Dances With Hooves

Belief Systems Shaping Behavior

2010-05-15T13:31:00.002-04:00

We all know that humans have belief systems that shape a great deal of how we react to other humans, animals, and the world at large. If we believe our love interest is going to leave us, that tends to prove out to be true, for whatever reason. If we believe that we can tackle any task put before us, our successes far outweigh our failures. Whatever attitude we have about the world (it's a good place or a bad place or something in between) is what we tend to see in our day to day lives. And what we see day to day reinforces our beliefs. It’s a big circle of perception, we think something is true & we see what re-confirms that notion over and over again. That is why making significant changes in a deeply rooted behavior is so hard for all of us.

Animals have similar belief systems. Horses in the wild believe that if a predator is running toward them, they are likely to be lunch unless they leave the area FAST. Their belief systems are similar to ours, built off of experiences, learned from the environment they live in. They don’t actually need to be lunch to have this confirmed, their belief system confirms their perception of the event. They notice the predator, they run, they are NOT lunch, their belief is confirmed.

I'm bringing this up because over the years I've ended up with some aggressive horses, always some sort of “rescue” that has fallen on hard times. I’m sure you can see why most humans wouldn’t want to deal with this – all horses are dangerous but these horses are over-the-top scary. Most of the time sellers take these to auctions or misrepresent them because most buyers won’t touch an aggressive horse with a ten-foot pole. So, I haven’t gone out of my way to find these horses, but a number of them have shown up and I’ve been faced with how to rehab a belief system that says aggression is the best answer for some horses when they ask the question: “how does a horse handle a human?”

I don’t believe that horses are naturally aggressive, I think it’s purely a learned behavior. Yes, some are more dominant personalities than others, but attacking is not normally the first choice when a horse is frightened. In the wild, frightened horses only attack if they are cornered and have no option to escape. Flight is the first choice for defense. Regardless, what I’m about to say applies to horses who are not aggressive as well, this post is about behavior modification, but for the reader, just know it is possible to cope and learn new strategies to replace aggression, or a person can set out to avoid creating aggression (the better and easier of the two options).

So, enter human: stage left. (-;

We put so much value on our horses suppressing their flight instinct that we go to great lengths to convince them to stay. We round pen them, driving them away until they don’t want to leave any longer. We flood them with scary things like plastic bags on the end of a whip, trying to convince them they are not in danger. We tie them, hobble them, sack them out with various objects and generally go to great lengths to “de-spook” them. Often a horse comes out the other end of all of our methods having learned leaving isn't a very successful strategy and the world isn't such a scary place. But sometimes what he learned is that he is not allowed to flee and that humans are bearers of bad tidings and he should be very afraid. And in the worst case, he learns to stuff down his emotions and hold everything in, so he may look like he's coping but inside he's stressed and on the verge of a meltdown.

In the face of an emotional meltdown, if he can’t leave, the one option left to him is to get the human to leave. And what’s the best way to do that? Come out fighting. Now, conventional "horse wisdom" says that we can't let a horse get away with biting or kicking, they must be punished in some way because they are putting us in danger.

Yes but... you knew there was a “but” in there somewhere, didn't you?

For horses with aggression issues (I don't mean the colt that nips in play, I mean a repeat offender that uses aggression as a strategy to put some distance between himself and the human) the problem with the idea that horses can’t be allowed to “get away with biting” reinforces the horse's already established beliefs.

So, you are thinking, "How could that be? The horse should know if he's punished, he did something wrong!"

Even in the absence of moral guidelines, I'm not convinced that punishment is the most effective method, but if you have to use it, it would be good to understand the conditions that make it work as well as possible:
1. The punishment must be an understood consequence to a specific behavior
2. Avoiding the punishment is more important to the perpetrator (for the lack of a better term) than executing the behavior that results in the punishment.

Both of those attributes need to be true in order for punishment to have the impact humans anticipate. That’s the rub, does reality = expectation or desire?

For something to be an “understood consequence”, The Perp (horse) needs to be able to make the connection that a specific action will produce a particular undesirable result. That's not the hard part, IF the punishment follows the offensive action immediately, the horse generally will get the idea. Also this implies consistency in human behavior, which is difficult at the best of times. So, let’s assume we have great timing and react the same way each and every time we encounter aggression – that’s the easy part because that’s the part we can control.

The second criteria is a possible problem for several reasons:
1. If the horse expects to be punished regardless of what he does (this happens if he doesn’t understand the punishment is a consequence for a specific behavior, see #1 above) then he can’t avoid punishment based on his behavior. Modifying his behavior has no impact on the outcome. This horse must feel like he’s in a war zone with attack possible at any time. Back to the point, if he feels he can’t avoid punishment, #2 listed above just doesn’t even exist for him.
2. If putting distance between the horse and the human is more important the possible consequences, then #2 above again doesn’t exist for the horse – it’s not even a consideration. Also, often once a horse resorts to aggression, he finds quickly that he CAN move the human away and although they may have a fit of anger and lash out, they come back less and less frequently, so the long term results are quite satisfying for the horse.

The reason why it’s sometimes a huge challenge to rehab a horse with aggressive strategies is all wrapped up in their belief system. The belief system may have evolved because the horse didn’t understand his behavior resulted in a specific consequence. But regardless of why this happened (we can’t really know, can we?) if the horse is so driven to put distance between himself and the human and fleeing is not an option, the second part of the formula (value of avoiding punishment) is not significant either.

Horses that are used to creating distance via aggression are in essence yelling at us because their more subtle communication didn't get the result they needed. Their primary and only natural defense is to put distance between themselves and what is bothering them. I'm not saying their behavior is acceptable, only that to them, they communicated as best as a horse could and the human didn’t seem to notice, so they are now escalating the pressure.

Humans don’t deal with that well, WE want to be the ones to escalate pressure, we don’t expect the horse to be the one controlling the escalation process.

And for the human to respond in turn by punishing, the horse's beliefs about humans which is likely that we are consistently inconsistent dolts that don't respond to basic communication and then fly off the handle when a situation is clarified. So, the horse thinks they were clear (the horse said, “You won’t let me leave but I need you to back off, so I’m going to make this perfectly clear in no uncertain terms… ”. What the horse typically gets in response is the body language version of yelling in response that sounds something like this: "I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU, I'M A BULLY AND I CAN PROVE IT!"

If the horse's experience is that humans don't listen, they react violently frequently and for no understandable reason, and the horse can’t leave when he’s very uncomfortable, the choice should be obvious here: the best defense is a good offense.

Part of the problem is that if humans behave in a way that is inconsistent to a horse, the horse can't make the connection between the behavior and the consequence. Or even if they can make that connection, if the punishment feels inevitable, why bother to change? If they anticipate punishment regardless of their behavior, they have nothing to lose, no matter how they act, they may as well vent their frustration in the form of aggression.

As I mentioned previously, I'm not convinced that punishment is the most effective method to alter behavior, and the reason is, even if the horse understands what he did wrong, and sincerely prefers to avoid future punishment, if he doesn’t know how to change, he can’t change. In order to make a change, horses are no different than humans. Change requires understanding what needs to change and more importantly understanding what new behavior replaces the old behavior and being comfortable with that new behavior.

The idea of being comfortable with that new behavior is where belief systems come in to play. For example, let’s say you are in the grocery store with your 4 year old child and the child goes into melt down mode over wanting a candy bar. The options are give the child a candy bar or not. Often this escalates into a drama filled emotional melt down for both parent and child. In order to stop this from happening the base behavior needs to change because once the melt down starts, the child is pretty much beyond reason. Same for the horse, once the aggression starts, it’s a bit late to be problem solving.

Back to our child in meltdown, in order to avoid this grocery store scenario, the child needs to understand that if he asked for a candy bar and is told no, he needs to let it go and not move on the stage where he gets emotionally worked up. But faced with no getting what he wants often doesn’t allow rational thought, he just launches into phase two, which is the meltdown phase. What does he want? Is it really a candy bar or something even he can’t articulate?

There are laws to protect our children from being beaten in grocery stores, which is largely why this example is going to fall apart and lose it’s realistic application. Unfortunately there are no laws that stop a human from becoming aggressive with horses. So, being the concepts are the same, I will continue and lets say you won’t be locked up for beating your child in public. (-;

To change this meltdown scenario, the child needs to see there is another workable strategy other than a melt down. They need to understand that they can control their outcome and ultimately get satisfaction in another way. And what would that be? If the child believes that only a melt down of screaming self pity will console them or net them what’s missing in their short little life at that moment, then that’s what the child will do. If the child believes that he can control his outcome by offering a different behavior, then he will be more inclined to offer something different in the face of the parental “no”. The catch here is that he has to believe something else will work to his advantage and also he has to KNOW what that behavior is, having practiced it enough to be confident he will get predictable results.

Back to our horse (aka The Perp) has to learn a replacement strategy for the "bad" behavior and be confident that this new strategy will get him what he wants. For the horse this means distance from the offensive human.

OK… so now I can hear you thinking, but the point is that I want to be close to my horse and now you’re telling me he’s wanting me to distance myself, so if I get him what HE wants, I won’t get what I want.

Life isn’t always so mutually exclusive. Enter stage right: Jesús Rosales-Ruiz, PhD and Kellie Snider, Behavior Analysts at the University of Texas who began to experiment with negative reinforcement to help aggressive dogs cope with their emotions. The results of this work is now called CAT, which stands for Constructional Aggression Treatment. This work was the subject of Kellie’s master’s thesis under the direction of Dr. Rosales-Ruiz. The first thing the reader needs to understand is that in the world of behavioral sciences, “positive” means to add something and “negative” means to take something away. So, negative reinforcement basically means the removal of pressure. This isn’t all that different than many horse training techniques, except for with CAT the reward is offered once the animal chooses a different coping strategy, rather than the one that isn’t working for us (aggression). The difference between this and the typical Natural Horsemanship application of negative reinforcement is who controls the behavior. In NH, the pressure is removed typically once the horse submits and does as he is told, and the pressure holds steady or perhaps increases as long as the horse doesn’t do as asked. It is removed based on physical behavior, regardless of the horse’s emotional state or ability to handle the pressure/stress.

With CAT, we give control to the horse to influence his environment. Of course if he’s learned an aggressive strategy, that’s going to be his first thought: aggression is the tried and true, proven solution to his problem. CAT helps him sort out alternative behaviors in a very low pressure situation and ultimately extinguishes the unwanted behaviors by letting the horse processing his list of potential coping strategies, determine they no longer work, and search for something that does work. Once he discovers what does work, he has now gone through the following processes:
1. He resolved the issue without being punished, making room for a possible change in his belief system about humans
2. He valued distance above all, and the new strategy worked, without his standard aggressive meltdown.
3. He found a way to control his environment (how close can he get to the human and still feel safe?) without being pushed past his limits.

Once this is established, the human is telling the horse that limits will be respected. The horse now has a new strategy for coping, which he can practice and get results prior to reaching the aggressive meltdown stage. This new strategy can be used to close the gap between horse and human, as long as the human continues to listen and respect the horse’s signals that he needs some space. Once again, we’re back to respect. Respect is a big word in the Natural Horsemanship circles… they want the horse to respect the human. It’s time for the human to reciprocate and respect the horse as well.

So, I started out addressing dealing with equine aggression, which for many is the hardest behavior to modify. BUT CAT works on other issues as well. So far I've applied this to fear of water, electric clippers, fly spray, wormer tubes and other irksome fears that came installed in my pony, Etude. More on those in future blogs...

How You Made Them Feel

2010-05-04T10:53:00.000-04:00

For years my training focus was on how the horse behaves. But slowly it's shifted toward what the horse's behavior tells me about his emotional state. Why? Because it’s very hard for them to do what I want or how I want if their emotional state is not quite right.

What I've learned from my own horses and also watching trainers train & watching videos of many of the commercial Natural Horsemanship trainers is that they tend to ignore signs of stress and just push on past it, opting for a behavior that they want, rather then being overly concerned with how the horse behaves. I think they realize the horse is stressed, but think that they need to push the horse past his threshhold in order to make progress.
I'm convinced that a prey animal really can't relax unless he's confident that he's safe. I mean REALLY safe. And it's really very hard to relax if any fiber of your being anticipates being on the lunch menu. That's why pushing a horse past his threshhold is not a very useful technique.

Etude, my driving pony, has a mysterious past that makes him fairly reliable in harness most of the time, but boy does he have some issues with humans. He's shown me that humans can create a reliable performance animal who is still very afraid, not trusting humans in the least, and one who is constantly on his guard. He's actually much easier to get him to relax in harness with a closed bridle, where his vision is blocked, than it is when he's got full vision and can see humans around him. My conclusion is that humans have become a poison cue for him. Now that's a hard thing to overcome - the source of his fear trying to reason with a scared pony!

So, why does this matter? Mostly because I want him to trust me and most of the time he does, but there are certain things that scare him (water out of a hose, wormer tubes, clippers, and any gesture that looks like a preface to someone grabbing his face (flash backs to a twitch perhaps?). I'm slowly chipping away at these but I'm finding that although he made decide I'm ok, it's hard to generalize confidence in my behavior to include other humans.

This reminds me of is a lovely quote by the poet and wise lady, Maya Angelou:

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Substitute the word "horses" for "people" and I think this quote says it all. Horses have amazing memories, we need to keep in mind how we make them feel when we make training choices.

It Takes The Time That It Takes

2010-04-12T14:25:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking about our culture and the trend to want/expect instant gratification. One of my personal struggles is switching gears & slowing down from the pace of the corporate working world to something more "zen". The corporate world wants me to act with decisiveness and calculated precision, meeting aggressive deadlines and getting the job done right the first time.

And it's not just my job, it's everything in our society that is just full of quick fixes, drive through windows, fast food, & high speed Internet connections. Most of us can't even wait until we get home to use a telephone, so we have cells to call our friends & loved ones while driving or shopping or whatever we are doing. Email isn't even fast enough any longer, and instant messaging on a computer is being nudge out quickly by cell phones used for text messaging. I won't even go into the idea of multi tasking, that is so contrary to what we need to effectively interact with our animals.

At the end of my work day, I shift into the gear that interacts with animals and all of that lightning quick drive to complete a task needs to slow... no, I take that back, it needs to STOP.

The reason for the shift in my own mindset is just because training an animal takes the time that it takes. The problem is that sometimes its just so hard to switch off that momentum stop rushing around. The "rush" feels so normal, after all, it's what I do most of the day. If only I had a switch I could flip to turn it all off.

I don't think this is an isolated issue for those of us who have jobs in corporate America. I think it's more universal than that. We are all so scheduled, kids have to get to school, or after school activities, lessons, appointments, practices for various sports. For adults, so many of us also have some lessons or hobbies we are trying to squeeze in between fixing the next meal, or cleaning some part of the house that has been long ignored.

So, enough about how busy we all are and our sometimes frantic feeling rush from one task to the next, and our expectations that everything move at that same pace.

For horses, it takes as long as it takes because they can't really modify their behavior AND keep a relaxed mental state if they are worried. If they feel rushed, they will worry because when a predator attacks, he is literally rushing them. Science has proven that the higher the anxiety level, the less able they are to learn on an intricate level. They can learn gross concepts, like an object is scary (not a lesson most of us want our horses to learn) but they don't grasp the fine tuned concepts, like a nice energetic but relaxed half pass or piaffe.

What matters isn't just the behavior, they have to be relaxed and happy mentally while doing the requested behavior, or the performance will be marred by unhappy expressions, swishing tails and reluctance on some level.

The catch is that relaxation and the "zen" mental state needs to start with the human, not the horse. As an example, about a month ago, I started playing with trailer loading with a few youngsters. Believe me, this was long overdue, but life got in the way of their planned education. I promised my horses I would let them tell me when they were ready to move to the next step, and I would not force the issue... I would not be tempted by the popular NH idea of making it pleasant inside the trailer and unpleasant outside the trailer. I would not make them choose what they prefer, but rather let them choose when they were ready.

My filly was very concerned about this trailer loading idea. She has always been more sensitive than the boys and she was worried enough that for some days she would just put her front feet up on the ramp and stop. She let me know that she wasn't comfortable putting her head too far inside that trailer because of how the trailer blocked her vision. I reminded myself she would walk in when she was ready, and this was her schedule, not mine.

Ultimately the breakthrough came and she just walked in but she was clearly frightened by being in a box with sides and a roof. She stood in the straight stall, sharing the space with me, breathing hard and looking at the "stuff" in the front compartment. She was so tense she couldn't even take a treat from my hand, but just stood their wide eyed and clearly not at all confident. I let her back out when she choose to and she walked on 2 more times, worried but not enough to stop her from going on.

I got distracted and trailer loading went on the back burner for some weeks. Yesterday, the trailer was hitched anyway and it seemed like a good thing to revisit. I was sure the filly would only walk in about half way and stop and I felt that was OK if that's the best she could offer. Instead, she just walked on, all the way inside with no hesitation, looking curious but not frightened. We repeated this exercise a few more times, and I rubbed her wither, back and haunches and she stood quietly and without fear.

What she needed was time. She reminded me that by letting her take the time she needed, she's happy about getting on and has no fears connected with the idea of very limited vision on the inside of the trailer.

I know if my experiment was evaluated by any of the NH trainers, I would be considered a total failure for taking so long to get her loaded. They tend to take such pride in fixing issues fast. Yes, many trainers could have loaded her more quickly, but my priority is relaxation and calm. I feel it's unacceptable for her to be frightened, high headed, feeling the need to escape. Just the process of introducing something so new was stress enough, I didn't want to add more. So, I'll stick with taking the time that it takes.

Opposites Attract

2010-03-09T14:39:00.010-05:00

The other day, a friend was talking to me about relationships and what she looks for in a guy... her criteria was contrary to how I would have described her. We talked about this and clearly we could both see that oddly enough, in many cases, opposites DO attract.

This started me thinking about horses and humans, perhaps the ultimate in "opposites". The obvious is the prey vs predator angle, but it's oh so much more than that. Or maybe I should have said so much more detailed than that. Here are a few thoughts on this:

Approaching other Creatures:
Humans (as predators) stalk in their body posture, approach tends to be direct, eye's focused on the subject or target, a direct line to the target.
Horses (as prey animals) often don't take the direct approach, they tend to be wanders, following their current whim, and direct eye contact means aggression to them. If they move directly at another horse or creature, it's meant as aggression.
This means: when we look at a horse, in our normal, direct manner, they read that as aggression and potentially triggers the flight tendency. When we walk directly toward a horse with forward vision and body posture, they may this as a predator "attach" posture. Granted, some horses learn to ignore some aspects of this but as a rule, this holds true.

Noticing Details:
Humans (as predators) don't notice the tiny details. We tend to see more gross, larger movement and postures, specifically because as a predator, we don't NEED to see the tiny details.
Horses (as prey animals) very existance in the wild depends upon noticing the tiniest change in the environment.
That means: Horses notice when something changes, there is suddenly a jacket draped over the fence post that wasn't there yesterday or the day before. As humans, we often don't notice or interpret the tiny cues we put out there nor do we always catch the signals that horses give us. Just as they notice tiny changes in posture, expression, position, they also use those tiny changes in their own communcation.

Defense Mechanisms:
Humans (as predators) primary defense is to push back or apply pressure when things are not going our way.
Horses (as prey animals) primary (and only) defense is to flee when something is amiss.
That means: When things begin to go wrong, the natural human behavior is to push, increase pressure or volumn (or both), which causes the horse to want to escape. What we should be doing, counter to human nature, is to back off, and give the horse MORE space so that he never feels the need to escape.

Learning Speed:
Humans (as predators) don't need to be terribly fast learners, because making a mistake for a predator generally doesn't result in death. Moderate learning speed is sufficient. This learning pace evolved because as a predator, hunger is the motivator to suceed, a moderate motivator at best.
Horses (as prey animals) must learn VERY quickly from their own experiences, otherwise their last experience could literally be...well, their very last on this planet. This learning pace evolved because as a prey animal, survival is the motivator to suceed. Facing life or death is the strongest motivator possible in most cases.
That means: Horses need very few repetitions to commit something to memory, including behaviors we might prefer they don't remember. It only takes a few repeititions for a horse to have a new behavior firmly entrenched. This is great IF the trainer is very clear about what they want. Not so good if the horse is busy noticing how to evade something while the human is thinking they are learning somethign else entirely.

Memories:
Humans (as predators) don't have the greatest memory. A keen memory isn't required for survival and often our memory is clouded by our interpretation of what happened or our emotions.
Horses (as prey animals) developed a keen memory of details in order to survive in the wild. They need to remember how things should look when everything is fine so that they can detect changes that should trigger alarm.
That means: If a trainer is clear and communcates well, horses can learn new behaviors with as few as 3 repeititions. If the trainer is not clear, it can take much longer. One of the failings of humans is that we often do the same thign over and over again, and expect a DIFFERENT outcome, regardless of the lack of sucess in prior repetitions. This tendency greatly hampers the horse's ability to connect the dots and get the point. Also, horses remember when they are treated badly or frightened seriously, and those memories can bubble to the surface literally years after the event, perhaps they horse has changed owners several times since the fearful moment happened and it will continue to worry the horse because of his keen memory. When we have a horse with training "issues", it is showing us all of the poor training and unfortunate events in it's past, regardless of the time or number of humans involved. Why something happens isn't as important as changing the outcome for the horse so that he can learn he no longer needs to hold on to this memory.

So, I have to conclude, opposites do attract, at least for some of us, otherwise we would only be interested in sharing our lives with other predators, who speak our language and share so many of our qualities.

Figs & The Flip Side

2009-08-22T11:00:00.013-04:00

One of my pet peeves is triggered by the casual use of the buzz word, "Natural Horsemanship". I have to wonder if there haven't been some great masters of horse training that have been grossly misinterpreted and their words bastardized over time. Have these concepts morphed over time like the game of Telephone, where one person whispers a phrase in the ear of the next person and down the line until the phrase is no longer even remotely resembles the original phrase?

It's pretty funny when you're a kid, not so funny if you're a horse and the gentle advice of a training master has become twisted into a directive recommending punishment as the only solution in training horses.

How many times have I heard the phrase, "Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult?". Too many. A continuation of that statement by one of the Natural Horsemanship Gurus (He Who Shall Not Be Named) is the statement: "If you never make your horse feel uncomfortable for wrong behavior, nothing motivates him to stop making a mistake."

Ok...lets think about this logically and attempt to digest these concepts, one piece at a time... Make the right thing easy. I like that idea, if we set our animals up in a win-win situation, they come to understand what we want and we've made it easy for them to give us what we asked for. Everyone is happy. YES!

But then there is the flip side... make the wrong thing difficult. I can interpret that a couple of ways, one with a punishment oriented spin, and the other with a more positive spin. Let's start with the more positive spin, because that makes ME more comfortable.

Ok, the more positive spin would go something like this: I want my horse to pick up the left lead so with an understanding of footfalls and exactly when to cue the canter based on the footfalls of the current gait, the horse will naturally and automatically give me the lead I want – that is making the right thing easy. I’ve created a win-win situation, I ask and he gives me what I want, no fuss, no muss, many carrots, everyone is happy.

The flip side of that might be to cue the horse for the left lead and as soon as he picks up the right lead, pull him down hard, hit him with a whip and ask again. Eventually, perhaps by accident, he picks up the left lead and then the rider can ease up on the pressure as he is now "making the right thing “easy”.

Or, and odds are you’ve heard this one before, let’s say the horse doesn’t want to go as slowly as you want him to. So He Who Shall Not Be Named (of the make the wrong thing difficult camp) says tell him to speed up when he doesn’t slow down when you ask. According to this strategy, if you keep him moving, air becomes a commodity that he values, and therefore you have a bargaining chip of sorts. AND as an added bonus, by causing discomfort, you cause the horse to have respect for you too!

So, while we’re on the flip side, I have to ask, what behavior modification did the horse learn from being run until he can’t breathe? What happened to the Three Second rule that says if you must punish a horse, do it within 3 seconds of the infraction in order to be clear to the horse of WHY you lost your cool.

And why must a horse be uncomfortable in order to respect another being? Does a foal lack respect his dam unless she bites or kicks him on a regular basis?

The “make the wrong thing difficult” of the Punishment Variety has so many reasons why it’s not a good strategy:
1. The punishment often doesn’t fit the crime
2. The punishment is often delayed long enough so the reason isn’t clear to the horse (and therefore isn’t an effective behavior modification strategy).
3. If there is no behavior modification, what is the point of the punishment?
4. Punishment potentially creates fear & confusion in the horse (and sometimes anger)

So, what are the results of punishment?
1. A breakdown in the relationship between horse and human
2. Feeds the predator in us that likes to push around “lesser beings”
3. Perhaps some of us feel more powerful when we can dominate an animal many times our size?

And sometimes it does modify behavior, yes punishment CAN work as a training strategy. However, anyone can whack a horse, and not just anyone can train a horse.

Ok, I hear you, you’re saying “If you think you’re so smart, how in the world would you slow down this horse that is refusing to listening to its rider?

Here are some things to try, depending upon the horse & situation, that will not hurt the horse/human relationship:

1. If the horse is naturally more forward than you would like, circle. If you ask the horse to circle just small enough to slightly challenge his balance, he will regulate his speed without being strong armed by the rider or pushed to a point of oxygen deprivation

2. If the horse is strung out and not very balanced (he may be falling on his forehand or running to keep his balance) lots of transitions will help balance him back on his hind quarters. Also, as he anticipates the cue for a transition in a stride or two, he will, he will begin to prepare for the upcoming transition which over time will create a more balanced horse.

Note: If the horse can’t execute a smaller circle or transitions between gaits upon request, then the trainer needs to back up and establish better basics and not expect the horse to perform at a level beyond his training or physical conditioning.

3. If the horse is tense, the secret is going to be working toward greater relaxation. Pushing a tense horse will only feed the tension, and will not solve the problem. On the topic of relaxation, there are lots of ways to approach this, but first there are a few things to consider:

-- If he’s tense at the current level of work, it’s likely that he’s missing some basics and the trainer should back up a few steps or break down the current task into easier to digest chunks.
-- If he’s tense by nature (regardless of the task at hand) he probably needs some confidence building and ground work is a good place to start. One behavior that works very well is teaching the horse to lower his head on cue. The head down position releases endorphins that trigger relaxation. This is a great default behavior for the horse to understand and he can learn to utilize this himself (without a human cue) when he’s stressed
-- If the horse is tense, he may be confused about what is being asked of him, make sure he has solid basics and can perform them in a relaxed manner before increasing the difficulty.

Back to the statement made by "He Who Shall Not Be Named," hand in hand with making the wrong thing difficult... this bears repeating... he said “If you never make your horse feel uncomfortable for wrong behavior, nothing motivates him to stop making the mistake.”

One word pops into my mind when I read that: REDICULOUS!

Why would this be? How could anyone think that makes sense? That statement assumes horses are only really motivated by punishment and that the only way to modify a horse’s behavior is by discomfort. In other words, horses can’t be motivated by “good” things. If he can value avoiding discomfort, doesn’t that also mean that he can value comfort? How can anyone have such a one sided view? Let’s have some balance, please!

Ok, I’m no NH Guru making millions of dollars by selling halters with my name on them or special training sticks, but still, it seems perfectly obvious to me that patterns can be set and behavior can be modified without discomfort. Actually, that is a basic scientific concept. Science has proven that animals repeat most often behavior that is rewarded.

And you don’t have to be a scientist to see this in action. Proof of this concept happens every day with each of us. Horses learn things that we intend them to learn and also things we didn’t intend for them to learn, all based on what is rewarded. Rewards may be intentional or unintentional, but to the horse, a reward is a reward and a motivator to repeat what earned that reward. Horses are constantly learning, they don’t have to be made “uncomfortable” in order to modify their behavior.

For example, I have a fig tree in my back pasture. For years I ignored the fig tree, and the horses did too. I occasionally experimented with making fig bread with some of them, but mostly the tree existed as a fig buffet for the local birds.

This year, I noticed that every time I turned out my new pony, Etude, in the back pasture, regardless of having put out fresh water or hay, he had a single purpose in mind. Ignoring everything, he consistenly marched over to the fig tree and rooted around in the dirt for a while before joining the other horses eating hay.

I noticed the dirt under the tree was quite trampled and bare. I thought maybe he was looking for a low branch to scratch his back. I thought the behavior was curious, but didn’t give it a whole lot of thought until it hit me that little sucker was after the FIGS!

What Etude had discovered is that some percentage of the time he would be rewarded for ignoring what was normally of high value to him (hay) in order to investigate the ground around the fig tree. I’m sure he didn’t always find figs, in fact, he probably rarely found any, but the behavior was rewarded enough times to inspire consistent change in his routine.

Now, fig season is coming to a close, and Etude still checks out the base of the tree. What he learned is that he could bypass the sure thing (hay) for a intermittent reward (figs) because the figs have a higher value to him. Did his behavior change because he was made uncomfortable? NO. Yet, clearly there was behavior modification at work here.

Mother Nature motivated Etude’s behavior modification without discomfort. We could take a lesson from her book and give up the silly notion that the ONLY way to motivate a horse is by making him uncomfortable.

Conflicting Expectations and the Space/Time Contiuum

2009-08-09T09:34:00.014-04:00

This is part two of my thoughts on managing expectations. Of course, the only expectations we can control are our own, we can't really control others expectations, but we can work toward modifying them.

Horse expectations are normally those "in the now", meaning they are about where we are going now, and how we are getting there, NOW. Not about what things will be like once we get there. That's why when your horse is tired after a day at a show and doesn't want to get on that trailer - he's not thinking about his nice stall with fresh hay, clean bedding, and dinner at the end of a two hour trailer ride. He's thinking about how he's tired NOW and doesn't feel like getting back into his box on wheels.

Humans think in terms of the future and the space/time continuum, not horses.

So, getting back to the idea that humans created a horse's expectations… Horses pretty much have a good, bad or indifferent view of things around them. That evaluation is based on experience. They tend to repeat behaviors that nets something they value, they tend to try to avoid things that are unpleasant. Horses are the ultimate non confrontational wimp when it comes to facing what is unpleasant. I'm not saying they give in easily, but they will avoid confrontation if allowed to, by leaving and finding something to occupy their time that is more pleasant. The fight comes into play if they are not allowed to avoid what is unpleasant. If their fear is strong enough, they will behave as if they are fighting for their lives, because in fact, that is probably how it feels to them.

Fighting isn't really natural to horses. In the wild, they fight (other than in play) in few situations, all of them when they are threatened. Stallions fight to protect their herd from a predator, if fleeing isn’t an option. Or he will fight an interloper stallion to keep from losing his mares. Mares will stand up to a predator to save a foal that is to small or weak to flee, but her first choice is always to run first, stand her ground second. It's the exception, not the rule that inspires fight rather than flight.

Then along came humans. Sometimes we have a talent for bringing out the worst in horses. Let’s say I want that horse to load in a trailer and the horse is determined not to. MY expectation is that they horse get in that trailer and does not defy my wishes. The horse's expectations is that getting in a trailer is a bad thing at the moment. And the more I push the horse and make it uncomfortable for the horse around that trailer, the more I confirm his notion, because bad things ARE happening right now!

If the horse had any doubt, I’ve just erased them by upping the pressure. And now I'm scratching my head wondering why the horse is so stubborn? How clever is that? Not very.

We have two expectations at play here, one being the flip side of the other. The human wants one thing and the horse wants something else entirely. Often what the horse wants is nothing specific besides NOT doing what is being asked. He’s not necessarily being stubborn or bull headed, he has his reasons, which us humans may never really understand, but his reality is that he doesn’t want to get in that trailer and his expectation is that it’s not a pleasant place to be at the moment.

Often it seems that the outcome of these conflicts of interest (horse vs human) hinges upon who has the stronger will, who is going to back down first, and who is more determined. If the horse is really frightened, my money is on the horse. If the horse is merely bothered by something but not terrified, he can probably be convinced to do as he’s being told, but did he learn something positive from the experience? Probably not.

We don’t always know what triggers the horse's expectations. But it is probably based on past experience, regardless of if humans are aware of the cause or not. Some horses appears to have a needle phobia or fear of fly spray or paste wormer and they react at the very sight of a shot, spray bottle or worming tube. They have a reason, the needle may feel like the bite of a horse fly and he remembers the pain of that experience. Who knows? It doesn’t matter why, it only matters that he is anticipating something unpleasant.

Dealing with a horse's expectations takes as long as it takes. If the horse and human have conflicting expectations, and the human insists and wins this little battle, was the horse’s expectation changed for the better or merely reinforced or strengthened?

The best, most successful way to modify a horse's expectations is by rewarding behavior we want and ignoring everything else. The reason is that to punish a horse who already has a distasteful or fearful experience only strengthens his resolve that something is bad or should be feared. Now the catch to rewarding what we want is that we have to set the horse up to give us what we want. Humans all too often focus on what we don't want instead.

Ideally we want to manage both our own expectations and that of the horse as well. We don’t want to get stuck thinking about time or being late or any agenda other than giving the horse a chance to modify his expectations. Again, it takes as long as it takes.

The problem with forcing a human view point upon the horse is that we can't always know how that horse will internalize pressure or force, even if we consider it insignificant. After all, who are we to decide what is insignificant to the horse? What we can be sure of is that we have contributed to a memory of something unpleasant. Unpleasant memories cause angst on both the physical and emotional level. So the next time the horse is confronted with the same situation, he may have a physical and/or psychological reaction and the anticipation may feel worse than the actual situation that inspired the memory.

For example, when i was a kid, my family dentist has this idea that children shouldn't need any pain killer to fill cavities. So, he would just drill away and would only numb my tooth if I wiggled too much. Crying didn’t phase him, only wiggling did but I also had a healthy fear of him piercing my cheek or tongue, so I did try to hold still. What did I learn from that (other than Dentists are Barbadians)? I learned to anticipate pain. And the angst that I felt at the mere suggestion of a dental appointment was much greater and lasted much longer than the actual process of filling a cavity. AND at the time of the appointment, I didn't even know there was a cavity to fill. But that didn't stop my heart from racing and the tears from flowing.

As another an example of conflicting expectations, my pony, Etude hates bathes. I have no idea why, but from the day he arrived, I've noticed that the sound of running water made him jump, even simply filling his water bucket will cause him to put some distance between himself and running water.

His angst about hoses was so deeply entrenched that although under normal circumstances he leads well, when I headed toward the water nozzle for his first after workout rinse, he suddenly screeched to a halt and let me know he had no intention of cooperating if I was going toward that faucet. To make it even more surprising, this is summer in the deep south, so for most horses, a cool shower is a good thing, but not to Etude.

So, my options were to reinforce his expectations that this was NOT going to be a good time had by all, OR I could manage his expectations by working toward changing his view of showers from something bad to something not so bad, and over time, hopefully, to neutral or that it's something good.

When there is a built in emotional response to an event (real or imagined) rational thinking isn't going to help. It didn't matter to me one iota that my mom told me I needed to go to the dentist and that without dental care, I might lose all of my teeth. Seriously, to a 6 year old with a vivid memory of a dental drill, being toothless sounded like a great alternative! If I had no teeth then I would have no reason to suffer trips to the dentist, AND as an added benefit, I would rake in the bucks from the tooth fairy. (-; Nor can I expect Etude to see how a nice shower on a hot day would be a nice thing.

No amount of force, even the tiniest bit, was going to change Etude's mind. He had no interest in getting wet, regardless of the heat. Even the tiniest suggestion of force would reinforce his notion that water is a bad thing. My goal is to manage his expectations, not support his idea that bad things happen near running water.

Instead of force, I simply went back to the basic principle of rewarding what I want and ignore what I don't want. There is no payoff in focusing on what we don't want. I didn't belabor the idea of bath time because there was no profit in that either. I discovered Etude's thresh hold of tolerance, meaning how close could I get the hose to him before he moved away, and used that as the starting point. With his favorite goody in my treat bag, I bridged the act of standing still in the presence of running water near his thresh hold until his focus moved to anticipating the next treat instead of anticipating the horrors of a bath.

This is important - in effect, I've switched his focus from bad things to good things. I NEED that change in mind set in order for him to come around to my way of thinking (that baths are good!). It's all about where the horse's mind is, not where he is physically. If his mind isn't willing to get on that horse trailer or cross that culvert, his body won't be willing to take that next step either.

This is just the starting point and it's not just a matter of changing the focus, I'm after an attitude shift. If the expectation is deep rooted or strongly fear based, it can take some time to get to a permanent attitude shift, BUT it can be done.

With Etude, it was a relatively quick fix, gradually, he became willing to let me wet down his chest, neck and shoulders, with a bridge signal telling him exactly what I wanted, while I ignored any fuss. Since I'm after a long term attitude adjustment on this topic, I didn’t need to give him a full blown bath, I only needed to make a positive change that day. Since, I've made it a habit to give him a quick rinse after every training session, regardless of if he broke a sweat or not. After 2 short bath sessions he would let me hose down his quarters. After the third, he was willing to escort me to the water faucet to turn it on. After the forth, he decided that I could hose down the inside of his back legs, which didn't thrill him (based on is posture and lifting his back feet) but he did not leave. The shift to my way of thinking isn't complete, but it's well on it's way.

I could have accomplished the same thing with a bit of pressure, after all, I have a long hose and a spray nozzle adds some distance as well. How far can a pony back up? How many times can he turn in a circle before he decided it's easier to submit? Won't he eventually grow tired of the dance and just hold still?

Yes, probably so. But again, I'm after acceptance, trust, and building a partnership, not just submission. I want him to trust in me and our relationship, not just tolerate my behavior.

Managing Expectations or The Pollyanna Approach to Horse Training

2009-08-08T10:15:00.012-04:00

The topic of managing expectations is a special request topic... And since I can muster up an opinion on just about anything, why not this one? Here you go, Kim...

I'm not sure who's expectations (horse or human) are supposed to be my inspiration for waxing poetic... so I'll touch on both. But this particular Blog will be on managing human expectations.

I think many people could benefit from tweaking their perspective about training horses. At least I have evolved my own attitude about it over the years and I'm happier now than I've ever been with my horses and amazed at how fast they learn, how smart they are and how willing they generally are to do what I ask. Yes, I must sound a bit barn blind, but it's true.

The common goal of any interaction with our horses seems to be that we want our horse (or pony) on his best behavior. Do what we want, when we want it, how we want it. And ultimately, I want the same thing. BUT I've found that this isn't a realistic expectation most of the time, not with young horses, and not with horses that have expectations of their own that need to be managed... that's part two of this blog, so more on that later...

I have managed my own expectations of my horse by welcoming mistakes. As long as I keep that mind set, I'm happy with every interaction with my horse and never disappointed, regardless of the outcome. That said, I have not totally eradicated the demon that inspired me to be disappointed in myself, but that's another topic all together. I try my best to look forward to the issues, the flaws, the snafus, the wobbles, the balance checks, the fussy moments, and the hesitations.

You're probably thinking that it would be so much easier if the horse just did what I asked, so that I didn't have to "work" on these issues. I mean, work is WORK, right?

Yes, but an opportunity is more than "work". It's a chance to further develop my relationship with that horse. It's a chance to build his confidence in me as a fair person who will listen to his concerns and help him manage his own expectations as we work through this problem together.

That probably sounds twisted, why would I welcome things going wrong? Because they aren't really "wrong", they are an opportunity to open up a dialog with my horse about what I really want. Every less than perfect moment is a chance for my horse and I to come to a point of understanding. If the horse didn't show me the holes in his training bucket, I wouldn't have a chance to patch them. And more importantly, he's giving me a chance to take our relationship to the next level.

I'm not saying I always take the opportunity to work on a problem, sometimes, at that particular moment, it's not practical, I may be on the way to work or have a prior commitment or just don't feel like it. But if I'm on top of my game, I make a note in my head that an opportunity as presented itself and I make time later to work with that opportunity.

Assuming I'm fair and communicate what I want using positive reinforcement, good things will come out of our interaction. This is a chance to be clear about what I want and for me to ensure that the horse isn't worried about the outcome. With postive reinforcement, when we come out the other side of this challenge, our relationship will be a bit stronger, his trust in me is a bit more solid, and we're just that much better at communicating clearly with each other.

And why is that important? Because essentially, if I'm riding or driving, I'm trusting my horse to take care of me to some extent. The more he trusts me, the less chance he has of over reacting to something new, knowing I wouldn't put him in danger. The better we work together as partners, as a team, the less risk that we will part company on a ride or drive. And the more clearly we are able to communicate, the more sure I am that he'll understand, and be willing to give me what I want, the next time I ask for something.

It's a matter of building a foundation, flipping the horse's internal switch from "I'm scared" or "I'm not sure I want to... " to "Sure, lets do it!".

If I do my part right, I get what I want, AND we are better off for the experience that evolved from that little (or not so little) mistake.

There was a time in my career with horses when I would have read this and said "Fine for you to say, but this is BUNK!" I would have put it up on that shelf right next to my step Mom's lecture on how we create our own reality and to change things we don't like is simply a matter of changing our attitude. Now that I'm in my 50s, I guess it's safe to admit that she was right all along? (-;

I'm sure that sounds quite Pollyanna to some of you, and honestly, I would have thought that too, once, before I proved to myself that it's true. If our reality is one that says force and pressure is appropriate (as much force and pressure necessary until we get what we want) then that is what we will tend to get back from the horse. It's Newton's Third Law of Motion (for those who might recall your high school physics (this, by the way, is about all I DO recall from physics class!) that says:

"... in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects. The size of the force on the first object equals the size of the force on the second object. The direction of the force on the first object is opposite to the direction of the force on the second object. Forces always come in pairs - equal and opposite action-reaction force pairs."

This typically holds true for horses as well, apply force and they will react in kind, responding to the degree of force they felt applied. It's important to note that I said "felt applied" because the human may not feel there was much force applied and the horse may react 10 fold... based on his assessment of the force applied, not based on the human "view" of it.

So, having tried my best to give up force and work with a more positive and communcative approach, I can say that it works. I have few disappointments in training now, because every flaw in our interaction or performance is a chance to make things better. In order for this to work, I had to come to accept and believe in the principles of positive reinforcement. Without that, then these "opportunities" are potentially points of conflict and exercises in frustration. And the more I lean toward exclusive positive reinforcement and lean away from punishment, pressure and force, the more effectively this approach proves to be.

Why? Because there is nothing in force and pressure that builds a horse's confidence in his human. Horses lean into pressure naturally, we have to teach them to move away from pressure, but even if they know to move way from the squeeze of a leg or the tap of a whip, their most base reaction is to lean INTO pressure. We can't totally eradicate that concept, they are hard wired for that, just like we are hard wired to breathe. Anyone that has spent any time with new foals will tell you that they lean. Try to push them toward the milk bar and they push back. It's natural, it's what they do. We can teach them to respond differently to specific situations, but in fact, horses are hard wired to lean into pressure and to flee when they are scared.

Apply pressure, the horse pushes back, apply enough force and the horse will flee. Neither of those scenarios are confidence builders and in many cases, they are confidence destroyers.

The other "thing" I had to give up was my own fear. Fear of looking like a fool in public, fear that the horse would not behave the way I wanted or needed him to. These fears are in fact, pretty irrational. IF the horse's training is based on clear communication and a strong partnership, why wouldn't he comply? Fear comes from insecurity and doubt in what the future will bring. That applies to both horses and humans.

Confidence comes from knowing that my horse will give the best he is capable of at that moment. If a porta potty blows over in gusty wind at a show and he bolts, so be it, he wasn't able to control his concern for that moment. But it was the best he could do and how many chances do we have to train for flying porta potties?

Confidence comes from believing in my partner and knowing he believes in me. And so what if something goes wrong? It's not the end of the world, it's just an opportunity. (-:

Who's Leading Whom?

2009-08-07T15:50:00.000-04:00

"Leadership" is one of those horse training words that is tossed around all too casually, in my opinion, without really thinking about that that means. It has become a buzz word used commonly in context of how we (humans) need to be good leaders in order to train a horse. This idea of successful training depends upon building the horse's trust and confidence in our leadership abilities. And most problems are attributed to a horse's lack of "respect" or our inability to be a strong "leader" that can inspire the horse's "respect". These two concepts are intricately tied in most conversations about training.

Millions of dollars have been spent on clinics, lessons, DVDs & books which claim they can open the secret door to this idea of creating "respect". One of the most common example of how to get respect is by moving the horse around a round pen. The idea being that who moves whom indicates to the horse which creature is the leader and which is the follower. Ultimately, the "mover" is "The Leader", the being moved, by default, makes one "The Follower".

Pondering this idea of respect and leadership, I've decided this concept (that humans need to be strong leaders in order for the horse to respect us) is pretty much backassward.

In order to build the horse's trust and confidence, AND in order for them to learn to respect us, horses need humans to be good followers and keen observers. The horse needs someone who makes requests, but doesn't insist, and allows the horse to lead, by indicating if he is comfortable and confident enough to do as asked. That partnership, built on a conversation that respects & honors the horse's opinion, is one that will evolve into "respect".

Respect doesn't develop out of fear, respect develops from trust and admiration. Fear simply produces more of the same: fear. And generally, when there is fear, there is also tension & anxiety. After all, who wants to be partners with the local bully?

When we insist, (decreeing ourselves to be the leader rather than earning that position), we assume the horse is ready physically and/or emotionally for . A true partner will follow the horse's lead, letting the horse dictate when he's ready for the next step in the training progression. After all, it's his body, his mind, and who would know better than him if he's ready to carry a human on his back, jump that 3-foot fence or spin on a dime?

In my world, that makes me the follower, not the leader. I can request, but the horse must decide how he answers that request. I can't make that decision for him. If I do, I'm just asking for tension and angst. And even if it's not obvious to the casual observer, the tension and angst will bubble to the surface, it's just a matter of time.

How many times have I heard some say "he did it just fine last week, he just doesn't WANT to ".

Some days I get up in the morning with a sore back or an aching joint and doing certain tasks could cause physical damange if I did them anyway. Nothing in life is static, neither our physical or emotional states, nor those of our horses. Some days I don't want to either. But it's normally not without a reason. Can't the horse have one of those days too?

Ah, I can hear you thinking "but if I wake up in the morning and don't feel like going to work, school... (again, fill in the blank), I DO IT ANYWAY". That idea implies if humans push themselves to do things they are not physically or mentally comfortable doing, the horse should live by the same rules. Only horses aren't humans, and human rules don't apply. Force a horse to live by human rules and the human is asking for a wreck, because at some point, the horse will feel over faced, and try to avoid his discomfort and the task. According to Horse Rules, when your uncomfortable, FLEE! And generally fleeing doesn't include behaving in a way humans typically covet.

It also implies that the human is the authority on the physical, mental, and emotional boundaries & limitations of the horse. Tell that to the race horses that break down on the track each year, they don't run for their own health, but at the direction & discretion of a human.

Another common opinion is that if a person "lets a horse get away with " then the horse will always try to "get away with" not doing that task when asked in the future.

OK... being a realist here, that's dipping one's toe in the paranoid pond, isn't it? Horses just aren't really that conniving. Humans are conniving, horses are much more black and white in their thought process, they do what they are comfortable doing, they do what they enjoy, they do what comes naturally to them, they generally try to do as they are asked, IF they understand what that is, but they often don't understand. And lack of understanding isn't due to their poor communication skills, but rather the humans lack of skill conveying what they want. Horses speak "horse" just fine. If we want them to understand us, we have to present our concepts in a way that is clear to them.

So, back to the idea of leader vs follower: If I am a good follower, I suggest "can we try this?" He answers yes or no, if he answers no, he's telling me I need to back up a step or three to something less demanding. If he answers yes, he's leading me forward to the next step. If in the "next step", he tells me he's not ready after all, he's leading me to either break things down into more fundamental steps or he's telling me that he was mistaken and wasn't ready to move on after all and we need to go back to a prior step. Again, he's leading me, I'm not leading him.

In my world, this is a dance, based on communication. The bottom line is: How can we demand respect from our horse when we don't respect his opinions and concerns? A good leader needs to be able to listen, swap roles and become the follower when needed. Life is about balance. Training animals is about balance as well. Pushing an animal too far out of it's comfort zone is an accident waiting to happen. AND it's never really necessary, after all, if a whale can be taught to jump into the air and perform flips for an audience without being forced, why can't we apply the same training concepts to our horses? Of course we can...

If we face resistance in our horses, we need to look at the root cause. Where did we fail to communicate clearly? Where in our partnership together did we stop listening effectively or responding appropriately to the horse's hesitation?

Preceptions of pressure

2009-08-04T07:23:00.011-04:00

I was watching someone try to load a horse the other day and I commented that the mare didn't like the pressure they were applying. The person responded with a confused expression and responded that she didn't feel they were applying much pressure. As if her perception was more inportant than the horse's view on the topic.

This brought me to speculate, how could their be such a different interpretation of "pressure"?

Webster's says:
Pressure
1 a: the burden of physical or mental distress
2: the application of force to something by something else in direct contact with it

So, back to this horse, they had run a lunge line behind her to try to push her into the trailer, which looked to me like force "by something in direct contact" with her (definition #2) and as the mare reared to spin away from the trailer, it seemed clear to me that was an example of "mental distress" (definition #1).

This all ended with the mare not getting into the trailer and with multiple lacerations on her face from her nylon halter and possibly anything she hit on the way down as she reared and flip over backwards when she was lashed to the inside of the trailer.

I'm at a loss as to why humans have a different idea of "pressure" for themselves and their horses. If a human was forced into a room (or a box) with ropes, I have no doubt that they would feel they were "pressured". If they were pushed to the extent that they were fighting against restraints, I have no doubt this would be perceived as "pressure" as well. I think the very thought of rope restraints would give all but the most kinky of us humans some level of "mental distress". (-;

Horses can feel a fly on their coat, so surely it's not appropriate to assume they are insensitive to the point of requiring more pressure than we humans feel comfortable experiencing.

Is the human perception that force isn't significant pressure because horses are so large in comparision to our own physical size? Whale trainers know they can't pressure a whale into performing, and they are certainly larger than a horse, so size alone can't logically be the reason. Or is it because whales won't tolerate pressure and horses will? Horses will forgive us if we pressure them and whales just leave and ignore humans that try to apply force. Or worse, and hurt the trainer.

If the reason is because horses tolerate us, then it's a horse's good nature that allows humans to behave in a way that is potentially harmful to the horse. If the horse was a human child, forced, drugged, and finally pushed to the panic point of hurting herself in her struggle to get free, the local Children's Protection Agency would have stepped in and taken control. But it was only a horse.

At the rist of being labeld a tree hugger (which I probably really AM) I think we should all look at what force is truely necessary and consider how we can become more compasionate in our interaction with the animals that share our planet. After all, just because horses tolerate force, pressure and abuse, doesn't make it right.

On Being in a Hurry

2009-06-28T11:00:00.004-04:00

The other day I was loading a new pony into my trailer and of course, I was in a hurry, and had been told he loads fine... but he wasn't jumping on like I hoped. I could feel my anxiety going up a bit, I hate being late and here I was with this pony, acting quite stubborn and we had someplace to be!

To make a long story short, I did get him loaded but his contentment to stand in the hot sun rather than get on that trailer gave me some food for thought....

How many times have I heard people talk about how stubborn their horse can be when they are in a hurry? Suffice to say, I've heard that often, and why would that be?

Horses are certainly intuitive enough to know that we want them to hurry up. And I can see why humans would see resistance to that idea as being "stubborn". But is it really?

From the horse's point of view, they "hurry up" if it's not safe to stay where they are. Being flight animals, that's the best reason for moving fast. The second best reason may be play time, but when we're talking loading in a trailer or crossing a creek on a trail ride, play is not part of this conversation.

Seems to me that they horse is justified in thinking if the message we project is "hurry up" then the message they get is "something is amiss, it's not safe!". The question left for the horse to answer is: "What is not safe and how do I get to safety?"

"OH!" Thinks the horse, "You want me to walk inside that little box, but you told me it's not safe!" OR, "You want me to cross that creek, but you TOLD me it's not safe!"

Logically, I think if the horse trusted the human, at that moment, it would just do as asked. And maybe it would, but life isn't all black and white, there are shades of grey.

Even if the horse trusts the human in most cases, once we have tapped into that part of the horse brain that says "it's not safe", then we're fighting a battle we can't win because WE are telling the horse it's not safe. WE are offering the contradiction to them, and they have to figure out what to do about it, because we are sending mixed messages.

The contradiction is:

The horse trusts me to give him good guidance and take care of him
I'm telling him it's not safe because I'm telling him to hurry
Where is safe? It's at home, but you want me to leave home?
I'm getting upset, I increase the pressure and now he KNOWS it's not safe, I've just confirmed his resolve to put safety as his top priority.

So, in fact, by not loading or crossing the bridge, creek, or ravine, the horse IS following our lead. The problem is, what we projected to him isn't what we meant to project, and the message we gave isn't the directive we THINK he should be following.

Clear communication is the biggest conundrum in our relationship with animals. Did they understand the message we thought we projected? Or are they acting on the message we actually sent? (-;

Sometimes A Cigar Is Just A Cigar

2009-01-19T16:34:00.005-05:00

Some of you may remember that at the end of 2007 I took on a rescue Curly gelding that was headed to an auction (and from there, you can only imagine). He had issues about most things, (from loading in a trailer, handling his feet, taking a bit in his mouth, most interaction with humans). I sorted this out with a combination of clicker training, effectively directed energy and clarification about boundaries and my space (vs his space).

The short version is that he was one unhappy guy, but basically a nice horse underneath all of his bluff and bluster. I’ve been accused of anthropomorphism in the past and I’m happy to say that doesn’t bother me in the least, because I believe that animals have a much greater capacity for emotion than most humans credit them. They may not express it in a way that’s obvious to us, but I don’t believe humans have cornered the market on feeling.

Back to Cal: I always learn from every horse and the bigger the challenge, the more I learn. One of the things that I got out of this experience was an awareness of an aspect of the inner workings of the human mind.

Once I felt he was ready to be rehomed, I took a series of videos of Cal: Cal being tacked up; Cal under saddle; Cal seeing a giant umbrella for the first time; & Cal walking over and wearing a tarp). One of the more valuable lessons I learned from the videos is that in MY MIND he still made aggressive overtures and my memory held visions of him at his worst. I had to see the videos to realize how far he had really come. When working with him I would see a flash of ears back out of the corner of my eye and my mind would fill in with the worst behavior I remembered. Not so… the flashes of ears back were few and far between, and only a couple in all the videos I did of him. Once again, I proved that my own sensors don’t always give an accurate read.

There is a name for this phenomenon: Fundamental Attribution Error. When humans interpret the behavior of others, we often make a particularly human mistake. We tend to attribute too much to character and disposition and too little to situation and context.

So, how does this fit into a training blog? Simple. How many times have we all heard remarks such as “My puppy chewed the leg of the couch out of SPITE!”. Or “My dog peed on the floor to get back at me for leaving him home alone! “ Or “My horse won’t stand still when I mount when we’re away from home, just to make me look foolish.” Or “My horse won’t load in the trailer at the end of a show day just to make me crazy!”

In fact, in many cases, the animal does what it does without any personal affront intended. The puppy is bored, and there was that nice couch leg tempting him to see if it was tasty. The dog pees on the floor because… well, it has to pee and no one is there to let it outside. The horse won’t stand still for mounting away from home because it’s nervous or anxious or just needs more training or help relaxing (or both). The horse won’t load because he’s tired and just doesn’t want to exert the energy to maintain his balance in that long trailer ride home. None of these are personal afronts, but humans often take things personally, seeing what we want to see or seeing what we normally see instead of the reality of what is actually happening.

Back to Cal’s story… During Cal’s rehab, I did struggle with feeling his ugly faces and aggressive posturing were personal. After all, I had never done anything to inspire all that, had I? Lesson One for me: I had to see him for what he was, which was a product of his past, he was conditioned to react to humans by keeping them at a distance with his expressions and posturing. It had nothing to do with me personally.

Lesson Two (for me): Considering Cal’s past and defenses, I expected to see a “glass half empty” attitude, so that’s what I saw. Once he began to profit from our rehab work and show a more “glass half full” attitude, I had to not only see how he was changing but also stop focusing so much on the flickers of negativity and see the big picture of how he was blossoming into a new horse.

This came to light when I was watching videos I had created for a potential new home for Cal. I had wanted anyone that might be interested in sharing their life with him to get the full picture, so I created a series of long dull, uncut videos that would show the extent of his ugly faces and how the expressions would come and go. In reality, when I watched the videos, there were only a few flickers of attitude and long stretches of engaged, cheerful, cooperative Cal. Yet during the actual making of the videos, my mind focused on the few moments of attitude and basically not the prolonged periods of pleasant interaction.

The bottom line is that I saw what I expected to see, which was attitude and it felt much more frequent than it really was. My expectations didn’t allow me to notice how infrequently the “attitude” surfaced. I saw what I expected to see.

Sometimes it’s hard not to see what we expect to see, whether that means seeing something better than it is or worse than it is. Reality can be a hard pill to swallow at times, and at other times, it’s a welcome bit of good news!

I did rehome Cal and I’m happy to say that not only did I learn a lot about rehabbing difficult cases from him, he learned a lot about giving humans another chance from me.

The best news is that Cal is not only in a great home but here’s an excerpt the latest email I got from his new human:

“Cal is simply wonderful. You were right when you saw something under all that bluster. He's still funny old Cal with those ears but he's SO willing and he SO wants to do the right thing. In fact, the only mistakes being made in this relationship are mine. I absolutely love him to bits!!!
I've learned to be much much lighter with my hands and ride with a loose rein most of the time. He's a lot of fun to ride. Last week it even warmed up enough for us to leave the arena and ride up the road and through the trainer's bush and fields - the snow was up to their bellies and Cal just plowed through it. Such a good boy! Have I mentioned that I love him?”

I’m not sure it gets much better than that. Life is a series of lessons and teachers that join us on our path to wherever we are headed. I feel fortunate that Cal and I could share what we had to teach each other during our time together and most of all, that he’s finally found a home where he is loved and happy!

May all horses in need be so lucky!

Asking the right questions…

2009-01-08T11:06:00.009-05:00

Across the internet I see horse trainers that have hung out their personal shingle with the answers to your “horse problems”. Some are selling books, some have DVD sets, videos, special halters, lead ropes in various lengths, tie rings, special harnesses, bridles, bits, saddles, bareback pads, sticks, wands and whips, and some market training packages containing "all" you need to answer your questions and solve your problems. It’s all about what you might add to your tack box of solutions. We are a culture of people looking for quick fixes and instant answers. Answers… that’s what we search for. Would a different saddle fix the problem? A new bit? Or maybe NO bit?

Some of these trainers have developed an almost cultish following, and some have created a marketing machine that has literally swept North America (possibly the world!) with its ability to tap into what horse people seem to want most often, and offer it for sale. What is it that horse people seem to want the most? Pure and simple, it is a formula to solve problems, a rote pattern to follow in order to find that illusive bit of indefinable attitude that we seem to have labeled “respect. In short, these marketing geniuses are selling Respect-In-A-Box that can be delivered to your door or mailbox.

“Respect” has taken on an almost mystical meaning. Like some unattainable, un-measurable aspect of our relationship with our animals. It’s what always seems to be missing when horse does something that displeases a human. What’s wrong with that horse? It doesn’t have enough RESPECT. But what is that really? Do we want the horse to just stay out of our space? Do what we ask? And what does “do what we ask” really mean? Comply without question? Not express any opinions? Never resist or evade?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being critical of those that market their goods and services. What I’m suggesting is that before looking for an answer, perhaps the move valuable place to start is by asking the right questions.

Animals have been depersonalized by science and by the food industry. Unfortunately, that depersonalization seems to have carried over into other aspects of our lives with animals. At the risk of being accused of relentless sentimentality, I’ll say that animals have personalities, feelings, emotions, preferences, and reasons for doing what they do. Of course, many scientists argue that animals don’t live in a world complete with emotions, but they have also been unable to prove that animals are devoid of emotions. Certainly anyone that has spent any time with horses knows that they form emotional attachments with offspring and also unrelated horses and even other species at times.

At any rate, before buying that next quick fix or subscribing to a trainer with “answers”, I think it would be useful to ask a few questions first.

Culture Clash

If I were to discover that I have a long lost second cousin from a distant land who I was going to have the chance to meet, I would certainly try to find out about my cousin’s culture and what would make him comfortable in my home. I’m not suggesting that if I found out he loves to eat goat’s eyes as a bedtime snack that I would run out looking for a goat’s eye’s supplier and learn how to prepare them, but I wouldn’t disrespect that preference, but I would politely explain it’s not readily available in US grocery stores!

The first question I’m proposing is that we try to understand the other “culture” and what makes the other individual comfortable. I venture to say that being treated roughly is not the answer to what makes a horse comfortable. And what might WE be doing that brings out poor behavior in our horses? Do we use aggressive body language (we are predators, after all) that pushes them away when we want them to come closer? Do we get in front of their movement on the ground forcing them to face us instead of move forward on the lunge or round pen and then wonder why they are being so obstinant?

Who's the Boss?

This brings me back to the age old question of dominance and treating a horse the way other horses would treat him. This is the justification that so many people use and perhaps the polite way of saying they intend to use “punishment” in training horses).

I don’t want a horse to treat ME like I’m a another horse, and seems like we’d be pretty silly to think they can’t tell the difference between a human and another horse OR to assume that they can’t develop the emotional control to refrain from hurting us. That whole idea is ridiculous to me – it comes from humans who think they are “thinking like a horse” while putting limitations on the horse’s ability to comprehend… I don’t believe the answer is to “think like a horse”, but to understand how they learn and try to understand a bit more about their emotional lives. That insight is what will help us communicate with horses more effectively, not assuming the horse has limitations.

The hierarchy in a herd can shift and the hierarchy isn’t consistent across the board. What I mean is that a horse that is #4 in the pecking order in one situation might be #2 or even #1 in a subset of that herd. And certain personalities are challengers, looking for their chance to move up the ranks. It’s not like #1 is always #1 in all cases for the lifetime of the herd, horses can move up and down the ranks. Nothing in the horse world (or dare I say in any “world”) is so static, the nature of life is a non-static environment. Expectation that life is static is bound to result in disappointment. Some horses with more dominant personalities are going to see a dominating (with violence) human as one that horse might defer to *today*. But only the battle was lost, not the war. I don’t want my relationship with my horses to be a *war*. Logically, I don’t want any horse seeing me as a potential higher ranking mare that could be displaced in the ranks with a good opportunistic bite or kick!

Learned Helplessness

Now, if a human is diligent enough with beatings, they can create a creature that adopts an emotional state that psychologists have labeled “Learned Helplessness”. This is a condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to act or behave helpless in a particular situation, even when it has the power to change its unpleasant or even harmful circumstance. Battered women who refuse to leave their husbands are often considered in this state of clinical depression. In a twisted way, I think this is what the cowboys were after that coined the term “breaking” a horse. They wanted to “break” the horse’s ability to fight back and convince the horse it had no choice. Again, this doesn’t fit with my idea of a relationship, but it does come closer to guaranteeing a subservient attitude, if that is what a person values more than creating a partnership with her horse.

Asking Questions

I think much of the answer to most human/horse conflicts is not around what are the answers, but rather, did the human ask the right questions?

So, what are those questions? Beyond understanding the horse, his culture, and his emotional life, I think we need to look at our horses and ask what WE want and need from them. It’s not about if these things are possible, these questions are purely about what drives us as a human to want to have a horse in our lives. It’s not about the horse we may already have, just pure and simple, what do WE want?

Do we want a friend? A partner? A slave? A creature that behaves as consistently as a machine? Or do we enjoy the interaction? The unpredictable nature of horses? Do we want to commune with nature? Do we like the surprise of what they might teach us or of uncovering how they look at the world? Do we want a horse that will make us shine in the show ring? Do we want one that can be competitive in some particular area? And of these things we want from our horse, how are those things prioritized? Is the show ring success more important than all else? Or is the partnership top priority and any show successes just icing on the cake?

Once those questions have been asked, the next set are about if the horse in our lives is capable of offering what we want. If a person really wants a horse so consistent that it behaves like a machine, then few horses really will fit this “role". After all, horses are not machines. Certainly anything inexperienced and young is less likely to meet that expectation. Also any personality with much of an opinion isn’t a good fit.

Why does this matter? Because there isn’t really such a thing as a quick fix in the horse world, there are gimmicks and lots of things to buy, lots of ways to spend money that may or may not help, but no real quick fix. Sometimes we just have to figure out if what we want is reasonable to expect, or if we need to rethink what we want or rethink if the horse we have is able to meet our expectations. We need to understand we can't squish a squre peg into a round hold, nor should we want to. At a minimum, by asking a few questions first, we might know what we’re trying to fix, or if it’s even possible to fix it. After all, odds are the “problem” horse probably doesn’t think he’s the problem, he probably feels the human is the problem. Odds are, I would agree.

Learning Under Pressure

2008-10-19T11:36:00.010-04:00

Over the years, there has been a lot of discussion about different learning styles and modalities of children. It’s common knowledge (I think!) for parents and teachers to consider the style that is most comfortable for their child to learn and also the modality in which that child learns best. It appears that the different learning styles might parallel personality traits and the modalities are the ways that information is transmitted to and processed in the brain.

Now, take that with a grain of salt because I’m not a child educator and don’t even have children, I’m just looking at this from an analytical perspective…

I look at this information and it makes perfect sense to me. Next, I wonder why so many horse trainers tend to treat all horses as if they are the same, as if they have one learning style and one modality? Seems limiting at best. Yes, different trainers talk a great deal about personalities, but not about how that personality processes information, which is what matters when it comes to training, after all.

As an effort NOT to limit them, I think it’s worth looking at these same learning styles & modalities and seeing how they apply to horse training.

The modalities fit into this scenario when we look at how horses “process” information. The most common modalities are visual, kinesthetic and auditory. In my experience, horses can and do use all three of these, how much depends upon how much encouragement they get to utilize all of their ability to process the information that comes into their world.

Visual in the context of human children normally means reading, pictures, graphs, some sort of visual presentation. Clearly my horses don’t read nor do they have much opportunity to process pictures and graphs, BUT they can process what they see other horses do. Foals have this ability from the day they are born, they see their mom eating solid food and they try grass, hay, grain. They see their mom pin her ears at a lower ranking horse or move away from a higher ranking horse, and they follow suit. It’s more than just mimicking, they are learning what behaviors work as communication techniques. Horses are remarkably visual, taking clues from body language, both horse and human. Some are more sensitive to the visual clues of humans than others as some horses tend to tune out human “body language” and ignore a great deal of what doesn’t fit with their understanding of correct Horsetiquette

Kinesthetic is receiving information via touch. In children that normally means hands on activities such as projects and experiments. With horses this probably seems like a no brainer, because they are physical creatures, but it’s also something they learn early on, their mom bumps them out of the way, or she may shove the foal toward the milk bar on that first exploration trip looking for food. Horses use their prehensile lips to investigate new things, being curious by nature, they use touch to investigate and often determine if something is worth being wary about This is the modality being used when horses are asked to touch something that scares them and face their fears.

Auditory may be less obvious and less prevalent, as it is often less common in children as well. But horses are surprisingly aware of sounds and can make the connection quite rapidly between sound and what that sound means. For example, how many horses have you seen that stop moving on a lunge line when the handler says “good boy!” or “good girl!”. As a prey animal they need to be very aware of sound, what many rider’s don’t consider is how many different words they can assimilate into their vocabulary. Clicker training is a great example of auditory learning, as horses quickly understand that the bridge signal has significant meaning.

It only make sense that if understanding your child’s learning style helps make education easier and time spent more effective, wouldn’t the same apply to horses?

I’ve tweaked the 4 basic learning styles so that they fit the limitations of horses (for example, mine don’t read!)… and I’ve given them names for ease of discussion. I will caution that learning styles are not fixed attributes and a horse can move from one style to another at times, so they should not be used to pigeon hole the horse into a narrow scope, but one style may be preferred most of the time. Some horses will bounce back and forth between styles based on the task at hand or in adaptation to a human’s training style.

Doer: This learning style may be most prevalent in horses that tends to be higher energy and more inclined to movement (right or wrong) rather than pondering a choice before making it. This horse just goes into action and depends upon the trainer to help it know if the “action” was right or not. They tend to be more of a reactor than a thinker.

Thinker: This personality also often hesitates before offering a potential solution. This learning style appreciates structure in tasks, with clear steps leading from one point to another. The Thinker considers options before tossing out a potential option. The Thinker also often doesn’t like being wrong, so he doesn’t want just toss out a possible option, he wants to consider it and try to get the RIGHT one. Routine and consistency of requests works best for this learning type.

Problem Solver: This learning style likes to sort out the point and works best in a free shaping environment where it is allowed to figure out the point based on feedback from the trainer. Horses are natural problem solvers and learners in a free shaping environment, starting from the day they are born when they must find the “milk bar” which is the ultimate reward for their search and discovery mission. This learning style is often not encouraged by “traditional” horse trainers but is commonly rediscovered by clicker trainers using a bridge signal to let the horse know they are closing in on a desired behavior.

Social Butterfly: This type thrives on personal interaction and the interaction is of more interest to this type than the tasks at hand. This is a very people oriented horse and can be very sensitive to aversive training techniques because the more aversive the technique, the larger the rift placed between the social butterfly and the person they are with.

There you have it, four basic learning styles that mirror human learning styles (yes I keep saying horses aren’t so different from humans as we often think!).

Of the different learning styles, there is often some overlap and some horses can be as much one type as another. For example, many horses are “Social Butterflys” as well as another learning type simultaneously. Often nature and nurture during the formative months/years have a lot to do with if a horse fits into this learning style.

Doers and Thinkers are often on two different ends of the same spectrum, but that’s not to say that a Doer is never a Thinker or vice versa. But most horses tend to either act first or think first, how your horse fits into this is most easily determined by his initial reaction to a request.

Problem Solvers are often the exception rather than the rule and problem solving often is born of boredom. For example, that horse that learns to unlatch his stall door or paddock gate. This may not be something he chooses to apply to most normal training situations, but it CAN be encouraged and developed with a technique like operant conditioning where he is encouraged to figure out what’s being asked of him with a bridge signal to let him know when he’s on the right track.

So, lets look at these learning styles and modalities and how that horse reacts to a standard training technique. Go to just about any “traditional” horse trainer and they will tell you if a horse doesn’t respond, increase the pressure. This means if you ask the horse for a behavior and he doesn’t respond, you increase the force behind the cue. Some use a 5 second rule or a 3 second rule, where the horse has a set time to react properly before the “trainer” uses more pressure to force a point.

The Doer is more reactive by nature and is probably off “doing” before pressure can escalate if the cue was to inspire movement. But this learning type is one that is in motion first and finds slowing down or being still more of a challenge. This is the type of horse that novices often decide a stronger bit is in order when the horse doesn’t seem to hear their request for it to slow down. But in fact, the learning style of this horse says “go” first, think about the request later, and any escalation of cues tends to inspire more flight instincts and less thinking, which is just the opposite of what the rider wants when thinking of slowing the horse down. After all, increase the pressure means increase the energy level to this particular horse, he/she is a Doer after all.

The Thinker may appear dim to some trainers at the point of escalating cues for non responsiveness. But the truth is, this type just doesn’t jump to a conclusion and toss any old thing out there in the face of a request. By escalating pressure and asking HARDER, it actually distracts the thinker from choosing an option. Some may become visibly irritated by in increase in pressure. It’s akin to taking to someone who doesn’t speak your language and yelling when they don’t respond. It’s just down right RUDE! What works best with The Thinker is to give him/her a chance to make a choice and pick a potential solution. The key to knowing if the Thinker understood your request is what action he/she took. The only flaw to that idea is if the horse is standing still, and does nothing, it could be because the horse didn’t understand. The key to think type is asking again is fine, but escalation of pressure is akin to screaming, sometimes asking more softly helps or asking a different way, because a change may help clarify if the original request wasn’t clear. Clarity is everything to The Thinker.

The Problem Solver is an interactive learner. This horse enjoys experimenting to figure out the answer. Some horses don’t relish making a choice, particularly if it might be a wrong choice, so although they all experiment, this type really likes the process. So, being wrong isn’t such a big deal to this type, it’s part of the process of learning and trying different things. BUT this type doesn’t need more pressure if they pick the wrong answer, he just needs a sign that he’s heading down the right road. One note on this type, punishment tends to decrease the horse’s desire to problem solve, which is why these horses may not seem so brilliant when they are being trained by a human, but left to their own devices, they can get out of fences and into feed rooms. Also, gimmicks that restrict movement tend to inhibit a problem solver because it restricts his options. This type needs to be given the liberty to try different options and be encouraged when he’s made a right choice. Positive reinforcement and a bridge signal to pin point when the horse is right really gets the problem solver engaged and working with the human toward a specific solution.

The Social Butterfly loves the interaction of training and relishes the partnership. Punishment can be particularly daunting to this personality type because it is the ultimate sign of criticism and displeasure. Punishment often confuses a Social Butterfly because they enjoy training because of the relationship with their person, not because they love to learn. They do best with a positive reinforcement training technique that supports the positive relationship building that this type craves.

What does this do for you? Hopefully give you some food for thought on the topic if what escalation does to your horse based on his learning style and help you answer the question, does escalation help or hurt a horse’s ability to learn?

Extending the Olive Branch

2008-08-07T09:32:00.010-04:00

Being a bit of wordsmith wannabe, several online dictionaries send me daily definitions. Call me odd, I’m ok with that, but I enjoy reading the definitions and pondering thoughts they inspire.

So, the word “aggression” came to me via email a week or so ago and I started pondering aggression and well that definition really applies to different species.

From Websters:
Aggression
1: a forceful action or procedure (as an unprovoked attack) especially when intended to dominate or master
2: the practice of making attacks or encroachments; especially : unprovoked violation by one country of the territorial integrity of another
3: hostile, injurious, or destructive behavior or outlook especially when caused by frustration

Definition 1 only makes sense when applied to predators. I can apply it to humans and to other predators that dominate in order to supply themselves with food. Definition 2 is apparently the world view of aggression as it relates to territory (also probably applies to religion, but that’s another blog). Again, doesn’t seem to apply to prey animals. Definition 3 appears to have the closest application to animal aggression, but it doesn’t fit entirely because there seems to be a missing component: FEAR.

I Googled “fear aggression” and found a plethora of information on fear aggression in dogs but nothing very useful about horses, which of course is where I was going with this blog. I googled aggression in horses and didn’t find much of use, well, unless you consider using a stun gun on a horse as useful, which I do not.

Fear aggression in dogs is defined as “Aggression produced as a result of fear.” Ok, that is simple & obvious enough. So, why do some animals react to fear with aggression and some do not? It is clearly an opposite reaction, one is to flee and the other is to stand and fight back, both based on the same emotion, but with opposite reactions.

In search of why some dogs become aggressive lead me to this comment from Dr. Nicholas B. Carter in an article on a Border Collie Rescue site: “What produces fear aggression is a mixture of things - socialization, temperament, abuse, genetics, training, or just rotten luck. Like all behaviors, this is not a nature vs. nurture issue - it's a nature AND nurture issue. What is inevitably true however is that untreated, fear aggression only gets worse.”

Ok, I’m confident that statement can also apply to horses who experience fear aggression.

Horses are prey animals and although they may at times be aggressive with each other they not normally aggressive with predators (humans) Here is Webester’s definition that applies to horses: Prey: an animal taken by a predator as food.

In this big world we are either predator or prey, basically. The horse is prey and it's standard reaction in the face of a predator is to flee in order to avoid becoming someone’s lunch. But in the end, prey animals will fight back when they feel they have no other choice.

Continuing to poke around on the internet, I found this on www.paw-rescue.org/

Helping A Fear-Aggressive Dog:

* Use positive reinforcement to train the dog. Reward appropriate behavior with treats, praise and petting. Earn and build the dog's trust.

* Don't punish a dog for bad behavior. Instead, use humane, properly executed corrections.

* Don't reward a dog for aggressive behavior (this includes cooing, cuddling and petting in an attempt to soothe).

* Avoid reinforcing dog's fear with your own anxiety.

* Remember: fearful dogs don't like surprises. Establish rules and order to help the dog adjust, and make sure everyone in the house follows the rules.

* As with dominance aggression, the person needs to become leader of the pack.

Dr. Nicholas B. Carter’s opinion is that “more dogs are put down by their owners in this country for fear aggression than old age.” So, why do some humans find these things so hard to do in order to deal with the problem?

Ok, time for MY opinion (after all, this is my blog!) it’s hard for us because humans are not good at controlling our emotions. We think we are but we aren’t. We think putting on a happy face tells the world we are happy even if we are seething inside. The problem is that the only creatures that fall for that ploy are other humans. Dogs and horses KNOW what is going on inside of us. They know when we are sad, hurt, angry, happy, irritable, and they react to how we are really feeling, not how we pretend to feel.

Simple as that. Frightened humans tend to lash out. When humans expect the target of their aggression (the horse) to be submissive and it doesn’t behave as expected, that increases the human level of anxiety and fear, hence, the human tends to become more aggressive. Suddenly the bad vibes bouncing back and forth between horse and human are like the spin cycle on a washing machine going around and around and around. Only the spin cycle never stops, and the easy answer is to never handle the horse, or get “rid” of it. Often the latter seems to be the answer.

If I were going to write an instruction manual for horses about how to handle aggressive humans, here are the guidelines I would offer:

Helping A Fear-Aggressive Human

* Use positive reinforcement to train the human. Reward appropriate behavior with polite behavior, soft eyes and affection. Earn and build the human’s trust.

* Don't punish a human for bad behavior. Instead, use kind but clear (dare I say humane?) corrections.

* Don't reward a human for aggressive behavior

* Avoid reinforcing human’s fear with your own anxiety.

* Remember: fearful humans don't like surprises.

* As with dominance aggression, the person needs to become leader of the pack.

I’m seeing a pattern here… (-;

The flaw I see in how most humans deal with equine aggression is to meet aggression with aggression. They respond with that idea that the challenge has to be met “head on” and defeated, as if this is a battle of wills. The problem is this: the lesson the horse learns is humans can’t be trusted and can’t be bothered to listen to the horse’s side of the issue.

Back to the rules I listed above, although I was writing somewhat tongue-in-cheek, there is a lot of truth to those words. The problem is that the horse isn’t going to read my “instruction manual for how to deal with an aggressive human” and they need the human to extend the olive branch to them, so they know they have no reason to continue the fight. And with some horses, those that have been fighting with humans on some level for a prolonged period, it may take a while to actually build their trust and belief that the rules of engagement have changed. Remember, the rules as this aggressive horse understands them, are that humans are aggressive and the only tactic to get the human to leave the horse alone is to match aggression with aggression.

Some theorize that it’s all about dominance, but the problem with that theory is that we aren’t horses so herd dynamics don’t really apply to human interaction. Also, I’ve seen during the process of rehabbing these horses that they are much more relaxed when they aren’t on the defensive. Who wants to be seething and churning emotionally inside? Not humans, not horses either.

So, back to how humans can change their behavior in order to help the horse change HIS behavior:

Helping A Fear-Agressive Horse

* Use positive reinforcement to train the horse. Reward appropriate behavior with treats, praise and petting. Earn and build the horse’s trust that you will behave rationally and fairly.

* Don't punish a horse for bad behavior. Instead, use humane, properly executed corrections. It is more effective to reward desirable behavior than punish undesirable behavior.

* Don't reward or reinforce aggressive behavior (this includes fighting back which communicates he was in fact threatened and his aggression was necessary to protect himself).

* Avoid reinforcing horse’s fear with your own anxiety.

* Remember: fearful horses don't like surprises or confusion. Establish rules and order to help the horse adjust, and make sure everyone in the barn follows the rules.

* As with dominance aggression, the person needs to become leader of the herd. This means being a good leader that is fair & consistent.

I would add one more:

* Make your expectations clear. Clear communication is the key to consistent behavior from a horse. Frustration gives birth to anxiety which for some horses is only a step or two away from aggression.

These rules sound all too simple, but they aren’t. They are difficult for humans for two reasons: One is that as much as we humans want the animals around us to control their emotions, we have a hard time controlling our own. We need to get a grip on our own anxiety so that we don’t let our own fear drive us to aggression. We also need to avoid feeding the horse’s anxiety with our own. That can be a tall order.

Punishment is the most common human reaction to aggression in horses, without significant thought or planning. The problem is that brings out the worst in an aggressive horse and validates his need to fight back.

In theory, the rest of the guidelines aren’t all that hard to follow, except the human has to go through a paradigm shift away from a couple of generally accepted training tactics:

1. If the horse doesn’t react appropriately or promptly enough, up the pressure.
2. If the horse behaves badly, punishment it.

These two standard operating procedures in horse training tend to bring out the worst in a horse with aggressive tendencies. I imagine that this statement leaves some folks wondering what a person is to do if they shouldn’t increase pressure or punish aggression. The answer is to change the human’s behavior and the horse’s behavior will follow suit. I know that’s not the message most folks want to hear, but it’s the truth. And it isn't an immediate fix, in our culture of instant gratification, it's probalby bad news for some people. But it takes time for a horse to conclude that the rules have changed. Learning to deal with an aggressive horse can be a life changing experience that impacts every aspect of a human’s life, it requires a lot of soul searching to get a grip on the human emotions that lead us to lash out first and ask questions later.

Horses are not aggressive without provocation. Only it’s not always obvious to humans why the horse felt provoked. We have to put ourselves in the horse’s skin for a while to see that. That’s my suggestion, borrow that horse suit and ponder how it feels to be trained with punishment and given unclear instructions with increased pressure every time you guess wrong. Consider having no control over your environment. Consider feeling helpless and afraid in the presence of the very predator you depend upon for food and water. Consider what it would be like to be hit with a stun gun for expressing your opinion. EEEK!

All About Intentions

2008-07-26T10:12:00.009-04:00

All my life I've heard people talk about horses being able to sense our emotions. I've had it proven to me time and again, even as a child, if I was angry about something, my wonderful mare, Holly, would be uncatchable. If I was sad, she would be there for me with her soft nose in my face, or ruffling my hair. If I was distracted, she would be the same. When I was focused, she was on target and fabulous.

I always thought of these emotions - the ones horses could detect - as being rather black and white, easily grouped and definable; obvious, not rooted in a lot of complexity. And then after my knee fracture last year, nothing has been obvious or black and white, my role with horses has been filled with shades of grey and loads of complexity.

It's not what it might appear on the surface, it's not a fear of horses, because I wasn't hurt by a horse, I was hurt because I made a bad choice. This idea of blaming myself for what happened - well, it's the truth and sometimes the truth just hurts. So, where did that leave me? After a lot of pondering over my situation I realized that I lost a lot of confidence after that fall, not confidence in my riding or training ability, but confidence that I would make the right judgement call in a split second when I have to make an instantaneous decision. And this has potentially frightening repercussions when that decision can have disastrous results. And the loss of confidence wasn't instantaneous, it took a while to sink in, with all of it's complexity.

Of course, it's easy to say no one died, it was only a fracture, surgery, no walking for 3 months, and a big ol' wad of money spent on barn help, doctors bills, rehab... it was a life changing event that I don't want to go through again, as long as I live.

That has left me oddly unsure. Not hesitant to handle my horses but just not confident in my ability to make the right choice in a pinch and I can see that this lack of confidence has bled over into how horses interact with me. I think the ones that know me well have tried to look the other way, because this change isn't what they expect from me.

But Cal, the newest addition to the herd, didn't know me before the accident, so I think he most clearly reflected what he read in my intentions. He was more aware of this than I was for a long time. OK, I guess I was in denial to some degree, aware that I had these concerns but not sure what to do about them, so in a true procrastinator fashion, I hoped if I ignored them, these feelings would just go away.

Then a few weeks ago, I was working with Cal on trailer loading. He had some past issues with loading and clearly if he came off the trailer on his own, he had been backed as punishment. I'm assuming that because once he started backing off, he backed for probably 50 feet before he stopped with a high head and concern in his eyes.

After taking a strictly positive approach using clicker training concepts and his favorite rewards for forward movement, he got the idea that he didn't need to keep backing, coming off the trailer was acceptable.

But he hesitated to come all the way in the trailer until I asked him to follow me into the straight load stall. Now, I'd been avoiding this for several reasons, one being I'm not as agile as I once was and a straight load trailer isn't a huge space for a horse and a human. And with a stiff knee and if he panicked or got an attitude, which he sometimes does, I'd be trapped in a small space with him, and no easy way out. I also ultimately wanted to be able to send him into the trailer, but at that moment, he was telling me that he was unsure and I knew sending him in wasn't likely to happen that day.

The other, and perhaps more important message that I got from Cal was that he needed me to be a confident leader, not to hesitate being in a small space with him, I needed to be able to welcome him into MY space, and share my confidence that this was a safe step for him to take.

It all happened so fast, it's as if I decided that I was safe with him and within moments he decided he was safe with me, and suddenly he was in that trailer stall, next to me, looking pleased with himself and happy as a clam in that confined space. He was focused enough to step forward and back and forward again, when I asked rather than getting stuck in gear like many horses tend to do once they begin backing out of a trailer.

Looking back on this experience, I'm reminded that it's not enough to want or try to project an emotion, because horses aren't fooled by any of that. They can feel what is in our hearts, and they can ferret out any hesitation or glimmer of failed confidence. They are truly our mirror in so many ways. Not necessarily a mirror in our mood, but the feelings beneath our mood, the ones we often try to ignore or deny. I think they show us what we project that we may not want to see or admit or acknowledge, in addition to our strengths.

If we allow them, these fabulous creatures can be our guide in the evolution of the human spirit. The key is that we have to welcome them into our space, literally and figuratively. They offer every day, but do we always accept their offer? (-:

Is Your Horse a Rock Star?

2008-02-16T09:40:00.004-05:00

I found an interesting little book that I wish I had read YEARS ago, back when I was teaching dressage, when I was working with so many students who were riding a horse that were not suited to their personality. The book is titled: "Is Your Horse a Rock Star" by Dessa Hockley.

What's so great about this book is it basically looks at horses using a simple analysis tool:
Is the horse:
dominant or submissive
energetic or lazy
curious or afraid
friendly or aloof

One of the things that I like best about her method is that she doesn't tie into any particular training fad or methodology, she just defines the personality type and then talks about the challenges, advantages, and suitability of that type. One of the things she delves into is who that personality type often suits the best and how to adapt to that type if you need to change YOUR approach.

The best time to have this information, of course, is BEFORE a person buys a horse and finds they are butting heads with that same horse. But it is also useful afterwards, assuming a person is willing to try to adapt their behavior and style to the horse than they already own.

I used to think that the rescues that came to live with me were the clear and simply product of poor handling and poor training. I still feel that way, but I can see from this book, exactly what mistakes those "poor trainers" made. It's been fun to do a quick analysis of all the horses in my barn and get a feel for what type of person they are best suited for. I think this could be an excellent tool to help match the right horse with the right rider, however I suspect some "buyers" will not want to be told that Old Faithful is better suited to their personality than their first choice, Hot Stuff...

At any rate, it's a fun read and has great potential to help a lot of horses, IF their humans are willing to make some changes in their approach. In many cases, humans feel that the horse should be adaptable and change to fit the human's style, but honestly, that often just doesn't happen and the end result is that everyone is miserable.

So, hats off to Dessa Hockley for trying to put all of this into clear perspective and help people see why there can be so much variation between horses, even of the same breed.

Deserving Respect

2007-12-07T10:21:00.000-05:00

Just when I desperately needed to decrease my horsey responsibilities, while my knee rehabs from surgery, what did I do? I added another horse. I tried to talk myself out of it, but the owner threatened to take him to an auction and I couldn't stand that. I did hestitate, waited a number of weeks, hoping she would find a different home for him, but when push comes to shove, I'm probably just a sucker. At any rate, I have a soft spot in my heart for Curlies that haven't been raised well. They are normally such nice horses, so to see one troubled and acting out really gets to me.

So, I now have a new gelding that is a bit pushy, needing some clarity about boundaries and with some dental issues (so I won't ride him until those are resolved) and also with a touch of fear in him. A fearful bully is the worst kind of bully, in my book.

My feeling is that boundary issues comes from humans that don't have a clear idea of what messages they are sending to their horse. If people vacillate between body language of fear and aggression, the horse has no idea how he is supposed to behave, the messages are mixed and confusing. If the message is predominately one of fear, then the horse learns he can push and get relief from whatever is happening at the moment. If the predominate message is one of aggression from the human, he learns escape is the best behavior to cope, and sometimes this takes the form of panic. Those that get mixed messages often behave very unpredicatably.

So, I finally found a good DVD (Chris Irwin's In Hand DVD), that actually shows how subtle communication works between humans and horses. It's one of a series, and I suspect the entire series is worth watching.

This particular video shows how a horse can interpret the most subtle movements of humans. Meanwhile, most humans clamor around like a bull in a China Shop with no idea what messages they are sending. Worse even still is the expectation that the horse ignores these conflicting messages and doesn't react to them. But they are not tractors, they are living, breathing beings with the psyche of a prey animals. Their survival in the wild depends upon noticing subtle movements and shifts, yet humans often treat them as if their natural reactions are inappropriate behavior.

I watched this DVD a few weeks ago, and my first thought was that if the past owners of my troubled Curlies understood even the basics of Chris' body languge teachings, these horses never would have ended up troubled in the first place.

I find myself in the interesting postion, having viewed so many videos and DVDs, including Natural Horsemanship (all the more popular flavors and some less popular ones) plus dressage & sport horse training videos galore. And what has been lacking in each of them is this understanding of body language with the clarity that Chris demonstrates.

One reason why Chris appeals to me is because his goal is to work with a horse and avoid inversion of the frame, which the popular NH trainers do not do. Chris' goal is to avoid inversion in the first place, and keeping the horse relaxed and cooperative. What Chris shows in the DVD is that horse CAN react positively to the physcial message Chris gives them, and they then choose cooperate with Chris without inverting, or going spastic or right-brained, whatever the NH guys want to call it. What these horses choose to do is to accept Chris as the leader and follow respectfully.

It seems so clear to me that avoiding these times of disconnect by clear communication is so far superior to pushing the horse into inversion and a bit of hysteria and then having to reel it back in. What did that prove to the horse other than we aren't speaking his language and perhaps don't deserve to be their leader since we not only allow them to panic but push them into it?

One of the most thought provoking moments on Chris' DVD was a comment he made about "teaching the horse who's boss". I've always gotten chills of disgust when I hear those very words come out of the mouths of local horse people because it normally means "teach the horse he must be subservient and obedient to humans via a heavy hand". But in Chris' world, it means teach the horse that humans can/will be a good leader, offer the horse safety when he's scared, guidance by a positive example of strength & leadership and all without any form of punishment.

The beauty of this DVD is that Chris shows clearly how a tiny shift in his body causes a reaction from the horse he is dealing with. And his example horses are unfamiliar to him, not ones he's already "fixed". It's these tiny shifts that we need to understand and learn to use to our advantage. Even if our horses aren't a problem, I'm sure they would appreciate good, strong leadership from their people.

We don't need to punish our horses to get the behavior we need, but we do need to learn to be the leader they can respect in order for them to offer us respect. This isn't rocket science, but so few people who own horses really have a clear understanding of body language and how horses see us. And we don't deserve respect JUST because we are human. We must earn it. Chris finally has a DVD series that shows just that.

Every movment is a message to our horses. I think we owe it to them to understand what message we are sending their way!

Anyone interested in Chris' DVD series can find them at www.foresthorse.com (US web store) or on Chris's web site, www.chrisirwin.com (Canadian web store).

Making commitments

2007-08-03T15:50:00.000-04:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately - one of the topics, of course, has been Hannah, and how she came to the mental outlook that she has regarding people. I found out some information recently that explained the aggression that I've seen pop up from time to time. She hasn't shown a LOT of aggression, but I've heard horror stories of more in her past, so her potential for Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde has been something I've thought a lot about. Why she's that way, if horses that are mistreated can ever REALLY forgive us humans for our poor behavior. And I've thought a lot about trying to see things from her viewpoint, although that's probably speculation at best.

And recently I've had a LOT of time TO think. About 10 days ago, in a freakish accident, I crushed the outside of my right knee and found myself in the hospital having my knee reconstructed with metal and grafting materials.

It was stupid, I blame myself, I wasn't really concentrating, I thought about not riding at all that morning, maybe I should have listened to that inner voice! But Hannah had just had a chiropractic adjustment the day before and I felt it was important to get her out and work her stretched long and low, at least for 20-30 minutes, to help her adjust to being back in alignment. So, I talked myself into tacking up, it was brisk for the SE in July, abnormally brisk. I'm not sure why, maybe Hannah just felt different because she had just been adjusted, maybe it was the cooler temps, maybe something else entirely, but she shied and as I was in the rising phase of posting trot and she was stretched down, there was little holding me in the saddle. I knew I was going to come off. I thought it would be more embarrassing than anything else. I figured this would be one of those silly "emergency dismounts", I'd swing down on my feet and that would be the end of that. I did manage to land on my left leg without incident, but when the right swung down, I hit the ground hard with the inside of my right foot and bent my knee out to the side. I heard it crack and the pain was intense enough that I hung on to Hannah's neck wondering if I was going to pass out. I didn't pass out, and for some reason, I was sure it wasn't broken.

I found myself standing in my riding arena, hanging on to Hannah's neck, with my right knee collapsing if I tried to put any weight on it. I was at least 500 feet from the barn, and 4 times that distance from a phone and no one was home but me. All the horses were in stalls but Hannah. So, I did the only thing I could think of in my shocky state which was to use Hannah as a crutch. She stood like a rock next to me, didn't move away or try to face me, which would have left me in the dirt. She just let me stand at her shoulder with my right arm over her neck. And when I asked her to take a step, she moved one foot and stopped, and waited until I asked her to step again. One step at a time, she helped me back to the barn, where I had a folding stool I could use as a crutch. She let me take off her tack and turn her out with her foal, Rae. When I untacked her and set her free, she turned to look at me with an expression like she wasn't sure I was OK... Should she leave me there or not?

I think back on this and I'm filled with awe for this horse. I have had horses for 40 years and in that time, I don't think I can name one that I think would have been so calm in a crisis or so intuitive about what was the right thing to do. Maybe this is just her nature? Maybe, maybe not. But every horse I've ever had would have shied and wouldn't have immediately stopped if I came off, they would have continued in their own world of what frightened them for long enough to topple me with a shattered knee standing on one leg with my head swimming. Even a step or two would have been enough to leave me in the dirt. But she must have stopped immediately. Beyond that, I don't think I've had a horse that would be so deliberate in taking one step at a time and not leave me behind. And I've had a number of them that if I leaned on their neck like I did with Hannah, they would have reacted in some way. Maybe moved away from the pressure, or something. Anything other than standing like a rock was too much movement for me that day. Just about anything she did could have left me in a crumpled mass, crawling back to the barn, dragging my bumb knee. Yet I stayed upright. And she patiently helped me get back to the barn.

And somehow, when it happened, I knew I was going to get back to the barn, and I trusted that Hannah would be there for me. Don't ask me how I knew that, I just did. How did she know what I wanted when I've never asked her to let me lean on her and hop along before? I'm constantly amazed by this horse. Can we ever really know what we are made of (or our animals) until we face a crisis? If you had asked me what she would have done, I never would have predicted she would be so dedicated to stay with me when she certainly didn't HAVE to.

Is this all a big accident that she did exactly the right thing when I asked her to? Or was this her way of showing me that her heart is bigger than most humans that have owned her in the past? Or something in between? For now, I'm trying to recover what I'm being told is a slow to heal injury, that could have me off my feet completely for up to 12 weeks. Hannah's back out in the pasture, being a Mom, her dressage career once again, on hold. But I'm still in awe of her, I see her flaws clearly, she's not the prettiest, best moving mare on the planet. But could I really ask for more from a horse than she's already given me? Seriously.

Building Foundations

2007-07-13T19:06:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about foundations. Not just dressage basics and how to create a relaxed horse who is willing to try for their human... but also other foundations too.

It's logical to me that if a horse's feet are not in balance, everything else would be compromised to some degree. When Hannah first came to Dances With Hooves, she landed toe first with each foot fall. That has been corrected, but I'm not convinced that her foot is in complete balance still... so to that end, I've found a barefoot trimmer that will trim for me. I want to give Hannah the best possible opportunity to see what she can do. In order to do that, I feel her foundation needs to be solid and correct.

Beyond her feet, I also feel a chiropractic adjustment is in order, because often foaling can cause a misalignment in the spine, just due to the process of foaling. I don't see evidence of any particular pain, but I can feel a difference in the quality of canter, left and right lead. I want to rule out misalignment because if that's the problem, all the training in the world isn't going to fix it!

There are so many other components to a good foundation. The proper saddle fit, proper bit shape and fit & dental care When I think about it, all the training in the world is pointless if the foundation isn't solid.

Beyond all of the physical components, I think there is also an emotional component. I believe we (humans) have the obligation to create a safe environment for our horse during training. An environment where they can learn with minimal stress and confusion. Feeling safe means feeling it's ok to make mistakes. No one, not horse or human, can enjoy learning if making a mistake means punishement will follow.

The truth is that optimal learning will not take place without a bit of emotional nurturing. I was recently sickened by a video on YouTube, showing a horse's leg tied up while the "trainer" (I use that term very loosely in this case) mounted and forced the horse to canter around a pen on 3 legs. I see no earthly reason for such inexcusable human behavior. It is our job as the human to lead with kindness and train without brutality. Regardless of the reason for such methods, if the horse had been started with a good foundation, felt emotionally, mentally and physically prepared for every step in training, such horrible methods would never have been necessary in the first place.

I know Hannah's past had it's rocky moments, and she learned some very negative behaviors on order to cope with humans. I wonder once a poor foundation is established, is it possible to completely rebuild it and undo any damage done? I imagine it depends upon how much damange and how forgiving the horse.
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Getting Back to Dressage

2007-07-03T08:05:00.000-04:00

I've always kept a training journal, so it was a tiny step to move from that to a blog. This Blog will be focused on training my Curlies, although it may deviate to other topics now and then.

First, I've made a huge (for me) decision to move away from breeding this year. Hannah has been on Maternity Leave and it felt SO GREAT to get back in the saddle again. I love the babies, but my heart is really with training and dressage.

I also have come to see that if I can give anything to horses, it is be taking horses like Hannah who have been treated less than ideally and show her that humans aren't so bad. Seeing her work with me and try so hard to get what I'm asking for just makes me day every time I ride her. She's come so far, she started out as a sometimes aggressive & emotionally distant horse who bit me that first time I tried to clean out a front hoof. Over time and with the diligent use of operant conditioning (clicker training) she has morphed into a soft and supple riding horse, schooling some second level dressage movements.

My focus with Hannah is always keeping her soft, relaxed and supple as the top priority. I've learned over the years that if I lose sight of the horse's back - keeping it soft and swinging, then I have no foundation for any other training. Yes, I can train "tricks" without a soft and supple back, but they will not be correctly executed from a "classical dressage" perspective.

Sometimes, regardless of what I have in my training sights for the day, I have to drop back and focus purely on the basics to ensure that Hannah is properly stretched over her topline, soft and light, and in self carriage.

So far, without going into too much detail, I am thrilled with our progress since putting Hannah back to work. She has picked up canter from the walk like it was child's play. Her lateral work is becoming quite good, and we set up the video camera every weekend so that I can verify that it looks as good as it feels. We've started schooling shoulder-in to a few steps of lengthening, and once again, I'm impressed by how fast she caught on to this new 'ask' of mine. Every try showed improvement and what more could I really ask for?

This mare is amazing. She comes with her how challenges, most notably an apparently negative past that has her a bit prickly with humans on occasion. But if I keep my expectations clear, she's more than willing to give as much as she can give. I had a wonderful chestnut mare named Holly, when I was a child, never marish and an amazing athlete. Since that time, I've always favored male horses, but Hannah brings back thoughts of Holly. There is nothing more amazing than a mare that gives you her heart and soul in her work.