Remember Curly in City Slickers? Here’s ONE of the ONE THINGS. My HERE TOO! philosophy. A lot of horses are trained to do specific things under specific circumstances. But, they don’t respond when they don’t have to. Notice if you ask your horse to move away, particularly at liberty, WHAT parts move and in WHAT direction!!!! If you ask your horse to step aside while scooping poop, it’s important that you notice how that experience went. Did he step aside or backup? It makes a difference.
WHAT PART IS ACTUALLY MOVING!???
Something very important that I’ve noticed many folks struggle with is that they don’t even know that it’s their struggle. Oi. That’s confusing. Let’s take a look at the angles to this concept.
Asking your horse to back up when they’re crowding you or you’re talking to your friend and they step in between the conversation line (yes, they know) is common. What is also common is that the horse doesn’t actually BACK UP! They tilt their head off to the side or maybe step a hoof to the left or right. THAT ISN’T BACKING! But, since they horse maybe, sort of, got out of your immediate way, it’s accepted. That makes it okay and correct to the horse, because you said it was by accepting the movement as performed. Actually it was more of an evasion movement, right?
Could the horse have backed up? Of course. Did even one hoof head in that direction? And if not, what do you do about it? Would you think it odd that with these same people and horses, when the person asks the horse to step to the side, the horse is going to go backward? How is that possible? Well, I’m here to tell you the horse is THAT good at generating points. They also know very well how imprecise and lackadaisical we humans tend to be. So, they’re just racking up the points while the person goes about what they THINK is their business. But, your horse NOT doing as you ask or doing something else should really be a higher priority.
I guess the problem is that a step here or there doesn’t seem like a ding-dang crisis just standing around in the stable area or what-not. But, where it will jump up and bite you in the butt is when you’re in a spot of trouble and you aren’t going to get your horse to do what you need. The horse has been perfecting these movements that you haven’t been conscious of constantly and it is the norm. Then, when you really want it to go your way, when you’re in a crisis, your horse is going to rightly say – Tough luck, bub, I pretty much do what I want all the time and today isn’t your day either.
Once you start paying attention, you’ll probably be shocked at the staggering number of times you have been outplayed by your horse in these manners. And I’m talking about online! Wait until you start noticing it at liberty. Can you imagine?
Well, you don’t even have to go to the trouble to imagine, just go out with your horse and pay attention. Don’t get your panties in a bunch, you don’t HAVE to do anything about it at first, just notice what you notice. Then, when you choose to start making some changes in what you accept, the horse will be stoked with all sorts of moves you haven’t any experience correcting appropriately and your horse will be scoring points ad nauseum. So what? Just keep the concept in mind and start making your requests priorities. See what you give up on and what you don’t be clear and precise on with your horse. If you aren’t… please be assured… they are!
And watch out for those tricky shoulders. No, not yours! Your shoulders are not tricky, I can pretty much guarantee that. Horses though, are exceptionally tricky with their shoulders and getting you to respond appropriately to what the horse wants to do with/to you in a power position.
So, once you start recognizing when a horse does or doesn’t do what you ask and you’re paying attention, start asking the horse to do a move here or there in all sorts of different occasions and places. It doesn’t have to make sense or be for any reason other than that you asked to see if your horse would do it and do it… NICELY!
Get going!
I was her last stop before the Alpo can. This girl is the most dangerous horse I’ve ever been around in my life. What did “they” do to her to make her so dangerous? And by dangerous, I mean: She allowed no one near her. Within range for her was anywhere she could reach or get to. She’d charge you, even lunging over the fence. Just hope you get through it and far enough away to live. She struck, bit and kicked, launched whatever cowboy got on her and then, like a bull, turned and attacked. Broke bones in several trainers bodies before coming to me at the ripe old age of three. The trainers who owned her could not get within thirty feet of a fence without her trying to attack them. They purchased her as a one-year-old at the World sale in OK and when the breeder went into the stall, she sent him flying over the stall wall and broke some parts. The trainer/owner had gotten on her, but she launched him and then like a bull, turned and attacked breaking his collar bone. She had to be removed from the stable where they trained because no one could even clean the stall. They sent her to a trainer whose business card USED to read “Problem horses a specialty.” She launched him and attacked again with the same result. he told them to come get her, she was hopeless. They turned her out in a 100 acre pasture for six months hoping she’d settle down, but the other people who had horses in the pasture couldn’t get their horses because she’d attack them. She was temporarily contained in a round pen of a mutual acquintance while they tried to figure out what to do with her. They had the vet out to draw blood to check for hormone problems. If anyone even placed a hand on her, she’d squeal and kick and squirt pee. While in the stock for the vet to draw the blood, she managed to kick him and break his arm. Blood tests were negative. The mutual acquintance said if they wanted to give her one more shot before they took her to the killers, she needed to go to Lauren’s. (I keep a low profile. They didn’t know me.) They said drug her, throw her in the trailer and get her over there. I was gone to lessons the morning she was to be delivered, so I left instructions to leave her in the round pen. Now I was not given any info on this horse, just that they wanted her to “go long and low at a lope.” I had a message on my cell that said, “Hope your pen is still up when you get home.” Hmmmmm….. I walked out to see the new arrival. As I approached the fence, this beautiful horse ambled toward me and started to put her head forward. I noticed that she had a rear hoof that was completely broken up to the hair line at the quarter line. Lots of fresh blood. Don’t know what happened getting her here. I reached up a hand to pet her face and suddenly, both hind hooves were over the 5 foot rail right at my head. “Oh sweetheart,” I said, “that’s not the way we do things here.” She then pinned her ears and lunged over the rail at me with her teeth and eyes snapping. Yikes! I got my stick and string so I could work with her in the pen and hopefully live. She didn’t have a halter on and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be close enough to put one on her anyway. I had to do some pretty good swinging to even get in the pen and keep her off me. She didn’t care. I felt bad about the broken hoof, but it was obvious that that would be a long time healing and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. She didn’t seem to care either. High, shut-down pain threshold. I sent her off while she tried to attack and then bolted off squealing and squirting pee about 4-5 feet straight out behind her. I tested several options for her to come in or quiet down, the answer was a resounding “NO”. I was running around with her so I could touch her with the string and also use it when she attacked to start our conversation. Getting her to go away was important as a precursor to her giving to pressure and not killing me. She had no inclination to do so and there were many times that I knew my life was seriously in danger. To make a long story short, two hours later, both of us were covered in sweat and pee. She was changing direction and sometimes coming in half way to me. Then, suddenly she just stopped, turned in to me and walked up to me with her head down at her knees. She stood there heaving and dripping with her tail hangling limp between her legs and pee just started pouring out of her. I petted her forehead and said, “Sweetheart, where in the world did you even have that after two hours of squirting it all over?” Whatever happened to this horse before, she decided that she was going to get the human before the human could get her. I found out later that in addition to the multitud of broken bones she left in her wake, the owner had tied her legs and thrown her and left her laying in the sun under a tarp for several hours. She also had several serious wounds that they had stitched up on her lower legs without the help of a vet. Those scars will remain, the mind scars have mostly healed. I absolutely adore this horse and she’s like a barnacle. Follows me everywhere and always is a huge help teaching other horses how to do tricks and work with sidepassing over barrels or walking in the tire bundle or tarp work. She’s always right there on her own (frequently in the way) to show the newbie how to do it.
She was ten years old and had been kept in a pen for so long her legs hardly held up and sometimes didn’t while she scrambled to bolt away. A jet black Morgan, stunningly beautiful with black eyes, flowing mane and tail and crooked hind legs and strangely shaped hind hooves. Talk about spooky – I ducked between the rails of the pen she was in and she tried to jump out the back side. The guy who ‘trained’ her, well, he thinks standing in a round pen while she frantically runs so out of control that she’s at a 45 degree angle with the footing flinging hither and thither 30 feet out. She was in a total lather and had to be blocked to stop. Her eyes were white with terror. He, meanwhile, stood there in the ‘position’ with his arm cocked leaning on his stick while she lost her mind. Then, he saddled her up and got on and kinda rode her. Meaning he stayed on at a very tense walk and trot with reins only a few inces long and couldn’t get her any where near the rail or canter. A year later, after standing in that same pen the whole time, I brought her home amd turned her out with my herd. BTW she couldn’t be caught. What a lover puss. While she will come, she still has a thought that if you have a rope it may not go well for her. I’ve only been on her a handful of times and that bareback with a halter, but she’s doing very well. Updates as I get around to them.
Would you take that one with you, too?” the owner asked me. I made a face. I was there to see about a throw away (by them) horse for my daughter (Gryffindor is on the cover of my book with her). “No.” I said. “That’s like a large Great Dane. I don’t have any use for a tiny Arab pony.” But, the little bay horse whispered, “I’ll be your best horse ever.” Believe me, I throw that up in her face every once in a while when she gets a hair up her butt and she’s not being my best horse ever. She weighs about 200 pounds more than she did then. And with only about 225 rides in her, she’s a phenomenal horse. She’s perfectly behaved galloping in the mountains bridle-less with just a string around her neck that I don’t have to use. She’s so smooth in her gaits. She jumps like a bird; completely quiet and composed and we’ve started working on piaffe. I can put someone who’s never been on a horse before on her with a halter and take them for a ride in the desert or mountains. She’s also the one I’m on laying backward reading a book and in the un-spooky horse blog post. As to the reading picture, she had never been in the backyard, I had never laid backward on her. She didn’t even have so much as a string around her neck for that photo shoot. Very smart, but that’s an Arab for ya. Tell her what you want and be clear about it and she’ll give it her best try. I’ll keep adding blog posts featuring her and stories of old as we go.
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