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WooHoo Winter! Brrrr :o)
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Putting it in Perspective
Since I'm pretty much forever thinking...this page should be forever growing :o) Here are a few to get you thinking OUTSIDE that itty bitty box...
~ Only seeing your horse when you want them to do something? Think about it this way...remember your teenage attitude towards chores? (Actually, I think I kept that one :o) You know how your mom or dad usually had this certain expression when they were coming to ask to do something; or maybe get you to finish one? Exactly how thrilled were you to see them headed your way? For grownups who enjoy chores (ha, yeah right), try that special someone that is always borrowing money, asking you to help them with a project, watch their kids, etc. - and they never pay you back or return the favor....
~ Ever have one of those weird sudden itches? You know, the kind that turns you into an instant contortionist trying to reach it RIGHT NOW - ARRGH! (or do a bear impersonation where you slam your back against a door frame - or anything else that's handy - and scratch vigorously). How about a drip running down your back at the beauty salon? Don't you just HAVE to grab the towel and catch it? So why do we act like it's completely reasonable to expect a horse to stand perfectly still (ignoring any and all random itches, flies, and trickling sprays) while we groom them?
~ Have you ever watched a toddler become frustrated trying to communicate with an adult? I have; they speak a different language, right? (it's called gibberish :o) Well just as any good parent understands the jist of what their toddler is trying to tell them (much of the time), any good horse owner should have the same ability to communicate with their horse. It is actually every bit as doable as learning to understand "baby talk", but it takes serious effort on our part (this is also known as the ultimate stumbling block).
~ Do you work with your horse next to a pasture? In the pasture? While other horses are being turned out? Running around? Resting? Having problems with his behavior? Okay, imagine yourself (as a kid) in the principal's office at an elementary school next to an open window on a beautiful sunny day. Now throw in a couple hundred sentences that you have to write while in all of your friends are outside said window (at recess) playing and having the time of their lives; while you're stuck working. Hmmmm...makes you wanna just think, doesn't it???
Yep, that's the whole idea here... :o)
~ Only seeing your horse when you want them to do something? Think about it this way...remember your teenage attitude towards chores? (Actually, I think I kept that one :o) You know how your mom or dad usually had this certain expression when they were coming to ask to do something; or maybe get you to finish one? Exactly how thrilled were you to see them headed your way? For grownups who enjoy chores (ha, yeah right), try that special someone that is always borrowing money, asking you to help them with a project, watch their kids, etc. - and they never pay you back or return the favor....
~ Ever have one of those weird sudden itches? You know, the kind that turns you into an instant contortionist trying to reach it RIGHT NOW - ARRGH! (or do a bear impersonation where you slam your back against a door frame - or anything else that's handy - and scratch vigorously). How about a drip running down your back at the beauty salon? Don't you just HAVE to grab the towel and catch it? So why do we act like it's completely reasonable to expect a horse to stand perfectly still (ignoring any and all random itches, flies, and trickling sprays) while we groom them?
~ Have you ever watched a toddler become frustrated trying to communicate with an adult? I have; they speak a different language, right? (it's called gibberish :o) Well just as any good parent understands the jist of what their toddler is trying to tell them (much of the time), any good horse owner should have the same ability to communicate with their horse. It is actually every bit as doable as learning to understand "baby talk", but it takes serious effort on our part (this is also known as the ultimate stumbling block).
~ Do you work with your horse next to a pasture? In the pasture? While other horses are being turned out? Running around? Resting? Having problems with his behavior? Okay, imagine yourself (as a kid) in the principal's office at an elementary school next to an open window on a beautiful sunny day. Now throw in a couple hundred sentences that you have to write while in all of your friends are outside said window (at recess) playing and having the time of their lives; while you're stuck working. Hmmmm...makes you wanna just think, doesn't it???
Yep, that's the whole idea here... :o)
Working with Weights [I Think I Gotta Bad Back...]
Grooming Sessions
[Hold Still, Dang It!]
Patience: It's A Learned Virtue
[So Hurry Up and Wait, Will Ya?]
Bombproof Horses
["The only thing we have to to fear is fear itself" ~ FDR]
Ever see anyone vault on to a horse? Now I'm not talking someone that has practiced for hundreds of hours with an equine athlete to achieve a light landing; I'm talking about Joe Blow that is able to leap [on] tall horses with a single bound and land (okay, usually crash) in just the right spot. Think it can't hurt the horse? Think again...Presuming (probably incorrectly :o) that the rider falls precisely within the 20% weight ratio rule (a 1,000lb horse = a 200lb rider including tack) said plunking would be the equivalent of dropping a 20lb bowling ball on a 100lb person. Betcha this would NEVER become an experiment ~ would you volunteer to be the horse? Me neither - yikes! (and No, that poor dear pictured on the left is not one of ours :o)
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While Miss America contestants may be either A) delighted to be fussed over constantly in the name of beauty - or - B) willing to suffer stoically through all manner of glamor sessions to win that coveted title, your horse will probably not feel this way. Do you really think they care if they are dirty? Have a snarly mane? A runny nose? Nope. Grooming, like anything else you do with your horse, can be taught and turned into something that's largely enjoyed. If your horse has an itch, YOU scratch it. Not only is it faster just to scratch it for them, it's great incentive to cooperate (a reward) and doesn't take any more time than it would take for you to pull their head back around so you can continue grooming anyway. I can remember my mother pulling my hair when she brushed it - unintentionally sure, but the OW is the same, isn't it? And just how do you feel about sitting completely still even for short periods of time? I hate it (anything over 5 minutes is too long for me without moving just a little bit :o) Pay attention to spray runoff (like mane conditioner - it tickles). Think about this next time your horse shifts and pulls that almost finished braid or band right out of your hand (you can also learn to shift with your horse which helps a lot too). Remember: A little wiggle can go a long way :o)
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I don't have a whole lot of patience, do you? I used to when I was younger, but not anymore. I really couldn't even say where it went; it's just gone. Learning to wait just a few minutes is an integral part of working with horses, and was possibly the hardest lesson for me to learn. But you know what? It's also one of the most effective. Here's the wildest part of all: It doesn't really take any more time than the way you were probably already doing it. Ever argue with a horse over picking a foot? You know what I mean....you say you're going to clean it, they say you're not - you pick it up, they put it down (yadda, yadda and wrestle wrestle :o) Sure, you'll win eventually, maybe . But isn't it an awful lot of work? As long as the horse clearly understands what it is you want to do, they will (provided you are patient and it isn't something painful) generally give in...it's simply a matter of waiting them out.
Take Bella, who was very stubborn about me spraying her mane with conditioner (if you look at her mane, you see why this is an important daily ritual it's LONG :o) I always pick up whatever it is I'm going to do next from the grooming bucket and let them know. Bella hates the spray bottle, (it makes strange noises sometimes), but she knows I have treats; just as I know she really really wants one. Sure, I could chase her around the stall with the spray bottle or tie her up, but why would I want to do that? Here is her "act" prior to capitulation: She will go to the grooming bucket and bump it with her nose and nicker in an attempt to coerce me into selecting something else please. She will turn away from me to show her irritation that I refused to give in to her wishes - but note her ears are still focused on me [pic1]. If we're in the stall, she'll then wander to her feed bucket to make sure it was indeed empty, surreptitiously peer at me out of the corner of her eye to make sure I am aware she is ignoring me, then gaze off into the distance pretending the spray bottle doesn't exist [like pic 1], sometimes turning to look straight at me [pic2] as if I am mentally deficient for not putting the bottle down. Remember, this is all done at liberty either in an open area [pictured here] or in her stall (because it's shady) with the door left wide open, so she is free to leave. BUT - Bella is well aware that if she leaves she forfeits not only the treat but my undivided attention to Rina, who is next in line (and we sooooo don't want to do that either :o)
Finally, heaving a big, "Well, if you insist" sigh Bella will walk back to me and stop in exactly the right place; with her mane right where I need it to be for spraying. How long did all this thinking and waiting take? Maybe 2 or 3 minutes which is not long at all. You know what else? It was much easier to spray her each subsequent time after and nowhere near as exhausting as trying to forcibly argue the point. Imagine that :o)
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"Bombproofing" is everywhere. You can buy books, DVDs, and sound effect CDs to help you achieve this training pinnacle of success. But you know, if you really think about what that means as opposed to what you can actually accomplish it becomes a ridiculous goal. It would be the same as saying you can teach someone never to jump when they are startled by something, wouldn't it? I've been completely engrossed in a book before and had my husband come up behind me and say something which caused me to shoot straight up out of my chair (sound familiar?). I haven't found a cure for that. Of course, I'm not a flight animal either - my automatic response would more likely be to scream. What I'm saying is that there is no way to stop a person from being startled any more than you can teach a horse not to be startled. I think people all too often misunderstand this issue to their detriment; sometimes they learn it they hard way...after disaster strikes.
You can, however, give him something else to do besides run away...the Girls - with the exception of Lady who is rather reluctantly learning all of this VERY late in life - and the Moo Crew now all look to me first to see if we should panic (which, of course, we shouldn't :o) Thus far, the biggest challenge was July 4th - we have some rather thoughtless neighbors across the pasture that actually set off fireworks over our pasture thank you very much (and how's that for an acid test?) and let's not get into how much we did NOT enjoy cleaning up all of the fallout. There was one small panic attack - justified, since I jumped as well - when the Girls, the Moo Crew, and I were all focused on a bottle rocket whizzing overhead to the north just as they opened the show at the fairgrounds (to the south of us) with a rapid series of really loud bangs that lit up the entire sky behind us. A simple "all right, we're okay" brought everyone back to me (they didn't run very far at all and I was really proud since it scared me half to death too :o) The most important thing to remember is that fear is contagious - one frightened horse can send everyone into a tizzy in a heartbeat - I have learned, however that even if you yourself are nervous, once you have established a code phrase (mine is "all right, we're okay") it still works - which is awesome :o)
Most of the horses I've seen that are touted as "bomb proof" seem to have more or less retreated into a catatonic state of self preservation; shell shocked would probably be a good description. I'm much more interested in teaching our horses what to do if something scares them than trying to actually cover every potential thing that could-maybe-possibly-might come up. That goes something like this - you spend weeks exposing your horse to 5,148 different things before you hit that long awaited trail, only to find it was actually Item #5,149 that sent him up a tree and turned you into an instant circus star with your amazing catapult impersonation...
So am I saying don't bother exposing your horse to things? Of course not. Make it a game...we did - I dubbed it, "Who's Brave?" It'll likely end up on the training blog soon as I get a chance. There are good and bad ways to approach this issue; once you've established a pattern, you can apply it to any situation (it has been invaluable for us).
Here are a few pictures of us playing the game on the left: Notice it is all done in an open area at liberty. [1]Rina and [2]Taya with the pie tins; [3]Bella with a falling off backpack; [4]setting the pie tins on Rina's rump; [5]Bella with the dreaded rain slicker; and [6]Rina wearing her cool shades (see Taya volunteering to give them a go). There is a little bit more about this subject on the mythbusters page.
