Being the herd leader

I was talking to a client who owns a dominant mare that she is considering selling, for several reasons. One of which is the fact she is so dominant over her herd of 1 that he is constantly getting bitten. When I visited the farm I watched and waited. Sure enough it was not long before the nipping started. So, I took on the role of the herd leader, ousting the mare. I walked over to her in a very stern way and told her to move with my body. I did not speak a word. Horses are very quiet animals. We need not speak to communicate clearly. She was quite puzzled and it appeared she had never been treated like this by a human. She questioned me, and I reinforced to her, "Yes, I said move NOW." So, with pinned ears, back she went. Since she pinned her ears and that is slightly aggressive on her part, I decided to keep moving her for another few moments. And these really were just moments. For the rest of the time I was visiting she did NOT tell her herd mate to move-at all.

The owner's comment was, "Oh, I just yell at her." We talked about this for a while. If you have not been exposed to this type of training it may not be obvious. Once you understand it though, it will always be the best answer. I 'spoke' to the horse in her language. She was the boss and proved that by moving the other. I was the boss and proved that by moving her. In a herd, the one who controls the movement is the leader. Let's say that again, the one who controls the movement is the leader. You will find many behavior issues can be dealt with once you are aware of how the herd interacts, and how they perceive your actions.

Loretta


clear communication/visible results

Enhancing your relationship starts on the ground

Does this describe you? You love your horse, and spending time with him. You enjoy riding, but feel something is missing. And you're not quite sure what it is? Maybe it's a feeling that something else could be going on. An awareness there is more, but you're just not sure how to go about it?

Try starting here:

• Go BE with your horse. By this I mean, be in the moment. NOW. Horses don't process future events the way we do. Stop thinking about future things, and just BE with your horse. Smell him, touch him, speak quietly to him.
  
• Get him, groom him, and take her into an enclosed paddock, or ring. Something smaller than a pasture. Tell him what your intentions are. Then let him go, and just sit there, or lean against the fence. (Maybe bring a chair and a book.) Notice if he gives any subtle notices to your being there. After about 10 minutes, stand up, walk toward him (with your shoulder in front), and stop about 20 feet away. Notice how he reacts. Does he look directly at you or does he completely ignore the fact you are there. If he looks up directly at you, (more than just a fleeting glance), or turns to face you, tell him he’s a good boy, and go away. Sit back down for another 10 minutes.
  
• Go toward him again. This time, you want him to give you more. Remember, you didn’t ask him to the first time. If he does nothing, say his name. If you still get nothing, slap your thigh. If you still get nothing say his name while making an arc toward her haunches. If you still get nothing, then ask him to move forward. You are now acting like the lead mare. Circle your arm, whatever it takes, until he STOPS moving AND TURNS to face you. Immediately stop the pressure, and praise him. Then leave again. Do this for as long as time allows.

The goal: For him to TURN and face you just because you are there. When you walk into the middle of the ring, no matter where he is, when he truly sees you as his leader, he will stop what he is doing and turn and face you. You will then be able to bend your body toward his haunches, walk in an arc, and have him keep turning to face you. He’ll almost be doing a turn on the forehand. This is advanced, don’t expect him to do this now, just wanted you to keep in mind the end result.

Eventually you will be able to walk into the pasture when he is grazing, and he'll turn and face you. Probably even walk up to you. When we stand there doing nothing, not expecting anything, it puzzles the horse. Not to mention it is very UNpredator-like. It causes the horse to be curious, to begin thinking about you in a different way.

• This is an exercise, for lack of a better word, that can and should be done regularly. It is not something you are ever finished with. It's not that once you achieve that goal you can stop and never do it again. It is continuous, it develops your relationship with your horse, as two individual beings. Note I did not say as horse and rider. Truly, the relationship has nothing to do with riding. Riding is simply a (fun) by product of the end result.
  

Loretta

20/20 Horsemanship

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

clear communication
visible results

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!!!!

clear communication
visible results