Teaching Piero Ground Work Day 3

It always fascinates me to watch horses interact with one another. My established herd understands that I am the lead mare when I am around. Piero on the other hand, has yet to figure that out. He has asserted his position above Astro, and understands he falls beneath Tango. Yet when Scottie runs toward the fence where Piero is located on the other side, Piero stands his ground, pawing and flinging his head around. He was attempting to behave this way with me too.

When I approached him today, he turned and walked away from me. I then told him he had to keep moving, and moving. After about ten minutes of cantering around, and me running along, he finally stopped and faced me. Yippee. I immediately turned my shoulder toward him, and lowered my head. If he attempted to look away or graze, I slapped my thigh, made noise, whatever it took to keep his attention. It was either that, or he'd be moved again.

Piero is working hard to understand what I am asking of him. He steps back when I shake the lead rope a few times now. We'll keep working on that to improve the timing. When I lead him he is following at a nice position behind my shoulder, and he stops when I stop, and does not attempt to get ahead of me. He is learning to yield his haunches to me and to be driven forward. He is clearly accustomed to being lunged. I am striving for him to understand the difference between lunging and being driven. I point right, and he does go to the right, so I am very pleased with that. The next nice weather day we have I will tack him up for his ground work, in preparation to be ridden again.


Loretta

Piero's Ground Training Day 2

Today was a good day. Bright and sunny, no wind. Piero seemed much less angry today. It was evident in his expression. He is one stubborn pony. When I ask him to move, and boy can he move-FAST-he plays the game with me for much longer than I would like. Running around two acres gets tiring really quickly! When he finally did stop and look at me, he came right to me. Exactly what I wanted. We did this at least 3 different times today. I am hoping within a few days it takes less and less time for him to stop and face me.

Today I had him follow me for a few steps after he joined up with me. I would stop and give him verbal praise while rubbing his nose. The nose rubbing fascinates me. He, Scottie and Astro all do the same thing. Even if they do not like getting their noses rubbed, when working on ground training they will drop their heads when they hear verbal praise in preparation for that nose rub. We repeated this several times and I was very pleased with him.

We did a little bit of learning to back up with just a shake of the lead. Stopping when I stop while being lead, and staying behind my shoulder while being lead. I think he is a very intelligent, yet stubborn guy.

I also spent a few minutes working on pressure and release with head lowering. I figured that would be easy for him. I want there to be many things he does correctly while in ground training so he can receive a lot of praise.

I gave him his first really good grooming since he arrived here. Wow, what an absolutely beautiful coat this little guy has. He is a very dark dapple gray.

(I am working on a better pic of him)

An interesting observation I had while doing ground work with Piero, is the feeling that no one had ever interacted in this manner with him before. I believe this led him to feel not quite sure what to make of me.

Piero seems to be completely unaware of flexing through the poll. I've seen some of this little guy's moves, so I know he is flexible. Today I was able to get a tiny bit of flex to each side. An improvement over yesterdays stiff neck and circling. I'm going to take that with tiny baby steps because I don't want to confuse him.

This little 12.2h pony almost seems to be challenging Scottie for a leadership position. He has asserted himself above Astro in the herd, and does submit to Tango. I have not let him together with Scottie yet because of Scottie's behavior toward him just across a fence line. When Scottie runs at the fence, Piero will paw the ground and throw his head around. What a little tough guy. Unfortunately for him, Scottie is not going to back down, and size will win that one. Scottie can eat that little pony in a few bites! Hopefully that won't happen!

I'll let you know how it goes on day 3!

Loretta

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The Plight of Piero the Pony

I never realized how much I loved ponies. Two summers ago I got an itch to buy a pony. For my daughter, of course. Sadly, we had her only 8 weeks and she had to be put down. She was very ill with a liver disease. That's another story entirely.

This past summer the itch came back. I've always wanted a paint. There's just something about those colors. So I was thinking, paint pony. Works for me. I found the BEST paint pony ever. I really am getting to the point here. I only realized after having Astro (the paint pony) for a while, that I just have a thing for ponies. Funny since I also have a thing for Drafts. They do look kind of cute together. Sorry, back to the point.

The other day a friend calls me up and says she has this pony and asked if I will take him. She's had him for a few years, but he is not ridden regularly and she felt it wasn't fair to him. She let a friend borrow him and while at the new place he started to misbehave. The new barn didn't have time to deal with it....enter Loretta.

My first thought after going to observe him was that he is misunderstood. I am at times clairesentient with animals, especially horses. (That simply means that I pick up their feelings, or intuitively know or understand what they are feeling.) He had been checked by a vet and his feet are great, so I decided to take him.

He arrived on Sunday, just 3 days ago. He seems very mad to me. He quickly has established his place in the herd, above Astro & below Tango. I have not turned him out with Scottie yet. Scottie wants to eat him, so I'm delaying that for as long as I can. I pretty much am just letting him chill for a while. Relax and know we love him and will care for him.

He's an interesting character. I asked a few things of him, basic ground and respectful behaviors. He learned fairly quickly that when he walks away from me I will take over and tell him to move. He seems to understand that he will have to keep moving until he stops and faces me, and at that point that I want him to come to me. I am pleased about that. He appears to be totally relaxed on the ground. Did some rope work, fligging over his head and ears, nothing bothered him. What puzzled me is that mad feeling. He continued to hold onto it, even had his mouth clenched. I saw him lick and chew maybe once during the 20 minute session we spent together.

He clearly does not understand flexing at the poll. We went in many circles and didn't get anywhere. I finally decided to make the request so quiet that his head was hardly bent at all. But at least I felt him give so I could reply with a release. Hopefully he'll get that soon. I think pressure and release is a new subject for him. He is only 10, so he should pick it up quickly. I plan on pretending like he was not ever broken, so I won't be getting on him for a while. I am also counting on the assumption that he has never had a human establish themselves as herd leader. He seems puzzled by my behavior. It fascinates me how different they all can be. Astro accepted it right away. He would say, "Ok, is this what you want, here, like this, like this?

I have to put my kids to bed, so long for now.

Scottie tells his side

"Did she actually say I was the problem??? Ok, so here's what really happened.

I lived on a big, beautiful farm in Middleburg with my mom, little brother and lot of other horses. The nice man there would ride me on a trail through the fields about once or twice every couple of months. One time he took me hunting and it was a lot of fun.

The man who owned me bought my mom, a registered Irish Draught, in Ireland. He did not know I was going to be born until after they came home. So there I came, and I looked Belgian. Well, I guess he only wanted race horses at this point, so he decided to sell me.

This is where Loretta came in. She came to visit several times before taking me home. I think she was a little intimidated by my size, but she said she liked my eyes.

Ok, here's the part where you find out SHE was the problem. It only took a few days for me to really settle in and make friends with Tango. He knew right away I was in charge, so no problem there. Loretta got me and took me out for a trail ride. It was very nice in the woods and wow, there was a lot to see! We went trail riding several days that week. And the next week, and the next week. Get the picture? I had barely been ridden regularly and now I had to go out all the time.

I was noticing that when Loretta was around me, she really didn't act like a leader. And when we went riding she would let me trot if I wanted to, or even canter. Hmmm, I thought, since there were only two of us horses and Tango is an old man, I quickly became his leader. Maybe I needed to be her leader too? Wow. That's a lot different from what I was used to. I never had to make real leadership decisions before and now I found myself doing it all the time.

Since I felt I had to be the leader, and that is a BIG, important job, I had to stay on guard and protect our safety all the time. I became very stressed out, which lead me to become extremely nervous. Soon enough, I was nervous all the time. Even when Loretta would take my saddle off and drop the girth, I thought a lion was under me trying to eat me! She didn't seem to understand this at all. I had to walk around all day with my head up looking for danger. This was a very difficult job and soon I was so nervous and upset that we could not go out riding.

I just couldn't understand why she was standing in the field, crying and calling me very mean names. I won't even repeat what she said here. I thought she realized she needed to change because she introduced me to someone that said they could help. This new person did teach me a few things, and I still remember them, but she also scared me. She never hurt me, but her actions were very abrupt, fast and startling. I was really scared and did not know what to do. Well, I guess I finally got through to Loretta because that lady stopped coming.

I'll tell Loretta I need to write more tomorrow. I have to go because I just found out there's a new pony in my field, and of course, I need to show him who's boss!


Scottie
p.s. do you want to know why she named me Scottie?
any Star Trek fans out there? Because she had to be beamed up to get on me!!!!

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My Introduction to True Natural Horsemanship Part 2

In part one I told you about purchasing Scottie, and how great everything was in the beginning. Until one day it seemed, that everything just fell apart. There I was in my field, watching my horse run around with his custom made bridle dragging beneath him. Of course that scared the pants off of him. In an effort to 'get away' from the evil reins that were trying to eat him, he thought it would be a good idea to jump over the fence into the neighbor's pasture. That didn't go so well for him. He had not ever jumped 4.5 feet, and proceeded to crash through the fence, my neighbor's fence. Oh boy. Now I was really freaking out.

Scottie came out of that with only a scrape on his inner thigh. Thank God.




When I finally stopped crying, I realized I desperately needed help. So my quest for a trainer began. We went through a few trainers before we found the right match for us. All were some sort of natural horsemanship trainer, but we found that a few styles were too harsh, and there were also a few that were just not enough. We ended up working with Page Turner, a certified Frank Bell trainer. Page seemed to think that a series of events caused Scottie's mental meltdown. It probably began with the fact that he had never left home, or his mother before. He was rarely used, and now here I was riding him 3-4 days every week. Add to that the fact his previous owner had him in a rope halter, and I did not.

Apparently another big mistake I was making was letting him decide what gate to be in on the trails. Initially I couldn't understand why that was a big deal. If it was safe and my previous horse picked up a trot, well then, we trotted. No biggee, right? Wrong. At least for Scottie. Over time, to him, this meant he had control. After all, he was making decisions. These seemingly little subtleties had completely changed my new horse.

Page and I decided to start from the beginning. We pretended as if he had never been broken. I will tell you the next part of the story tomorrow.

Loretta

p.s. Interested in Scottie's version of this story? Watch for it in future posts!

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Astro learns to pass scary trail exit

Yesterday, my friend Sean and I had a quite a nice ride. Very sunny, blue sky day in Northern VA. I rode my 4 yr old pony, Astro. (When I find my camera cable I will post pics of him.)

There is a trailhead that has large amounts of sticks lining the sides. In addition there are several boulders, and the passage through them is quite narrow. There is also a yellow gate where county vehicles pass. Astro has always shied away from this area. I kept meaning to hand walk him down there, but hadn't yet gotten around to it. Yesterday, Astro walked right through it like he'd done it hundreds of times. YEAH!

Have you checked out my twitter page?

http://www.twitter.com/naturalhorseman

My Introduction to True Natural Horsemanship

Three years ago, Scottie the big chestnut came into my life. I had just put down my long time partner and best friend, Shadow. I needed another draft in my life, and of course my other horse needed a new friend too.

I visited and rode Scottie, then known as Elton, several times before making the decision to purchase him. Trained by one of the O'Connor's trainers as a 3yr old, & currently 6years old, he was a steal at $2K, custom bridle for that big head, included.

We came home and Scottie quickly asserted himself as leader of the 2 horse herd. Everything was going along very smoothly. We went out on the trails several days a week. Scottie appeared to be adjusting to me and his new home quite well.

Now, before I go into what happened next, you need to know a little background on Scottie in order for it to make sense. He was born and raised on the farm where I purchased him. His mother, a registered Irish Draught, still lived on the farm with him. She was purchased in Ireland and the owner did not know she was in foal, to what appears to be a Belgian. (one look at Scottie and that's not hard to see.) Scottie was professionally broken at three, but still very green. He was not ridden regularly. Occasionally he was hacked on trails and hilltopped at the local hunts. He seemed to be a horse that you could leave alone, and come back to with no problems. Terrific! When I tried him out for the first time, I noticed he had on a strange halter. It was made of skinny rope. I had never seen one before.

This was the beginning of what I thought were my troubles, but turned out to be the best thing I could have ever learned.

Loretta's horses

Training Tip D-Desensitize

When my former horse trainer began speaking to me about desensitizing my horse, I'll admit I was a bit leary. I was not familiar with the process and it sounded a bit odd. Why would we want to desensitize a horse? Isn't it good for a horse to be sensitive?

Horses can keep their sensitivity and be desensitized to things around them at the same time. I'll paint a little picture of what I did with Scottie.

First, complete some ground work, making sure to end on a good note. My mission was to desensitize him to the lead rope, which he thought was a huge threat at the time. I would stand by his shoulder, and bunch the rope up in my hand. I recommend using at least a 12-14 ft rope for this. I would rub him all over with the bunched up rope. Then I would do the same on the other side. After that, I would lightly toss the last few feet of rope up onto his back. If he spooked, or moved, I would continue this light flinging motion until he stopped his feet. Then I would stop immediately, timing is important here, and looking down, I would rub his nose.

This would progress very quickly and within a few days he would no longer be afraid of that end of flinging rope. Time to move to the next part.

• Stand in front of the horse, in a relaxed manner. Cock your own leg, keep your gaze down. Holding the end of the lead rope swing it back and forth gently, in a jump rope-like manner. When he gets used to this, progress so the rope is swinging up as high as it will go. Next, actually toss it over his head. Get a good fling, and back over again. At any time during this, if he moves away, simply follow him as best you can while continuing the motions. You stop when he stops. Keep in mind it is ok to make mistakes. If you get caught up in the rope or don't know when to start again, just start over.

This was hard for Scottie as he is ear shy. Every time that rope would go up and over it would touch an ear. When your horse stands there with his head low looking very bored, you know you can move on.

• Similar to what you did before, you will fling the entire rope up and over his back. Stand off to the side of the horse, and like a cowboy just throw that rope! Pull it back to your hand, and throw it again. You can toss the rope up there in a light enough manner so he should not be thinking you are hitting him with it. When he is comfortable here, proceed to throwing it around his back end. Again, make sure you do this from both sides of the horse. Please remember to give him lots of praise and rubs on the nose when he does the right thing.
  

• Once you have achieved all of the above, try standing to the side of the horse, and smack the ground to the side of you in a circular motion. A benefit of a longer rope on this exercise is that you can move away from the horse's body as much as you need to depending on his comfort zone. The rope will make a pretty loud crack, and the circle is large, so he may be startled by this. Again, make sure to do this on both sides of him. You may have noticed by now that he reacts differently on one side. Most horses are accustomed to being worked on one side (left) more than the other. Another thing to remember is that they are viewing you and that rope from a different eye when you change sides. Things may look totally different to him.

• The next thing to do is to take the lead rope and fling the last few feet of it around his feet. Start by his shoulder and fling that rope around his left front leg and hoof. When you become handy with that rope you can actually get it to wrap around. This is a good exercise because it will help the horse to learn to stand still if he gets caught up in something. Remember to move on to the next leg when there is no reaction from the last one. Of course you will do this exercise on both sides of him too.

• Once you and your horse are familiar with these, you can go through a series of them to keep it fresh in his mind. It is also fun to get creative. Try having the rope flip to his belly, or around his hind end. A huge benefit of all of this is that if something touches him quickly he most likely will not have a huge reaction to it. Or say you are out trail riding and you have to walk through brush. He'll know what it feels like to have things around his legs. By then he'll know he does not have to fear for his life just because something is wrapped around his foot.

• Now you can get really creative! You can take this exercise and do it with just about anything in place of the lead rope. Try a plastic bag. You can tie the bag to the end of a crop. Or, one of your kids toys. How about paper? Or a jacket? Remember to take it slowly. Sense how much your horse can take in one day. And give lots of praise when he does the right thing.
  

One more often overlooked benefit of this is that it is time well spent with your horse, not riding time. Often we get caught up in our busy lives, where it is already hard to fit in horse time. So we catch him, and ride. Don't get me wrong, riding is great and I love it! But in my opinion, it is good for both of you to do something else together. It will strengthen your relationship, it keeps him fresh and interested in you, and he'll know you enjoy being with him, simply to be with him.


Loretta
20/20 Horsemanship

Training tip-C Continued

C Continued

Consistency

I will never forget the day that my trainer told me I needed to be consistent with my draft's training. Things weren't going that well and I was not thrilled with him to say the least. My efforts to reinforce what my trainer taught him were almost non existent.

She looked at me and said, "Loretta, you need to be consistent with him. This is a horse that will always need this type of work, it's just who he is. He needs to know what to expect from you, where you are in his herd. And he needs consistency in your training. Start at the same easy place for him each time. Always end on a good note. If he learns something new really quickly, just end there sometimes. He needs you to approach him the same way, feed him the same way." You get the picture.

I freaked out. Why you ask? That's not such a big deal you say. Well, to me, it was. I was not being consistent with much of anything in my life, never mind my horse. About two weeks later the same trainer says to me, "Loretta, how do you disciplin your kids?" I was confused. How could that have anything to do with my horse???? She asked again. I replied with a rather meek, "Well, I usually send them to the stairs or to their room if they've done something bad." Ok, I'm thinking. Where is she going with this? I was astonished when she replied, "I'm going to guess that you are not very consistent with their disciplin(when needed)." If I was confused before, this put me over the top! It was true. I am a wimpy mom. I am the fun one, the one that teaches them to smell the manure-ah-roses, the one that laughs with them when an adult should not be laughing. But discipline, NOT my strong point AT ALL-ever.

So it hit me. I had heard of people with horses that had life lessons to teach them. Some even say that the horse you need comes into your life for that very reason. I never really thought it could happen. There I was, face to face with my huge draft horse, and I'm thinking, is this for real? You are trying to teach me stuff that doesn't just apply to you-to us?

More on this later......

Loretta
20/20 Horsemanship

A-Z Training Tips C=Communicate

Today's tip: Communicate


We are constantly communicating with our horse. We catch him, groom him, tack him up and go riding. When is the communicating going on? The ENTIRE time. And guess what? When you aren't preparing for a ride you are still communicating with the horse.

You go out to feed, to clean stalls, etc....Every time you come into contact with him, you are communicating with him. Try to take the time and notice what you are saying. This includes verbally, with your thoughts and intentions and physically. Horses are sensitive, they can feel your thoughts and emotions. They stay alive by reading body language, so really pay attention to how you use your body. When you are cleaning the barn and your horse is in the way, do you automatically walk around him? The one who directs the horses feet and gets them moving is the leader.So, if you are moving around him, then in his mind, he out ranks you in his herd.
You DO NOT want that!

It is very important that you are able to have your horse move front,back,left and right without moving your feet. The more this is practiced, the more respect he will have for you. Do you ever watch horses together in a field? The leader of my herd of 3 will often move the others for what seems like no apparent reason. So, sometimes I will go out and move him, just because I can. This really keeps him sharp, and in check. You might be saying to yourself, "But my horse does not seem disrespectful." That may be. Some horses are conditioned in a way that these things do not SEEM to affect their behavior. Usually, over time, something will come up, and the issue can be traced back to lack of respect due to improper body language. For more on body language, see my post for tip B.

If you are located in Northern VA, I am conducting a demonstration using some of these techniques. Visit http://www.meetup.com/trailriders/

Healing Shine-a MUST read

Whether you are a horse person, or not, Healing Shine, written by Michael Johnson is a must for your collection. A rodeo cowboy in Oklahoma, Michael purchased Shine on a whim. Says he can sense his greatness. He was advised NOT to buy the gelding for various reasons, and did anyway. He goes on to write about Shine's training, and this is very important according to Shine - his own training. Against his traditional cowboy thinking relatives advice, Michael continues to try and understand Shine in a very unique and somewhat foreign way. His story will make you laugh and cry. Oh, did I mention it is true?

Check out my website for a neat little story about this wonderful author.....
2020Horsemanship

A-Z Training Tips C

Today is C. Can anyone guess what "C" is for?

B=Body A-Z training tips

Body
This is a two fold topic. 1st we have our body, 2nd the horses.

When first starting to work with the horse, if you use your body properly, amazing things can happen! Since horses are herd animals and communicate through body language, they can come to understand what we are 'saying' with our bodies.

When I work with a horse, one of the first things I will do is use my body to establish leadership in his herd. I will approach the horse.(This is often done in a round pen, but can be done anywhere. Note that depending on the horse himself, and where he is mentally, where you do this is important.) If, or when he moves away from me, I then move toward him, straight on, with my arms out, as if I'm shooing him away. If he is a timid, scared horse, then you need to modify the amount of 'pressure' put on him with your body. If you are in a field, this can be tiring! But it is well worth it! Eventually, he will stop. You need to then stop immediately. Maybe he'll graze, or look around, or at you. If he does anything other than look at you, get his attention. I slap my thigh and make a correction sound. As SOON AS he looks at you, relax your body, make sure your shoulder is toward him and your head is slightly down. This is a very non threatening stance. Stay like this until he looks away. Again, slap your thigh, get his attention. The point is for him to be focused on YOU, and only you, or else he has to move. If he will not look at you, or steps away from you, then you are back to getting him to move. Use your whole body. Arms out, going toward him, maybe even running. You play this 'game', (and get a great workout!) until he continues to stand still , looking at you, facing you.

If you are both new at this, please do this in steps. So, the first few times maybe stop for the day after he looks at you once. After a couple of sessions, you will notice it takes him less time to stop and face you. This means he is understanding what you want! He would rather not run around, being chased by you. To him, this is like the lead mare moving him around the field.

Your goal now is to have him step toward you. After you have his attention, take a step toward him. I continue to hold this sort of sideways positioning of my body. Stop about 20 feet from him, or gage it depending on his actions/reactions. Keep asking for his attention. Try putting your hand out. You may need to play around with this, but as soon as he takes a step toward you, give him lots of praise. Rub his nose up and down while telling him what a good, smart boy he is!

I have been doing this with my horses for a very long time. If they do not catch me, I always go back to this procedure. The neat thing is, once they see what I'm about to do, they change their mind and walk toward me. Play around if you have a smaller area, and see if you can get him to follow you around. I use a dirt paddock, and when I have his attention, I'll walk off, and I am expecting him to follow. If he does not, I go back to getting his attention. It is quite something to walk around and have your horse following you, no halter, no lead rope, just the 2 of you. That was probably one of the most rewarding experiences I had during my draft's training. He was choosing to be with me! You may have heard some trainers refer to this as 'join up', or 'hook up'.

Winter is a great time to get started with this kind of thing. You will notice when you ride in the spring that he is more responsive to you under saddle. One of the great benefits of establishing ground control!

A-Z Training Tips A= Appreciate

When we teach our horses anything new, we owe it to him to take a moment and appreciate where he is NOW. Mentally, and in his current level of training and ability.

For example, my draft had an issue with always being on high alert, and his head was always up in the moon. At the same time he was head and ear shy. I really needed to teach him about head lowering! Appreciating and realizing where he currently stood with that, I first taught him to move front,back,left and right, without me moving my feet. Now that I had control of his feet, and he knew I was the herd leader because I moved his feet, he was in a much better frame of mind to start head lowering. Please note: This did not happen in one sessions! This took place over several months. Taking time and going slow will be topics of future tips. Until then, happy trails!

learning how to blog

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Intuitive Touch

I watched a neat DVD today. Intuitive Touch for horses from Animals Healing, Inc. It went through bodywork and acupressure. The body work they describe is very similar to the Reiki I use. They start their sessions with therapeutic scratching. I found this very interesting, and since it was a nice day, decided to do a little experiment.

I went out to the barn and found Astro and Tango sleeping in the warm sun. Scottie was still in his stall. So, I approached Astro, who promptly got up. I scratched him a while, starting at his withers, and going up his poll to his head. When I went back down, and across his back, he took several steps backwards, which left my hand on his head again. Ok, guess I know what he wanted!

Tango is very cool and allowed me to scratch him all over while laying down. He loved it. He was stretching and bending his neck all around. The DVD explained that when scratched this way, they will naturally move in ways that enhance the area by stretching it. He even 'popped' several times. Astro actually did that at one point too, and kept bending his head around, and his neck kept popping. He did it until the popping stopped. Pretty cool.

So now it was Scottie's turn. He's a bit more edgy, so it takes a bit more for him to get that he can be relaxed. Finally, I would scratch his poll, pretty hard too, and he would lower his head and yawn! This is a big deal for him because we still work on head lowering and ear touching issues. We went on like this and he must have yawned about 30 times!

Training tips

I'll be using this blog to share helpful training tips and to answer your questions.
My goal: to give to others what my trainer gave me. 1. The wisdom of natural horsemanship 2. my horse back! 3. an incredible relationship with my horse through this type of training. And so much more!