because so much of my time was spent in "training" horses and riders.
It takes forever to bake a cake if you don't turn the oven on. For the past several years I have not had the oven turned all the way on. Seems that I did not have time to do that.
Bottom line is that I was making a tremendous mistake. I was training horses that did not feel perfectly contented to simply be in my presence. You can call it "trust" if you want to. You can call it the "relationship." I recognize it as simple security. When the horse feels safe he learns best.
Which brings me back to the central problem in many training programs. I believe that for a horse to feel that security he needs to be trained with 51% control and 49% affection. I used to refer to it as "sweetening" a horse.
Lloyd sweetens horses exactly as I used to and will begin to do again. A horse can learn, and should learn, many things in the round pen. But first the horse needs to learn to love the trainer. That's right--I said love--for all you behaviorists out there who believe that horses are intellectually incapable of love-- too bad. You are wrong--dead wrong. Love is not an intellectual activity.
In the horse the basis of feeling love is to feel secure. The only way for a horse to feel secure is if it receives a great deal of physical contact (affection) and if it has its movements controlled by another, whether it be by a dominant horse or a human.
Now Lloyd did not show up to show me how far I have drifted from what made our methods of of training horses so successful. He did not have a great deal of horse experience. He handled the horses the way he did because he enjoyed doing so.
That is the same reason I once did so.
So yes, things are going to change in our horse lot. In fact, they are going to change so much that they will be exactly like they used to be.
That's the kind of change that I like.
Something about Snow on Her has been bugging me for a few weeks now. I would go out to spend time with her, and she would pick her head up and then go back to eating. I was not thinking about it, Was not, not thinking about it either...it just bugged me. And then it hit me..she was not ignoring me, she is a horse, they do not ignore anything..one of the most perceptive animals there is..No, She has simply gotten so comfortable and secure in my presence that she will continue to eat with me around. Duh. Smile. Sometimes it is not easy to think horse.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could write this without sounding like I know something, if that makes any sense. I commented to Steve back early this summer, that I wished I actually knew something about horses, and he replied that he thought I had good instincts. Maybe that is the trick, Don’t get wrapped around the axle with what is next, bigger faster, better…next level, whatever…Keep it simple. The simpler, the better. Time is simple, attention is simple. Go get a saddle on the horse and ride him. It will fall together. I have, in my mind bemoaned the lack of meaningful groundwork that I have done with Snow on Her, I have intended to advance her in the round pen, do more “meaningful” exercises with her. It occurred to me a couple of days ago, that my thinking was awry….I rode her through two bushes grown together, instead of going around them, I rode her over a slash pile that spooked her three weeks ago, I walked her up and stopped her two front hooves on a hunter’s vest laying on the ground that would have launched her like a rocket a month ago. She is generally pretty light, and getting lighter...fast, and enthusiastic when it is time to go in the woods. What else do I want? She is no longer Psycho horse, but a well founded trail horse. No nobler purpose exists.
Keep it simple.
I suppose I should be more understanding of how the show/dressage/blahblah whatever competition world works..if for no other reason than having a one sided point of view is never productive. I do try, I made a brief foray into that world, tall expensive horses, in a tall expensive barn, eating incredibly expensive feed, supplements, etc, etc..I did not like it. The horses fascinated me, still do, I miss each of those big Thoroughbreds..and the sad thing is, to this day I can pick each of them out of a crowd..I doubt very seriously that I would even recognize their owners. Any of them. I have no desire at all to be a part of that world...there are too many complications, too many trappings of rank, too many centuries of tradition to be upheld, too many ribbons yet to win...in reality, there are too many things in that world that would get between the horse and I. I don't think so. I know of a horse, and her owner...biiig, gorgeous thoroughbred show horse, given the best of everything, folks, this horse owner was never allowed by the trainer to ride the horse. Go back and read that last sentence a few times and let it sink in. The horse was "in training" for the show ring. She >never< rode this horse. I do not even think she ever mounted the horse. You see, that whole barn full of horses had to be moved north to avoid a hurricane. The horse caught something in the process and died. Tragic...obviously the loss of the horse is tragic, but the bigger tragedy by far is the total lack of relationship with the horse…
Put your checkbook down, folks. Go be with your horse. A lot. It is what the horse needs, and just remember, The barking seals of the big horse industry who want to sell you another gizmo are going to have a hard time selling you anything you don’t need if you are off in the woods with the horse, and if you do it right, they will not even be able to catch you on horseback. They better bring a quick horse to catch Snow, and I...We are off to rope the moon, twist its tail, put a brand on it, then bulldog the wind.
I forgot one thing, on the subject of a horse being intellectually incapable of love..I will argue this one stubbornly each day of week.
ReplyDeleteTo see my girl stand at the gate, asking me plain as day to come and get her, To have Holland pester me when my wife does not show up, asking me plain as day where his buddy is, and Comet right behind him looking for her...to have Baton Rouge come to me and put her head on me, for Nick and the girls to gather around me, taking me back into their herd, time and time again, what can that be, but love? Perhaps those who believe a horse to be incapable of love, are themselves limited in their capacity, blinded by the, for lack of a more polite term, arrogance that occurs at the top of the food chain..
At the risk of sounding like a broken record...I have looked in my horse's eyes, and seen her soul, and so much more looking right back at me, what can that be, the ability to supress millions of years of instinct, to allow a big hairy, smelly predator to climb on them and ride them, but love? -Lloyd