Training Mules & Donkeys Looks at Athletic Conditioning

Is Your Equine Getting the Right Workout?
By Helen T. Hertz
Photos courtesy of Meredith Hodges

At a recent training clinic hosted at Meredith Hodges’ Lucky Three Ranch in Loveland, Colo., Meredith and her good friend Joanne Lang, an animal massage therapist and rehabilitation expert, held a special session on athletic conditioning. Their subjects were two of Meredith’s molly mules, April and Vicki. April was born at Lucky Three and has enjoyed the benefit of Meredith’s training and maintenance program her whole life. Her superior physical conditioning and steady temperament are evidence of her meticulous upbringing.

Vicki was also born at the ranch but, at a young age, was sold. For several years she was left alone in a pasture, neglected to the point that her halter had actually begun to grow into her face. About two years ago Vicki was purchased and brought back to Lucky Three.

After assessing the damage, Meredith and Joanne put Vicki on a program of gentle exercise and therapeutic massage. Slowly they gained her trust and began to see improvement. Today, she’s a different animal. When she arrived, she couldn’t even walk or trot correctly. Nor would she allow herself to be bridled. Now she is one of the first to the gate for her lessons and not only allows the bridle, but takes great pleasure in having her ears and head massaged. She moves through all three gaits in an improved and balanced frame and in time, will be able to carry a rider in the same fashion.

During the clinic, Meredith and Joanne demonstrated the differences in flexibility and strength between the Vicki and her healthier counterpart and discussed proper techniques to improve Vicki’s condition. They had one primary message: It is critically important to condition an animal for a task, rather than during a task.

“You wouldn’t ask a football player to condition his body by playing a game without preparatory exercises, yet that is what we often expect from our equines,” says Meredith. “It’s better to take the time to go through the proper exercises that will strengthen the muscles for the task rather than thinking that the task will condition the animal’s muscles properly.”

This lesson is so central to the training process—both for the healthy and injured animal—that Meredith is producing a new program specifically on Athletic Conditioning and Rehabilitation for her Training Mules & Donkeys series. The show, which will air on RFD-TV and RFD HD early in 2008, will examine in detail techniques to help you develop your animal’s posture, frame, balance, coordination and muscle development. Meredith demonstrates exercises to strengthen the entire body in the proper posture, and addresses diet and care, all critical components of a program that ensures your equine is comfortable in his body and therefore better able to perform.

For years Meredith has emphasized the importance of a detailed, sequential training program—one that addresses not only the movements, or tasks that you want from your equine, but also the physical, mental and emotional well being of the animal. Meredith says this is even more critical for older, poorly trained and abused animals.

“When your equine perceives that you have his best interest at heart, he will be grateful, appreciative and compliant,” she says. “When you are willing to spend the time it really takes to develop muscles and tendons and overall strength correctly, he will feel better and become a happy companion who really wants to be with you and who is truly able to perform to the best of his ability.

“Remember,” she adds, “you are cultivating a friendship with your equine that should last a lifetime! This is why it is important to take it slowly and do the kinds of positive things that will enhance this friendship and result in a safe and enjoyable relationship.”

For more information about Meredith Hodges and Training Mules and Donkeys on RFD-TV, please visit www.luckythreeranch.com and check the RFD-TV schedule for show times.

All photos courtesy of Meredith Hodges. Thanks Meredith!

Meredith Hodges has used her resistance-free training program to prepare her animals for success in several disciplines including dressage and jumping. In her correspondence training series Training Mules and Donkeys, Meredith stresses the importance of bonding. Mules and donkeys have a strong instinct for self-preservation. To win their trust and cooperation, you must be the one to work most closely with your animal and demonstrate that you have his best interest at heart. Comprehensive athletic conditioning, beginning with basic groundwork, is essential for developing muscles over a proper frame. Proper diet and maintenance are equally critical in a well-rounded training program. Mules can do anything a good horse can do. With proper training, care and attention they can become champion performers and treasured companions. For more about Meredith Hodges and Training Mules and Donkeys, please visit www.luckythreeranch.com or call 800-816-7566.

Can I, Should I, and HOW Do I?

A good friend of mine sent me an email about the confusion of video and web technology, so I felt compelled to write about it.

Video Formats
Because a few very skilled geniuses created programs for web video, and didn’t talk to each other while they were doing that, we now have a variety of ways to watch video on the web. While free enterprise is good for the economy, it really messes up the people who want to show video to their audience. Which format should you use on your website?

Flash – flv.
Let’s start with the best, or easiest (for the viewer) – Flash Video Format, or .flv . This is the video you see when you come to a site and don’t have to download a player or plug-in to view video. The second you click the PLAY button it’s broadcasting. Sometimes it even plays by itself. Flash reaches your entire audience, allowing everyone to watch it. Viewers do not like to have to work at anything, especially watching video. Flash just plays directly from your web page. You don’t have to go out of your way and waste time to explain to your viewers how to download this and click on that.

In technical terms, Flash (.flv) has decent quality-to-file-size ratio, meaning it can deliver decent video with lower sizes.

Flash is used on Horseman’s U.

Players
QuickTime, Real Player, Windows Media (mainstream trio)

Viewers need to have these players to view your video. Problem is, most viewers have their preference and don’t want to download something else. Unfortunately none of these players has 100% coverage. If you want to reach your whole audience you will have to supply the video in each format: Windows/RealMedia/QuickTime/MPEG/Flash.

Types of Video Delivery

True Streaming
This is where all video is on instantly. Nothing is downloading while you watch. Advantages are that no one can steal it, and is the only video format with this advantage.

Progressive download
All the video on Horseman’s U is progressive streaming, meaning it loads while you watch it – instantly. You can toggle back and forth and pause and play, making the video interactive.

Download
When you download a file, the whole file is saved in a temporary folder on your computer. Large files can take time downloading, especially if the viewer is on dialup modem.

Why is some video very grainy?
Before video hits the web, it is compressed, meaning it is squeezed into a smaller file. Compressing simply takes out bits of information the eye won’t really miss, unless the video is compressed too much. Many web videos have been compressed twice, adding to the grain problem (and you thought only horses had grain problems).

Also, video recorders do this thing called interlacing. Without sounding techy, this really messes up the quality of showing video. Unless you are skilled at compression and deinterlacing, posting video can be a nightmare.

What format works best for YouTube?

To get that great quality so few YouTube videos have, ’squeeze’ your files into MPEG4. In my opinion there is only one really good software that can help you with that: Sorenson Squeeze. And the people there are fabulous! They’re actually REAL.

Can video be stolen?
The problem with video is that you are opening yourself to theft. All video applications can be stolen other than ‘True’ streaming files from a streaming server, meaning the place where your website lives also contains your video, where people watch it via a real-time stream and there is no download left on a computer. However, video cameras can capture anything, even computer screens. Unfortunately the quality will ‘flicker’ so this application is likely for personal use over commercial use.

Cost of hosting video
Here is where most sites have to bow out from showing video. Hosting video (on the server, where your site lives) can be expensive. Video takes up insane amounts of information or bytes. A five minute clip can be anywhere from 10MB to 10GB, depending on how it’s edited. Sound techniques, special effects and any additions run up the data volumes quickly.

Space can be a premium, although it’s come down a lot, and continues to go down (why can’t FOOD do this? Oh, right, food’s a necessity). Most host servers charge by the 250MB, so 6 or 7 videos about 5 minutes long and you’ve eaten up your quota. Host quotas include everything: your site, the traffic you get, email and the ‘heavy’ additions like video. Space costs money. It also costs to pay employees to monitor the servers, and keep them up and running. This cost is added into hosting costs.

Viewing video on your site requires a ton of bandwidth. This is the speed in which the information is delivered. Modems supply lower speeds, while cable and DSL supply higher speeds. Bandwidth costs money. Loading your site with video that has to be downloaded to a player can eat up bandwidth, and cause low speed users to have problems viewing (or not at all). Those who use Flash (.flv) can compress for lower file sizes, and allow dial-up modems to access the video and still maintain a decent level of quality.

The Tipping Point
How can you deliver quality and enough information to make it worthwhile? First you have to decide if you only need a few little videos on your site, and if you’re going to replace them now and again. If this is the case then you will likely get everything on your site for under $50/month.

However, try doing that with a horse website. With horses, there are 3 styles of teaching, or information delivery. One: articles, where the reader gathers new information and gets encouraged to try something new; Two: video, where they get to see what it is they are about to do, which gives them a bit more courage to try, and Three: clinics, where they finally realize that they need one-on-one instruction to put the pieces together that the articles and videos couldn’t give them.

Video and horses means LENGTH. We have so much to say that it can’t possibly be squeezed into 2 minute segments.

When the video you want to display becomes large enough that the costs to host your site get out of hand, it now becomes a marketing issue over just having some video on the site. You have to weigh cost and reward (read $$$). How are you going to achieve this? Shelling out $1000/month for a site has to have a return on the investment (ROI). This is the Tipping Point to deciding on a Membership Site or getting aggressive with ad and sponsor sales.

Let’s save that for another article.

Jane Savoie – Should I Ride My Dressage Horse ‘Deep’ or ‘Up’?

You’ve probably heard lots of discussion about whether or not to work your dressage horse “deep.” There are a variety of opinions on the matter. Some riders warm up and cool down their horses “long and low” to stretch and loosen the muscles. Others always school in a balance and frame appropriate to the level at which they are working; they never stretch their horses. Many trainers school in a deep frame only during the movements when the horse habitually comes above the bit. Still others do all of their work “extremely deep” with the horse’s nose almost on his chest; they bring him up only when they are getting ready to compete.

So what should you do with your dressage horse? Use benign antagonism to help you decide.

Let’s say you’re riding a “dirt sucker.” This horse leans so heavily on the forehand that you feel like you’re somersaulting around the arena. With a horse like this, it’s best to ride him more “up.” That’s because his version of long and low is not a good one. Yes, his head and neck stretch down and out. But my concern is with his hindquarters. If his hind legs are trailing out behind his body, and he’s pushing himself heavily onto his forehand, he’s not in good balance. By shortening the reins and riding him a little more up, you can clear the way for his hind legs to come more underneath his body so he can carry himself better.

On the other hand, your dressage horse might be a “stargazer,” who goes around so inverted that you can almost look at him eyeball to eyeball. He travels with a short neck, a low back and his head and neck up in the air. To retrain and strengthen his topline muscles, put this horse in the opposite shape from the one he adopts on his own. Send his hind legs further underneath his body so that his back is up and his head and neck are low. Use a “connecting half halt” to change his shape (For more information on “connecting half halts”, see Train with Jane–Volume 2–Connection). Then, after giving the “connecting half halt”, allow the reins to get a bit longer so he can seek the contact forward and down.

Are you sick and tired of complicated and confusing training techniques? Are you frustrated by negative emotions like fear and lack of confidence? Would you like to be trained by a Three Time Olympic Coach? Learn how by going to: http://www.janesavoie.com/

Visit Jane Savoie’s Membership website:  www.dressagementor.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jane_Savoie

Question: I have a welsh section a driving pony, he’s 12yrs and I have owned him for 18months. I was a novice driver and he was a very experienced pony, his previous owner drove him out alone without any problems. I believe I have spoiled him by being too soft, due to this he has no respect for me and I believe he has a learned behavioral problem of rearing now. When I ask him to stand and wait at a junction, I ask him with soft hands but he’s very quick and goes up, very scary. I have had him physically checked and there are no problems. Please can you offer any advice. Thanks, kind regards. Debbie

Answer from April Reeves: Hi Debbie, I have seen this a lot. It’s a common habit a driving horse/pony can get into. Depending on how long it’s been going on – will determine how long it will take to change it.

Start back at ground driving. Begin to drive him as you normally would in a cart, but stand to the side, not behind him. Walk him around for a bit to get use to being back on the ground again, and when you are comfortable and handling everything well, ask him to halt, with you standing to the side (enough to avoid being kicked).

If he halts nicely, walk forward again. Repeat, repeat, repeat. What you are doing is changing a habit. You can’t punish a habit out of a horse. You can only exchange them, so you are simply exchanging rearing for standing or moving forward.

It’s likely he will rear. This is why you are not going to stand in firing range of his back legs. Remember, a horse or pony can kick out as far or sometimes farther than his entire body length. The second he rears, and I mean the second, not as he is finishing, but the very second you see him begin to “stall out” and draw his weight on his haunches so he can rear up, take the long buggy whip and just clip his back heels with it. You don’t have to hit him hard. You just want him to think that his back feet may be in jeopardy should he stand on them too long. He may kick out, he may bolt forward. If he kicks out, let him have his little tantrum, move him forward and do it all over again.

If he bolts forward, go with him for a few strides and back to a walk. Then ask for the halt again. Each time he rears, you must get his heels instantly. You are making the wrong thing difficult. That’s all.

Eventually he will be a bit apprehensive when he goes to rear, and will watch for you to move in and catch his heels. That’s fine. Let it move through this process. Don’t try for perfection or micro-manage him at this point. Remember, every lesson is a single lesson. Don’t complicate the training by adding another task. Just allow each lesson to ‘soak’ into his brain.

Soon, he will become less apprehensive, and likely just go back to standing quietly and moving forward when asked.

In between each thing you do, be quiet and let him figure out the solution. Humans really get in the way of our horse’s learning process. It’s up to them to learn to think things through. It’s up to us to set up this lesson so that they can think.

If he gets silly, just stay quiet and soft, and let him sort out his temper tantrum. Once he is ready, walk forward and continue your training.

He may get very aggressive for the first few times you catch his heels. Horses do not like to feel that their feet are in danger, as they need them for flight. If he continues to fuss about being ‘heeled’ while trying to rear, keep doing it. Sometimes we humans give up too early, just before we get the response we are looking for.

You only need to ‘heel’ him once for each rear. Don’t continue to swat him. If you time it right, (and it is all about timing) he will likely come back down on his front end quite fast. Good. If he jiggles around but stays on the ground, good. Let him figure it out. Stay out of his way of learning.

The first time he is good and tries even a bit, tell him softly that he is good. It is the only time I want you to speak to him.

Once he gets his feet back on the ground and there is not much chance of him rearing any more, ask him to back up a step or two. You don’t want to rush this as reining back puts a horse in the position of rearing again if the lesson was hurried. He does need to know that reining back means four feet on the ground, not two! You need to complete your ground driving with this though, or you could get caught in the buggy and cause the problem all over again. Much easier to do it on the ground.

Take the time needed; don’t be in a hurry when working with driving horses. You can’t skip steps or you get into really big trouble. I have seen some of the worst driving accidents you could imagine, and they happened because someone got lazy or pushy. I equate driving a horse to flying a plane. There is little room for error, and I know: I am a pilot.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD – a non-invasive and loving approach to imprinting

By Liz Mitten Ryan

De-sensitization and imprinting are found in every trainers tool box. Their importance to our efficient handling of horses is invaluable. From a human perspective our interaction with horses from handling to riding is safer and less stressful. Its value to a trusting partnership though is dependent on how sensitive and considerate we are to the horse. Is our horse enjoying the relationship more as a result or are they simply dead to the stimulus?

My journey with horses has been an adventure of discovery. I am always looking to refine and enhance the connection and communication, to dance with my horse to the rhythm of joy, love and perfect communion. I know that our journey as spiritual beings seeded in matter is universal. Each and every being is an equal and unique fruition of one consciousness in all life.

So many atrocities are committed to our fellow man and for the non-empathic it is that much easier to dominate animals. I have been a breeder now for fourteen years and have learned through the process a more holistic and rewarding approach similar to how we welcome humans to the world. There are several important ideas involved:

Become a trusted and considerate friend to your mare.

In order for my mare to welcome me at the birth she must first consider me a friend to be trusted with her well-being. This is a life long process but a simple lead in is to genuinely consider her; to be kind and generous as we would be to a human friend. One of the best ways to a mares’ heart is through her stomach and making a fuss over her condition by preparing wholesome healthy meals and snacks will have her nickering the minute she sees you. Grooming, scratching and forays to find choice patches of succulent grass are also great bonding exercises.

All of this will be time well spent as she will transfer her feelings about you to the new foal. Animals learn by example and the foal will watch his mother closely to see how she responds to her human caregiver.

Learn all you can about foaling so you can make wise safety decisions.

There are many good books available on the care of the mare and foal throughout the birthing period. Study them and get up to speed on when all is normal and when to call a vet. Many breeders tell the sad story of finding their mare and foal dead in the morning –not a very pretty situation. Others, not knowing what to watch for, leave a mare laboring  for hours in agony and possibly lose her  and the foal. Horses birth quickly and efficiently unless there is a misalignment and it is important to know what to watch for.

Help make your mare’s birthing experience wonderful.

In keeping with the relationship you have fostered with your mare, be there when she is birthing and help make it easier for her. Because my mare knows her well-being is everything to me she welcomes me at the birth. When the water breaks and the sack appears, I immediately check the position of the foal. In a normal birth one foot is presented slightly ahead of the other, soles down. If it is any other way make an emergency call to your vet!

Holding the foals front pasterns and pulling with the mares contractions will help her labor proceed more easily, and when the nose appears, break the sack so the baby can breathe. If all goes smoothly birth usually occurs about twenty to thirty minutes after the water breaks.

Be sensitive and gentle.

Imprinting can be loving and helpful rather than disruptive and invasive. Harsh imprinting methods advise taking the baby away from it’s mother at birth and performing a series of extreme de-sensitising exercises which are designed to deaden the foals reaction to simple procedures like trimming and shoeing by tapping the soles of it’s feet hundreds of times, veterinary treatment by sticking fingers in all of it’s orifices, electric clippers, plastic bags; the list goes on and on.

All of this forms the babies first impression of the world while its’ mother is restrained and not allowed to welcome her own baby.

In my barn the foal is towel dried and loved between my kissing and congratulating the mare until it breaks the umbilical cord. I then help it to get close to the still recovering mom so she can lick all the places I have just dried and the two of us alternate in one big welcome fest. The mare then rises and I clip her placenta  back up to itself so she won’t step on the trailing end and tear it. It is the weight of the placenta that helps it separate cleanly from the uterine wall without leaving bits that can cause serious infection.

All the while the baby is attempting to stand and when he succeeds will then begin his search for the mares udder. It is better to give him time (up to two hours) to find it on his own and most mares will try to help by getting in position and pushing the foal in the right direction. My lead mare L.E. is a master at this, curving her body around the foal and pushing his hind end with her nose.

Don’t dominate the foal, forcing him to comply if he’s a bit reserved.

Take the time it takes (as Pat Parelli says) to gently and considerately get to know the foal and convince him that your concern is for his comfort and safety. Talk gently, praise him and don’t be in a hurry to restrain him. The proof is in the pudding. Paschar, the foal in these pictures was born 3 weeks early after Epona, his mom had a serious bout of pneumonia. The vets suggested we abort the ten month old fetus as she was having trouble breathing.

That was one thing Epona and I agreed upon –our baby would live! When Paschar was born three weeks early he was literally fighting for his life and even after my gentle welcome, a day later he tried to rear and run at me. I understood his concern. Humans had tried to end his life and he had to fight for it. Patiently I talked to him and told him he was my angel (Paschar is the Angel of Vision) and as I talked and stroked him, his eye would soften and he would relax. Days became weeks and I would remind him who he was and how loved he was and each time his eye grew softer. By the time he was two months old he was the most gregarious, loving and affectionate foal who particularly loved being buried under hugging children. At three months old he followed at liberty, backed, moved his hind end and shoulder, picked up his feet, trailer loaded (all at liberty) and ran happily behind in a game I call stick (to me). He was fully imprinted and de-sensitized while fully alive and filled with Joy.

He now as a two year old understands my every word and is so self assured that he follows me down to our playground, several hundred yards from the paddock where his family is grazing, gets up on tires, runs across bridges, walks ,trots, and whoas all by voice and body language, all without halters, ropes or sticks.

Paschar is a super horse. Why? He was born gently, loved, treated with patience and consideration and knows that his well –being is my first concern.

To see Paschar in the video One With The Herd visit www.lizmittenryan.com/media

This is an article I have on Horseman’s U.com, but it remains one of the most popular articles so I thought I’d post it here.

Learning to ride without a saddle has multiple benefits

Bareback riding (without the saddle) was always something kids did. You grabbed your pony from the field, hopped on and away you went.

Today we barely function without saddles. While saddles help us look pretty or be more functional, bareback riding has many benefits for both posture AND confidence.

Bareback riding allows you to feel the true movement of the horse, and sends the rider information that is imperative for higher training. It is this very idea that correlates to English saddles having as little leather between the horse and rider as possible, especially in dressage saddles, where the flaps are thin and flexible.

This style is not particular to any discipline, and all disciplines and levels of riders can benefit from it. I ride bareback one day a week, and it not only improves my riding performance, but also tends to tune up the horse as well, as he/she is able to feel softer, subtle cues instantly, without the interference of leather.

Bareback also allows the rider to improve balance, strength, posture, flexibility and a side benefit of added confidence. As the horse moves, you are able to feel the muscle groups respond, and you gain a sense of where the horses’ feet are placed in each movement. Part of being a good horseman is the ability to connect with the horses body and feet. Many great riders will tell you that they feel as if they become one, almost like a centaur.

Riders are athletes. Regardless of the amount of riding you do, you need strong muscle groups. And strong muscles must stretch to be fully functional. Stretching while riding bareback gives you more room to move and gives the rider a better sense of balance. It cannot be done while your legs are glued to the horses’ sides. You must be free of tension, sitting with balance and freedom.

Longeing
This is a great way to begin, and remember to use a safe horse! Some people like to use the reins, but I find it best to tie off any equipment and just concentrate. Should the horse make any movements that are uncomfortable or alarm you, get off. Too many accidents happen because the rider stays aboard. If you find the horse may be quiet but not suitable while longeing, have the handler walk you around. Also, perform this within the confines of a roundpen, arena or any fenced area with softer ground. Never push the experience with an unsuitable horse. And wear a helmet! Many falls will dump you very close to the horses’ feet.

A great exercise that will prepare you for emergencies and give you better coordination is to practice dismounting. While walking, place your hands on the horses’ neck, push up and swing your leg over and jump down. If you do this enough times, you will remember it instinctively when you really need to dismount in a hurry. If the horse stops when being dismounted, reward him. You want to teach the horse to stop in case you fall off.

The weight (fat) of the horse will either provide comfort or be a hindrance. Thin horses provide a direct relation to the muscles, while chubbier horses provide comfort. Both will give you results, and while the middleweight horse may be best, if you have access to different body types you will only improve your learning. Overweight horses do tend to throw the legs out improperly, and you will lose the truer sense of balance, so use the chubby horse less frequently.

When you first start out on the line at a walk, concentrate on feeling balance. Are you tipping to one side? Try shifting your weight until you feel centered. It also teaches you how to make contact with your seat bones. Try to ‘match’ the movements of the horse, as opposed to being stiff and tight. While walking, do stop/walk transitions, again ‘feeling’ the legs beneath you and the muscles around you.

If you have a quiet horse, close your eyes and ‘feel’ – this practice will fast-track information to the brain, and if you do this regularly, you will find your improvements will come faster.

The trot and canter
Move slowly, at your own pace through the gaits. Never let anyone move you faster than you are comfortable, as you may lose all confidence and never ride again.

Often when you begin the trot, you will be thrown forward and back, sending mixed signals to the horse. If you work consistently, your balance will improve faster than the horse can be damaged. Remember, everything you do with your horse is training, even trying to ride bareback! Perfect practice makes perfect.

Speeding up
If you find the horse trots slowly in a saddle, but speeds up bareback, it is likely because you are gripping and moving your legs around and back. If that is the case, go back to the walk and regain balance by stretching and doing more exercises. Whenever you have a problem, go back to the slower gaits and work it out there.

Don’t use the reins to balance
Another problem that comes up with bareback riding is the use of the reins for balance. If you start to lose balance, grab the mane instead of the horses’ mouth. A horses’ mouth is a sacred place that should never know abuse, so try not to get into the habit of reaching for the reins.

Jumping Bareback
Jumping allows you to experience one of the more thrilling aspects of riding without a saddle. Before you venture into this, make sure the horse is capable and confident over small fences and poles. Start with ground poles or Cavaletti, moving from a single pole and gradually adding as you gain confidence. You can eventually do gymnastics on the longe line, but if you have progressed enough to begin jumping, you may want to ride free of the longe line.

Confidence
One of the best things you will walk away with is added confidence. Bareback riding involves a level of trust between you and the horse that riding in a saddle won’t teach as deeply. There is a sense of freedom, oneness and an exhilaration that’s hard to equal in any other sport. As you progress, you will find that your begin to learn balance intuitively, and I always state that in order to ride really well, you need to be able to move intuitively as opposed to mechanically. The only way to achieve this is to get out there and keep doing it. It’s like riding a bike: once you learn it’s with you forever.

Adiva Murphy and Pal

A SPECIAL POST BY ADIVA MURPHY – FOUR PART QUESTION

Question: So when they try to knock into you what is the next step? I haven’t quite figured out how to work the stick yet but I have been using my lunge line.

Answer: Get familiar with that stick – it is your new best friend. I used to stumble along with the rope for years because I felt it was too much to handle having a stick in my hand, but once you realize you use it like a longer arm….it is FANTASTIC!

Remember to watch the horse closer – they have four phases. The horse will have shown you a phase one, two and three before they run into you…stop them at once!!!

You see out of the corner of your eye as you are leading, that they are tipping into your space. Use your elbows rhythmically into their side, neck or shoulder until they move away…then rub them. Or, wave your hand at them when they run into you – like you are hitting them BUT WITH rhythm. The key is not how you do it, but that the level of intensity increases and you stop when they try.

They do not understand aggression and angry punches (they fight back) but they do understand rhythm and will respect the consequences for their actions and will then in turn respect you. I will also “windmill or fan” the rope, swinging it in front of them and drive them back fast the second they make the “mistake” of running into me. Every time you back them up you are showing dominance.

Question: Also, when you are trying to get them to move their front end away from you by stepping towards them. If they try to run forward what do you do then? Do you go back to moving the hind end around. How do you stop the front end from going forward?

Answer: One thing – this horse does not respect backing up enough. SO the stop moving forward cue will not work very well. Get this good on the ground because you will have a horse that ‘leaves’ transitions and halts, before you want them to.

One tip – move closer to the nose and focus hard into a circle…cut them off. You are most likely too far back to the drive line and you are asking for forward motion. Get farther ahead of the point of the shoulder towards the nose…too far ahead and the horse with back up – try it! You can be out by an inch and get a different response!

Next, if the wandering is really bad, do not let it go past 3 steps before you do something about it – put rhythm in front of the horse. Wiggle the rope (snap) until the horse rocks back. Or put the stick out in front and wave it. Play with this – you will find what works. The main thing I think – it is your positioning and/ or the horse not respecting that they do not think forward but think in reverse.

Question: When you are standing in front of them asking them to back up and they try to run past you instead what do you do?

Answer: You are not asking hard enough for that horse. Use your stick between the chest muscle between the legs and tap them harder and harder until they move. Once they do stop see first question. You can wiggle the rope as a cue then bring the stick into play fast and go as hard as you need to until they try.One mare of mine  was a phase 10 -  now you barely need to wiggle the rope. Because she knows that a stick will come eventually. Consistency is the key. If I have to I can snap the rope at the chest or my hand if I don’t have the stick. I have a feeling inside of me like you are going to DIE because you ran into me…but as soon as they back off I totally relax. Just like a horse does.

Question: Also do you think horses that have blue eyes see different than with brown eyes. Are the shadows different? Just wondering. Shandi has two blue eyes and I wondered if it would have any effect on her.

Answer: I have found no research to say that they see different. Some farmers think so…think it means they are spookier etc…dogs and people with blue eyes see no different…as it is just a pigment change not a function change.

Find out more about Adiva Murphy Natural Horsemanship at: adivamurphy.com

Question: We recently bought a 3-year-old horse for our daughter.  I know it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do but the horse was very quiet and we were assured that he had no problems.  He does seem quiet most of the time but every now and then when your not expecting it he will blow up.  It’s not a bolt but more of a jumping straight in the air and then striking out.  I think he is simply trying to avoid work, but I am worried that someone will get hurt.  I am trying to decide if selling this horse now would be my best decision as with a more experienced person I’m sure he will be great, I just want something safe for my daughter (she is 14 and has 6 years experience riding). We are an experienced horse family but if this is likely to progress into a continuous problem I don’t know if we want to deal with it.  Thanks for any advice.

Answer from April Reeves: This is one of my favorite questions as I deal with this every day. First, buying a young horse for a young girl who has had time in the saddle does not bother me. This horse does not sound aggressive enough to do any real damage, and in fact may become one of her better ‘teachers’. But the learning curve begins here, as there are differences between a horse below 7 and a horse above 7 that we will discover in this answer.

I first want to speak about thoroughbreds, as they are one breed I have done a great deal of work with. In my opinion, the thoroughbred is a ‘foundation’ horse, in that the breed’s influence when crossed with other breeds improves it, much like the Arabian. They have spirit and exuberance that is much needed in today’s competitive environment. Thoroughbreds are athletic, clever and mature into beautiful horses when schooled and looked after. Many of them have the same capabilities as hunter/jumpers as Warmbloods.

That being said, there are some things about thoroughbreds, especially before the age of 7, that are a bit different than many other breeds. And you are experiencing this.

When you buy a breed that is known for its ability to perform beyond it’s appearance (super athletes), you buy a mind that is both clever and easily influenced. This breed is intelligent. They demand that you know your stuff and speak horse language. They erupt when you do not ask the question properly. While some may think of thoroughbreds as unpredictable and dangerous, it is because they do not have the skills to work with them. These skills are easily acquired, when you let go of preconceived ideas of how a horse should be trained. Thoroughbreds learn at a faster rate (than many other breeds) if the trainer is consistent and quiet. Before the age of 7 they are babies, and at 7, they can alter their behavior into a quiet, level headed horse, leaving you wondering where ‘Crazy Charlie’ went to!

Training is a constant state of learning. There is no goal because there is no end.

I’m going to change the ‘language’ of training, so that you both have a better understanding of ‘why’ horses do what they do. It’s very likely he did not have any problems when you bought him – not that I’m saying you caused this behavior consciously, but we, as humans, tend to put our human values onto the horse, assuming he behaves in a manner that a human would. Nothing is farther from the truth.

Horses are very simple in their language. Their biggest difference is the lack of ego. Their emotions are clean and transparent. They are much like newborn babies (human). Think of your thoroughbred as a newborn until 7.

When the horse does something the human does not like or want (jumping straight in the air and striking out) we humans look for answers that we understand (human language).

However, the horse is trying to communicate to you in his language.

Horses do not try to avoid work unless the work is:

1. Too much for them to grasp. We often miss important parts of the training ‘mix’, and then ask the horse to perform a movement he is not acquainted with or understands. This happens when we jump from grade 1 to grade 7 in our commands. Horses need to learn in an order that makes their learning easier. While the techniques and methods you apply may change from horse to horse (each horse absorbs information differently) each horse has a rate at which it can learn and apply what it has learned. For example, constant contact with the face on a 3-year-old is something a 4 or 5-year-old learns. Young horses have much to learn before then, as the contact is how the human asks the horse to ‘gather’ and ‘connect’, an exercise of about grade 5. No 3-year-old should be in grade 5.

When we skip vital pieces of the training mix, we put the horse in the position of ‘questioning’ the aid. That is when you get the horse doing things you don’t ‘want’, but in reality the horse is just letting you know that he does not understand because you have not set him up to learn properly. He is telling you in his language that you need to ask the question differently or fill in the missing pieces for him. Unfortunately, his language is kicking out, bolting, bucking and what ever a horse can do to get it through to the human. Mix this ‘language’ with a 3-year-old and you can see the exuberance of your thoroughbred’s questioning is coming out as a violent and bad horse.

2. Inconsistent aids: when you ask a horse through an aid (legs, hands, seat, weight, voice) it’s vital that you keep the aid the same in your asking until the horse understands. Yesterday I went to a lesson with a lady and a green horse. The first thing she wanted to show me, above everything else was how well this horse could turn on the forehand (move haunches around). She began to draw her leg back and up, and when the horse did not respond, she began to move her leg all around the horses barrel, increasing and decreasing the pressure, taking the leg off and changing position, in an erratic movement.

As you can visualize, the horse did nothing. The face of the horse was very questioning.

This is one of the most important things to remember, and I stress this in every clinic I do and article I write. Consistency is the backbone of riding. Every time you change your ‘question’ (aid) to the horse, you change the lesson. This poor horse had no idea what she was asking since she changed 1.Rhythm, 2.Speed, 3.Pressure, 4.Position/Placing of her foot every second. In her mind, she was demanding this young horse respond as if it was fully trained. When she did not get an immediate response, she changed her way of asking, but what she was saying to the horse was “Do this, now this, now this, now try something else, how about this….” in a matter of 10 seconds.

When you stay soft and use the same pressure and placement until the horse responds in the manner you are asking (the smallest try is good) even if it takes time, the horse will have an easier time grasping the request. But we humans rush into things expecting the horse to read our minds. They can read our intention and emotion, but not our language.

I am going into detail because I want you to think about keeping the horse and moving through the process instead of moving on. Your daughter is old enough to learn, and young enough to gain valuable skills of staying on during those rough moments. This horse can teach her things that many young people avoid to learn, but it is in this training environment (for both horse and human) that your daughter’s greatest challenges and breakthroughs will occur. If it is too easy, it is easily dropped.

I am going to give you a one-year program for this horse, and in the end you will have one big beautiful horse if you follow it, take the time, and accept the challenges as ‘your’ challenge and not the horses. These are pieces of training from my blog, and they should take you one year and a new learning curve that will allow you and your daughter the grace to accept and work with almost any horse when you have learned their applications and advantages.

With thoroughbreds, and by the sound of it, yours in particular, you will have the challenge of training this horse through these specific methods:

1. Make the right think easy and the wrong thing difficult. This does not mean punishing the horse when it does something you don’t want. It simply means that the second the horse moves to do something you don’t want, you will be asking him to do something uncomfortable.
2. Changing habits you don’t want with habits you do want. There is no need to ‘punish’ a horse with the use of crops or aids or anger. With thoroughbreds, this would be a recipe for disaster. Instead, you will use the above and add to it. Once the horse understands that his habit leads to discomfort, and begins to slow his habit down, you ask him to try something new. This encourages the horse to start using his brain. Horses by nature are animals of habit and instinct. They don’t need to take the time to think in the wild; they must react and do it fast or be eaten. Humans come along and ask that they start to think. This is not something a horse will do automatically. We must teach them; allow the thinking process to be the first thing they do, instead of using reaction. In order to do this, a human must understand how to set up the learning so this can happen. Because thoroughbreds are so close to their instincts (hot) they are a bigger challenge than many other breeds. But it is this closeness to their instincts that make them good at running.

These next long reads are from my blog. You may choose to try all these techniques, or change and add as you go. Just keep in mind, the minute you do not get the response you want, it is because you are moving too far too fast with the wrong question.

When reading through remember that I wrote those for other horses, so if you find places that talk about a different horse you will know why. The training methods apply for you though. They should take you up to next spring or a bit later; depending on how many days you ride in the week.

The first article is for a herd bound horse, but the methods apply to your situation. While a herd bound horse may appear to act out differently, the reasons are the same, and the training methods to get the horse back to thinking apply for your thoroughbred.

Basic Groundwork and Saddle Work for the Herd Bound Horse

The next article deals with more advanced training:

Teaching Connection and Collection

Question: Hi there. I’ve been around horses all my life but to be honest, I’ve never actually trained one. I’ve only ridden and taken care of them.

I adopted a Paint Cross colt a Month ago who’s now 7 Months old.  He lives out with my 4 other horses who are all way taller than him.

He’s a sweet little guy who loves attention but he has no emotion.  He’s so calm and cool and thinks he is stronger than anyone.  He walks into me, through me, nibbles me, pushes me with his head and all the rest.  Doesn’t know his space and does everything a colt can at that age.

I know it’s normal so I’ve decided to tackle his problems NOW instead of later on when he will be stronger.

I read you’re not supposed to be violent with them when they are so young but he’s emotionless.  He only responds when I smack him.

Do you think you could give me some basic tips on how to earn his respect?  Am I right using physical force on him when he misbehaves?

I have no intention of training him under saddle alone but I want to at least get his ground manners in check. Thank you, Laura

Answer from April Reeves: Hi Laura. I first want to speak to your comment “I’ve never actually trained one.” I have this theory/understanding that anyone who has been in the presence of a horse has had influence on the ‘training’ of that horse (what he knows of humans). This is because horses ‘soak’ everything a human does. All your movements, signals, voice and body language ‘speak’ to a horse. That non-verbal language translates into what the horse will become. So while you may think you have never trained a horse in all your life, you have actually spent years training horses. Humans believe that training is simply a matter of learning techniques. While this is true to a point (and it’s best to learn good techniques that produce happy results) humans need to understand the horse at a much different level first before entering into a relationship of any kind. Humans must learn to speak their language first.

This is where we will start.

I’m assuming this little guy is still a stallion colt. At 7 months he will be feeling the hormones beginning to flow, and this is the beginning of your rigorous training schedule, if you plan to keep him a stallion. If not, I suggest to castrate him in colder weather (no bugs) and to do that before the age of 2 or if he gets totally out of control, and you do not have adequate places to keep him.

He has lots of emotion. Emotion can either be displayed or it can sit under the surface and bubble. If you were to challenge him, you would likely find it.

Your process now will be to redefine the boundaries and pecking order. You are the boss mare, starting now. Just don’t add that title to your business card!

I will start with ground exercises that you can do immediately to establish respect and control.

Groundwork
Groundwork is the foundation of all the other things we ask from our horses. Good groundwork done previously would have prevented the horse from getting pushy. You are not in a bad spot though. He’s young and small.

It’s important to purchase and keep the following equipment. These tools can be used with any breed or discipline. A trainer is only as good as his/her tools:

Rope Halters
Traditional halters have a nice elegant look to them and are easy to put on a horse. Unfortunately, some horses tend to pull against them and drag their handlers around, as the wide bands of leather (or nylon) are practically comfortable for a horse.

Rope halters are generally made of soft round rope, all neatly tied into a halter that you tie up instead of buckling. Done up properly, they are easy to untie should the horse pull back in one, and there are no buckles to rust out or break. They come in another variety that has several knots in the nose, and a bit stiffer rope, for the really ‘bad boys’. They don’t need oiling to keep them soft, and can be washed.

Their function is to create pressure and ask a horse to pay attention and listen. They take the place of having to resort to nose chains, lip chains and other various ways to dress up a traditional halter to maintain control. They are very difficult to break should a horse get hung up in it, so never put a horse out with one on. They are NOT to be used when teaching a horse to tie for the first time, or to be used when trailering.

Rope halters work on the horse through pressure around the poll area and the nose. The thinner strand of rope is soft enough to not burn a horse, but small enough to allow more direct pressure points. When in use, it asks the horse to “pay attention and listen” without causing anxiety or abuse, as opposed to painful methods such as lip chains. Pressure teaches; pain builds resentment.

You may want to try one on your horse and see what you think. Rope halters are used by English and Western trainers, as many disciplines are finding the value in their simple design. (There is a good “halter tying” article on my blog under Natural Horsemanship – ”I ride English. Do I need a rope halter and how to tie it?”)

Lead Rope and Horseman’s Stick
You will need a soft rope no shorter than 12 feet.

The Horseman’s stick is durable and won’t bend like a traditional whip will, and it has a ‘tail’ end of rope that also aids in teaching. If you do not have one, a dressage whip or anything with a bit of length to it that you can control easily will do.

The horse you lead is the horse you ride.
You are going to get your horse to be compliant in these areas:
1. Lead without pushing you or getting into your space
2. Stand quietly away from you without reacting to external stimuli
3. Keep both eyes on you attentively
4. No fear of being touched or handled anywhere
5. No vices such as biting, kicking, rearing or head bouncing

Standing Quietly
Here is an exercise you can start in the aisle way of a barn.

Stand the horse in an aisle and face him. Keep your lead loose, and tap the whip/stick rhythmically on the ground for a few seconds, on front of his chest.

If he backs up at all, stop and tell him he’s good in a quiet voice. Continue, and praise him for the smallest try.

If he does nothing, tap the whip in 3 stages, softly, asking him to back up, for about 6 taps, then tapping harder and close to his chest, with the intention that he had better back or else, and if this does nothing, it’s time to connect. Tap him with intention and firmness once on the chest between his legs. Mean it. Do it and when he startles and backs, keep the lead soft (no pulling what so ever) follow him and stand and look at him for about 5 seconds.

If he runs back and wonders what hit him, just let him back, staying soft with the lead line, no pulling, letting it out as he moves back, and stand very quietly. Let him blow on his own; it will teach him to take responsibility.

Then repeat. Keep repeating until you only have to tap the ground and he responds.

Now take this lesson outside and test it. This exercise gets him to pay attention to you by keeping two eyes on you all the time in anticipation of your next ‘question’ to him.

I really like this exercise and it is the first I often do with horses who generally don’t have anything really ‘bad’ about them. When you do stand quietly, let the rope rest on the ground with you holding the end, as this is the prelude to ground tying.

I also like to start in a barn aisle, as the horse has to face you and pay attention. They have less chance of moving around and running past you.

Leading Exercises
These exercises help with keeping horses out of your space, respecting your speed, keeping up and general obedience.

Leading against the fence
Take your horse out along the side of a fence and with rope in one hand and stick in the other, letting the ‘tail’ drag along behind you, ask him to move with you and stay at your hand, not in front of you or behind you (rope is in the hand by his head, stick is in the opposite hand) If he lags behind, flick the tail of the stick behind you as a lead mare would flick her tail at a lazy herd member. Move at a reasonable pace. If he gets in front of you, use the stick in front of him to ask him to stay back. Keep your hand up at his eye. This asks him to stay out of your space while you walk along. As you get better with this you can keep your hand lower. I like to hold my hand in a ‘leading gesture’ – just below their eye and in front of it, once the horse understands to keep their distance.

Always work both sides. Two eyes, two horses (don’t buy another horse, just work the two you already own). Work one side first and get it down fairly well before moving to the other side. The fence line keeps your horse beside you. Do not use your hands to move the horse around; always use your stick. Horses move into pressure from your hands pushing them. If the horse gets into your space, bring your hand up to his eye and if he continues to move into you, ‘pulse’ your hand rhythmically near his eye without hitting him. If he does continue to move into your space, you will have to use your hand in rhythm and let him run into it. Horses seem to know the difference when they run into things and when a human hurts them. By allowing the horse to run into you, you set him up to learn to be responsible for his own actions.

It’s important to practice the ‘pulsing’ with your hand. It is a continuous, same speed of movement; don’t increase your hand speed if the horse gets pushy. Keep the same rhythm and speed in a moderate pulse.

The Squeeze
Another exercise is a ‘squeeze’. Ask him to walk in between two barrels. Keep them far apart for now, but gradually decrease the space until he has to squeeze between them. Do not pressure him to do this; go about it slowly until he is comfortable with the process of having both barrels hit his sides as he moves through. This gets the horse over the claustrophobic issues they encounter, and builds trust that you will not put them in harm’s way. There is always a way through.

You can also back him through the barrels also, using the first method above that you did in the aisle way, to tap the stick and ask him to move backwards through the barrels (again, another test for obedience and submission).

An advanced exercise with barrels is to lay them on their side, and split them for the horse to walk through. Slowly bring them together as the horse gets confidence, and eventually you can join them and jump them on the line. Go slow with this and don’t force the horse over the barrels until his confidence is there.

Sending Exercise
This is one of my favorite exercises and I use it extensively when horses begin to lose their brain. It’s called a sending exercise, and the point of it is to keep their feet moving and to tire them out a bit to encourage their thinking brain to kick in once their lungs get tired.

Its roots are similar to longeing but there are some subtle differences in how you apply the techniques.

To begin, stand still and ask him to move away from you to the left. Take your left hand and hold it out away from you to the left, guiding him, through the halter pressure, gently away from you. Most people pull on the halter towards them, tipping the horse in and guiding the horse in towards them. Be careful how your body movements speak to the horse. Move slow but deliberately, not letting him run into you. Keep using this technique until he gets it, and when he makes the effort to walk to the left, let the rope out, soften and stay quiet (do not move your feet). You will have to start this exercise on a smaller circle so that you are close enough for the horse to ‘feel’ the pressure to one side. Once he begins to understand, change directions often, asking him to go left and right about every 1 1⁄2 times around. This is called ‘moving the feet’ and the purpose of this exercise is to create leadership and get the thinking part of his brain engaged.

If he gets moving too fast, pull him in and redirect him the other way. Never let him move your feet. Never let him stop and hang out. Eventually he will understand that he needs to conserve his energy and begin with quiet demeanor. This is another one of those lessons that can take time. Just start with a quiet gesture to move out, let him respond by moving out where you suggest, feed him some line and stay quiet with your feet. If he is fairly calm, reward him by letting him stand and ‘soak’ once in a while. Never wind a horse. It will sour them and turn them apprehensive about training and learning. If he has had a rather energetic time trying this exercise, and he is breathing hard, let him stand and catch his breath before starting up again.

To get a horse to stay out at first, you need to become ‘large’. Bring your hands up higher and bring up your energy to match the challenge. Never let a horse move your feet. If they come in too close and crowd me, I hold the stick out, and let them run into it with their shoulder or ribcage. It they posture you with their hindquarter, use the stick to spank it away from you. This is the advantage of a Horseman’s stick; it is stronger and not as flexible, and when you tip it into the ribcage of a horse, they are going to move from it quickly, as they can’t bend it.

It’s valuable to practice how to lift and lead the rope. Have another person at the horse end holding the rope and keeping their eyes closed. Lift and lead and have the person move one step to where you are sending them. This will help you to gain ‘feel’ in what you are doing. If the person moves toward you, it’s a signal you are not moving the horse away either. Keep your hand out and to the side. Change places with the other person and see just how subtle the ‘feel’ is to a horse.

These are basic introductory exercises; if your horse is not ‘behaving too badly’, they should be done every day. I do these daily with a few of the more aggressive horses I ride as I always want to know that the horse on the ground is paying attention and using the thinking side of his brain before I get on. For my more sensitive horses, I still do groundwork, but it’s more in the style of flexing and bending than obedience.

You can learn bending and flexing groundwork also, as it will without question help your horse in his riding training.

Work on your horse for a week or two, 7 days a week, or until the horse has made a significant change in behavior. From there, groundwork should be done no less that once a week for the rest of his life. All horses need to go back to ‘re-membering’ those lessons.

Just a thought – if he is a colt and you leave him with your other horses over the winter, there is a chance (small but I have seen it in my time) he could get a mare pregnant. We have a horse at my barn that came from a yearling Friesian colt.

A word about smacking him. Violence is when the horse’s punishment is stronger than the crime. Problem is most humans can’t tell a ‘crime’ from an annoyance that will disappear on its own. There are a few ‘rules’ to remember when you are faced with the decision to discipline or let it go.

Discipline is for a horse that is challenging you or trying hard to hurt you. Of course, it’s always another question as to why any horse would want to do this, but sometimes it’s a matter of being terribly spoiled and you happen to be the lucky trainer to have to undo the mess.

I had a big yearling appendix quarter horse filly that I traded because the owner said the filly was trying to kill her. When this filly arrived, she was unloaded straight into a large paddock to hang out for a few days. I watched her from behind the fence and on the third day I went in. I carried a long dressage whip and stood in the middle. She was in the corner eating and turned her head, ears flat back to say ‘stay away’. I didn’t leave, so she postured at me. I didn’t leave. Finally, she came full tilt at me, teeth bared. I didn’t move. When she got almost up to me I moved in to her and gave her a few good hard cracks across the chest, and then quietly stood there again without moving. She was so shocked she trotted around snorting at me. I stood there for a very long time, and she finally came up, head down, and we were best friends forever. She went to New York to a young boy who loved her for years. This is an example of a horse that assumed I was a pushover like her past owner. While my action was pretty extreme, it was an exchange of energy. She charged me with 20 pounds so I pushed back at 21. Had I chased her around and tried to beat her I would have been violating our friendship.

Whips are an extension of your hand. Once you wrap your head around this concept you will use a whip for much different purposes than you did before.

Never push a horse away with your hand; you teach them to move into you. They do this instinctually to each other, and you will be teaching him to walk on you. Again, humans don’t mean to teach this but everything communicates. Everything.

Never drag him around on the lead. He should walk next to you on a loose lead. He should learn to move with you and to watch your every signal. This can only come about if you are tight with your signals. Work on being consistent with your language.

Intention: this is one of the most important things when training. I have seen too many humans that carry the same ‘who cares’ attitude in everything they do with their horse. The horse can’t tell where the boundaries are since they communicate with senses and feeling. They can read energy as well as you can read black and white. When you want your horse to go somewhere, look there; throw your energy and intention to the place you are going to. If you want to increase speed, increase your energy. When you want the horse to be quiet, bring down your energy and soften. They will follow you. Eventually, if you are consistent, they will match you and you will have that ‘transparent’ relationship where other humans have no idea how you got the horse to do the things the two of you do. It’s that place of harmony with a horse few get to discover. It is only through hard work and consistency that you can obtain it, but it’s a wonderful place to be with your horses.

Many of the annoying habits disappear on their own once a horse has learned new habits that you want him to learn. These are the habits you are teaching him. They are often called ‘training’ but that is what training is about; the exchange of habits. The horse has a habit you don’t like so you show him another habit (that’s better for the human) and eventually the horse does it because it becomes a habit and he seems to please the human when he does it.

When your colt does goofy things, don’t get into the habit of disciplining them all. You will find in time they will be replaced. Things like fussing while being tied, or not standing still while being brushed. If he does that, just take him back out and do the back up exercise until he is listening to you with two eyes and two ears. If you smack him for not standing still you will only end up with a horse that becomes irritable and unpleasant to be around. It is not his language.

If you want to train him under saddle there are many articles on my blog you can use on your current 4 horses that will give you the experience to be able to start the colt. They will give you many tips and techniques to work on. Since you are training your horses all day long anyway, you may as well start learning some new material. I suspect you are probably a very good trainer. Otherwise you would not have asked for help.

___________________________________________________

Response: Thank you for your help. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into your answer. So much nicer than the one sentence answers I get from other horsemen. You helped me out a lot. Laura.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is, “Can you help me sit the trot better?”

So here are some quick tips to help you with this all too common challenge.

1. First and foremost, your horse needs to be on the bit. If his back is hollow, stiff, or tight, you’ll find it impossible to sit comfortably. (And, in turn, you’ll make your horse uncomfortable too!)

To put him on the bit, review the “connecting half halt”. If you missed it, there’s an article on it in the August archives of my blog at wordpress.

2. Slow the trot down. Ride “sub-power” and when you can sit easily, increase the impulsion for just a few strides at a time. Then slow down again.

3. Put your horse on the bit in posting trot. Once he’s round, sit for just a couple of strides. Start posting again before you feel like you need to grip with your legs. Reorganize your body, relax your legs, and sit again for just a couple of strides.

4. Cross your stirrups over the front of the saddle. Post without your irons until your legs are tired. If they’re tired, you can’t grip so you’ll sit deeper.

5. Focus on your hips. Notice how they open and close in the walk. Mimic that motion when you’re in sitting trot.

6. Pretend you’re a belly dancer. As you swing your hips, use a buzz phrase like, “Do the hootchie kootchie”.

7. Hold the front of the saddle with your inside hand. Use that hand to pull you deeper into the saddle so you can learn the feeling of sitting close to your horse in sitting trot.

8. Relax your knees and thighs by taking then an inch or so off the saddle for a moment, letting them drop, and then placing them on lightly again.

9. Take longe lessons. This is the best way to develop an independent seat so you can sit the trot easily. Don’t use any reins or stirrups. Let the person longing you handle steering and controlling the speed. Do exercises where you move one part of your body while you keep the rest of your body still. (Arm circles, scissor kicks etc.) Also, just practice sitting deeply on your horse in his traveling gaits as well as through upward and downward transitions.

Are you sick and tired of complicated and confusing training techniques? Are you frustrated by negative emotions like fear and lack of confidence? Would you like to be trained by a Three Time Olympic Coach? Learn how by going to: http://www.janesavoie.com/

We should consider the overall value of our customer.

What is the value of a customer? We often overlook the amount of revenue a single client generates for us. This article will explore only the value of each industry segment (the ‘costs’ will be a following article). It will change the way you look at your bread-and-butter clients.

Coaches and Instructors
Students come and go, and the lifecycle for most is 2 – 3 years. We are going to use 2.5 years for this evaluation.

You’ve had a student for 6 months, and chances are they will be with you for another 2 years. They take lessons weekly for $30/lesson. they often double up during show season, and they show about 8 times/year.

52 seeks x $30/week = $1560 plus (8 x 30) = $240 + $1,560 = $1800/year x 2.5 years = $4,500 lifetime value.

These are generalities, but if you use them for more than 7 clients you will find they are pretty accurate. Also you may adjust the amount you charge and get a different number, plus the number of years you have each client for. Some students stay with their trainers for years. Adjust each figure as you need to and come up with your own customer value. It may surprise you.

In evaluating the timelines for students, consider that young students rarely continue after 18, older students take lessons to reach a place where they’re comfortable, and students on the competition trail try to learn all they can from as many instructors as possible.

This is a good model to use if you are thinking about becoming an instuctor
Like the ’starving artist’, horse people are devoted to their ‘craft’ of horsemanship more so than the ‘craft’ of business. While this may apply at the beginning of your career, it is imperative that somewhere you obtain the level of business expertise needed to carry you through your years with less struggle. Eventually on this site, we will be able to supply you with all that you need.

It’s important to understand how much monetary value the horse industry can carry. Many instructors and coaches have additional revenue/income streams beyond just hourly instruction. If you do the numbers correctly, you will have an honest picture of what you can expect to make.

Economy plays a role in these figures too. Currently we are enjoying a surge in the horse population and their popularity. Part of this is due to baby boomers having the income and time to do what they have always wanted. Part is due to the wealth of countries being divided into rich and poor, eliminating middle class. There are more wealthy people today than ever before (partly due to sheer population numbers). And part is the promotion of groups, clubs and associations, and the great programs they provide to encourage growth.

Are you just entering an Instructor career?
To learn more about how to determine if this is the life for you, we will present a series of marketing materials in both article and download forms for you to use. If you would like to see specific information please send us an email at: info@horsemansu.com

I am going to add, intermittently, anything really cool about the personal side of April Reeves.

I have one of the greatest jobs in the world. In fact, looking back on my life so far, I have not worked a day. If you love what you do, it’s not work.

As a horse trainer, clinician, writer, publicist and owner of a marketing firm, I get to ‘marry’ all of these gifts into some of the most amazing experiences one could have in a lifetime.

I am gone for 3 days to the Kamloops ranch of Liz Mitten Ryan. Many of you know Liz as the author of these amazing books:

One With The Herd PDF of book sampler

The Truth According To Horses PDF of book sampler

Life Unbridled PDF of book sampler

Sabbatical PDF of book sampler

Take a look at the book samplers. Liz is tapped into horses in a way only few of us get to uncover and discover. She lives on 320 acres with a herd of horses that are neither wild nor ‘broke’ in the ‘arena’ sense.

E.A.R.T.H.

(Equine Assisted Re-connective Therapy and Healing)

Liz also has an amazing healing set of workshops that draw horse-persons (and some non) from all over the world. They come to Gateway 2 Ranch to discover, heal, renew and move forward into a new path. As Liz describes it: “In 2009 we had the pleasure of connecting with and healing people from all over the world, establishing deep and lasting relationships through truth, love, joy and the freedom to explore our child-like innocence and claim our heart’s desires.” The program works through the healing power of horses and other animals, and the incredibly gifted and skilled healing practitioners at the ranch.

A collection of video from the journey’s of the participants was gathered and is about to be distributed through DVD’s and National Broadcast. It is one of the most inspiring, captivating and important pieces of our time. It encapsulates the journeys humans are being asked to discover right now, in our time.

The horse-human relationship began as the horse being our slave. We then moved into the Cowboy Era, where horsemen began to think of the horse as a partner. From there the show world emerged and spawned a new world of competition and confinement for the horse. The advent of Monte Roberts and Pat Parelli with Natural Horsemanship has been a gateway for the human to begin the process of relationships with their horses at a higher level. But many of us are still looking.

The work at Gateway 2 Ranch is a completion of our spirit and connection with horses. It is the discovery of the whole animal, and in that discovery, you find you. The Horses of Gateway 2 Ranch assist in the journey – your journey – to connecting with your inner spirit that has been closed off from strict societal beliefs that may not have a place in your life anymore.

It is the next step in our evolution as humans.

I am going to spend 3 days with Liz to create a plan on getting this to the people. Our world is speeding up. Consciousness is speeding up. I believe Liz is one of the humans that has discovered how to share her gifts and those of others, including animals, to assist others in doing the same. I feel honored to be able to share a tiny piece of this.

I love my ‘job’. Will keep you posted.

Question: Can you give me an outline of one of your typical rides? I just want some kind of idea of what you do with the horse, what you try to do yourself, and how long you took. Oh, also what you were trying to achieve. Thanks, Mandy.

Answer from April Reeves: I will give you a day in the life of a somewhat green Andalusian that is going very nicely (Mya) and has no real issues. She already has 100 days on her. She is not being worked for anything in particular, just as a pleasure and trail horse. This is just Grade 2 foundation work. I will put links in to find the exercises in case you are not familiar with them. The writing is short, more of a guideline.

Groundwork:

- Follow, stop, back, trot off, stop, back, turn sharp, back… Does the horse respond quickly? Obedient? Politely? Groundwork link

- Sending exercise to test if horse is fresh or ready. I will ride right away if the horse feels right. No spooking, must have both eyes on me. I don’t mind the horse having energy. I do mind if the horse is not ‘with me’. 5 minutes or more.

Warm Up

Walk and jog or trot, loose rein, no tight circles, keep on rail, then across diagonal, then down middle.

Topline: highest point of neck equal with withers – this is the start, then we bring head and neck up.

Reins: equal on both sides; watch length.

Lots of walk and trot; don’t wind horse. Change direction all the time. Move about.

If the horse wants to stretch to the ground, let him unless it feels like a buck coming. Longitudinal stretching link to video.

Vertical flexion.

About 15 minutes.

Begin to Work

Reins equal on both sides with loose tension.

Box your hands evenly on both sides (see top photo in post below this one). Allow horse to hit left and right, which asks horse to find the middle on his own. You don’t need to fight horse. Allow horse to do the work. Responsibility. Keep your hands apart at a fair distance. Keep hands solid. Keep hands slightly behind withers for hindquarter control.

Single gait transitions. Walk, trot, walk, halt, walk, trot…

Stand and softly follow feel left and right. One rein stop softening link.

Vertical flexion.

Rock the walk – halt, back, forward, all in one motion. No stopping in between. Horse must rock on back legs and spring forward. Not a backing up of paces. Teaches horse to sit and engage. Also teaches horse how to use his body ‘behind the saddle’. You must feel this exercise. You must feel the horse sit.

Perfect the halt from the walk. Horse must stand with weight at the back. Don’t let horse move any front or back leg forward. Move horse back into place immediately if he does. Horse must not lean forward. Majority of weight behind the saddle.

Once horse has good halt, try the halt at the trot. Horse must sit. Use ‘rock the walk’ for this. Spend time developing this. Works for other gaits and helps them to improve. Weight in HQ. Evaluate each stop. Don’t let him drag the front legs.

Bridle up – softly move head side to side – asks horse to soften jaw and poll.

Straightness – not squirming around. Link.

Keep horse walking forward in good stride.

Vertical flexion. Side to side flexion.

Ask horse to pivot with cross over on front legs, then walk free, changing direction. Use steering aids. Keep inside leg back; get it out of the way of the horse’s front legs. Shorten reins and hands in front of saddle. Link to exercise

Exercises for obedience:

Move the hindquarters/hip.

Move the shoulders.

Go. Stop. Go. Stop….if he’s lazy, go longer distances; if he’s hot, shorten to about 6-10 strides go, stop.

These help with all maneuvers.

Keep horse between the reins. Horse must guide between reins.

Bump bump with legs to ask topline to come up; becomes a cue for horse later to come up. Don’t just bring up hands, use body and legs to complete cue.

To slow horse, use soft bumps, lifting up on reins, but instead of mechanical movement, feel the timing and release. Horse must tuck head and not bring nose up. Its about lifting the shoulder and topline, not just lifting the head. Vertical and side to side flexion.

Trot and Lower

Trot out long and low. Ask for stretch down, engaging longitudinal muscle groups. Helps to strengthen and build muscle in back, bringing it up. Hips must rock, tail must swing both ways evenly. Steadies the topline, helps horse stay on the bit, gains rhythm, corrects shoulder to straight, and balance.

Lope

Bring your arms back; don’t cock wrists: it changes energy flow. Straight arms with elasticity. Horse bumps into bridle; teach that pressure does not mean to break down. Create a wall with boxed hands – ask horse to back off. Once horse settles in, back off. Don’t pull horse in. You won’t win. Allow horse to carry himself naturally this way. Use boxed hands again if horse unsettles. You must allow horse to find the soft spot: responsibility. Eventually horse will stay put for longer times. This exercise can take up to a year for consistency.

Advanced lope work

Counter canter – use canter counter in a box shape, asking the corner to be sharp by moving HQ away. Teaches balance, cadence and rhythm. Confidence builder. Use counter canter for circles. Start big, end small, move big again. Perfect round circles. Not eggs.

Side Notes

Keep tension out of your ride. Leave ego at the gate.

Anatomy is what it is; can be a friend or foe, but can’t be changed. Skeletons are forever. Muscle can be reconstructed to a certain point. Ride your horse as nature intended him to move.

Ride straight keeps the horse straight. Use saddle horn as guide. Even weight on both legs? Elbows open and close during post?

What if the horse speeds up into next gait? Take up one rein and bend into small circle, then out and move into gait again. Do over and over until horse starts to focus on obedience and you.

Cool out horse well, brush well, hose legs, clean feet and inspect, run hands down legs. Pamper with one carrot and apple. Tell horse he is the most wonderful horse in the world. Thank him for the ride.

Always teach your horse to move forward obediently

Question: My mare whom I’ve had about 3 yrs, she is 8, was abused, was flipped over because of being backed up aggressively by some asshole trainer, among other things, well when I try to take her down the road, she stops and refuses to go forward when she gets around the corner. I thought it was because she didn’t want to leave my gelding. So we took them both and she still kept stopping. But we did get to the end of the road. So if I take her by herself, she refuses to go forward, she will back up even into shrubs and trees. What should I do?

Answer from April Reeves: I worked on a mare that did exactly the same thing. I’ll explain how I worked with her.

It’s About Moving Forward
First, we addressed the backing up. After taking this mare out for the first time and almost landing in the ditch, we went back home to the outdoor ring and had a lesson on how to move forward the instant I asked. Doing more backing is not the cure for this style of behavior.

I’m hoping you have somewhere to practice this, as without this next lesson it will be very tough to fix your mare. Not impossible, just tougher.

If you have a ring use it; if not, secure a smaller field with no other horses in it.

Your mare is going to learn to go forward under any condition. Although she may be good at it when she is at home, this lesson is to explain to her that it also applies when she is in a place where she is not comfortable, and she must listen to your guidance to see her through.

You will need either a longer crop or long ends on western reins. I use a rope halter under the bridle and a long lead line tied mecate style to the horn, so the end is about 4 feet long. I use the end of the lead line to ’spank’ the horse. I prefer the rein ends or mecate end to a crop, as you may drop the crop at the moment you need it, and lose the lesson.

Start in your arena or field by just walking. Gently ask the mare to halt and release her when she does. Ask her to walk forward when you softly use leg pressure – I like to call it “whispering the aid” to the horse. If she does not respond with immediate intention, I ask with a more demanding aid. Ask, then tell. If she jumps into forward gear, let her go; do not check her back if she trots off. Let her trot for about 10 strides then back to a walk.

One rein stop and lateral flexion for softness and control

The Halt
If she won’t halt easily, take her head gently to one side (not quite to your knee) and keep it there until she stops moving her feet, then instantly release her. The release is important, as if you keep her head cranked around she will miss the lesson. If she walks off again take her head to the other side until she quits moving her feet. I have found that they get this real quick. Once you release her and stand, stay quiet, keep your legs off her sides. Then gently ask for the walk. Always keep the head around until they stop moving their feet. I often let them fail, as this is where the learning begins. they need to fail and learn the lesson again, time after time, as this is the foundation you are laying.

If she pulls the rein or gets jiggy, keep her head there, until she stops. Once she stops moving let her go. If she pulls do not let her move your hand. You are a brick wall until she stands. You may have to stop the forward lesson to work on this one. Once she starts to get this, you can combine the two lessons.

Keep The Lesson Singular
This is very important, and one of the training techniques that most people mess up. When working with a horse on anything, always keep in mind what the single purpose of the lesson is. In this case it’s moving forward with respect and action the instant you ask. If she trots off, do not stop her or you will lose the lesson. The lesson is not move forward into the walk. The lesson is go forward. Period. Simple. If you are in the ‘halt’ lesson, the mare is to stand quietly and not move until your legs move to her side with pressure.

If she does not respond with respect and immediate action, ask the third time. This is where you ‘deliver’ the message. It is also the moment that may require some timing and courage, as often horses will jump forward or run off. As a professional trainer I can handle the bolt and run, as I can ride a lot longer than they can run, but for some it may be a bit scary.

If you are uncomfortable with this next step, start off softly, but be firm about the aid. If she does not jump on the second try, the third try (deliver) will be the crop or the reins. I use my legs at the same time I use a crop or the reins. Ask softly with your legs and use the crop or rein ends back behind the flank. If she kicks out, do nothing. If she trots off, let her trot for about 10 steps, then ask her ’softly’ to walk again. Do not attempt to hold her in or take up on the reins. If all she does is kick, do it again. She will likely kick again and again for about 5-10 times, but eventually she will move forward. Once she gets the ‘move forward’ part, the kicking will fix itself.

Most riders know just how far they can push their horse before the horse becomes too much for them to handle. Find that spot where you get the desired response without any dangerous moves like bucking, bolting or rearing.

Then ask for the halt again, stay for about 30 seconds, and ask for the walk (ask). Again, if you don’t get her almost jumping forward, ask a second time with your legs (tell) and if that isn’t sufficient, ask with the crop or reins (deliver). Again, let her move forward into the trot if she does, about 20 steps, then back into the walk.

Repeat this until that mare responds with immediate reaction. As she gets better at responding, you get softer with the request, until you ‘whisper’ forward and she moves into action. It may take 20 to 30 requests from you, but stay with it. This is where the lesson becomes habit, and horses are habitual.

Then move the lesson into the trot. Start your walk, whisper a trot aid, and test the response. As with the walk, if she does not respond immediately with respect, move into the ‘tell’ then the ‘deliver’, and let her canter if she wants to, for about 10 strides, back to a trot, and a walk.

Between each lesson, let her walk on a loose rein, to give her a chance to think about it. When she responds the way you want let her know by lots of rubs to the neck, telling her she’s good. I get so much from my horses with praise.

This lesson may be done over the course of 2-3 days, as it’s important to really cement this into their brain.

Another important thing to remember is that this is not a form of punishment. It is NOT performed in anger, nor any voice command what so ever. Just deliver and soften. When a dominant horse delivers a message to another horse who may not be responding, the dominant horse will always use just enough force necessary to get the sleepy one to wake up and ’stick with the tour’. He does not stay angry after, and neither should a human delivering the same message.

Also, remember that the single message is move forward, and any way that happens is the right way. You can refine it once the message is firmly in place.

And keep repeating the lesson until you get on one day and the response is there, instantly and respectively (about 3-5 days if you keep repeating the process with results).

Once she is respecting and behaving the way you need her to, now is the time when you test it away from the ring or field. I start the horse down the driveway on the way out to the road or trail. Take the mare out, and walk about 10 steps, then halt. Stay for 30 seconds, then move into a trot instantly. Trot for about 6 steps, then halt. Turn around. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Keep the horse at this until the mare puts her head down and lets out a big sigh, and she stands quietly with her head low, licking her lips. This is where she surrenders to the lesson.

Then move out a bit further, repeating the same. Do not go to the ‘corner’ where you had problems for a few more days. Just stay in the ’safe’ zone, repeating the lesson.

This is where patience kicks in, as the results need time to cement. This is your foundation, the place that will always be there when you need it IF you take the time and do it over and over. Remember to not get angry if it takes a long time, or you will undo everything you began. One day of anger can set a horse back for months. Remember what the ‘asshole’ did to her earlier.

You will likely ‘feel’ the mare beginning to bond with your responses, trusting you more and becoming more of a partner than a ride. I call this the ‘magic’ place, where you become a team, trusting each other to keep you out of trouble. It is achieved by patience, respect, honor and repetition. You will get to a place where all your aids are a whisper, and all her responses are a YES! This is the world where my horses and I live. Harmony.

Now the test. The corner. The place where, if the work has been performed well and you are a team, should deliver different results than the past. You may not find that she simply walks through it, although I find this is often the case. But you may get tested, in which case you begin the lesson again.

In training for anything, you will often go back to kindergarten and retrain. If the lesson has a foundation, you will find the horse responding like: “oh, I’m sorry, I just forgot for a second. I’ll pick it up next time”. Horses never really become fully dependable 100% of their lives. You will always be retraining and desensitizing your entire life together. It just gets more of a surprise than the norm.

So if you get into trouble again, and she backs up, DELIVER the first time, as by now she should behave with respect. If you need to retrain at the corner for a few days, so be it. This is what happens if you are to move past the corner and into the place where you ride off into the sunset together. Anywhere.

If she is too much, go back to kindergarten, starting in the field or ring, test there, then to the road, test there, then to the corner.

I’m hoping it’s a short time. I have taken most horses ‘around the corner’ in one day, but my delivery is quick and swift. Again, I can ride longer than they can run. For you, this is a good solid foundation process that will take you into other areas of riding.

Jane Savoie and Moshi

Answer by Jane Savoie: People often ask me to explain the difference between “running” and “lengthenings”. In fact, in this article I’m also going to describe the difference between running, lengthenings, medium gaits, and extended gaits.

1. Running- When you ask your horse to lengthen his strides and frame, and you hear his tempo (the rate of the repetition of the rhythm) get QUICKER, he’s not lengthening. He’s just running.

2. Lengthenings- In a good lengthening, your horse lengthens his stride and frame to the utmost he can at this relatively early stage of training (around 1st Level) WHILE staying in the same rhythm and tempo. He ends up covering more ground with each stride.

Lengthenings are developed from the working trot or canter. Since your horse is in what I call “horizontal balance” in a working gait, his balance will also be in horizontal balance in a lengthening. (i.e. His topline is basically parallel to the ground, and his center of gravity is toward his front legs.)

3. Medium gaits- In medium gaits, your horse lengthens his strides and frame WHILE staying in the same rhythm and tempo. In terms of length of strides and frame, medium gaits are between collected and extended gaits. This movement is “rounder” than that of an extended gait.

Because medium gaits are developed from collected gaits, your horse’s balance is different from his balance in lengthenings. His center of gravity is more toward his hind legs, and his topline looks more uphill than it did when he was in horizontal balance for a lengthening. He looks like a speedboat in the water or an airplane taking off.

4. Extended gaits- In extended gaits, your horse lengthens his strides and frame to his utmost WHILE staying in the same rhythm and tempo. Like medium gaits, extensions are developed from collected gaits. So your horse’s center of gravity is more toward his hind legs, and his balance is uphill.

That’s a description of running, lengthenings, mediums, and extensions in a nutshell.

But if you ask my friend and mentor Robert Dover how to show the difference between medium and extended gaits when you’re competing, he’ll say, “Do the maximum your horse can do for mediums. Then do the same thing for extensions, but make your eyes bigger!” (That was a joke!!)

Are you sick and tired of complicated and confusing training techniques? Are you frustrated by negative emotions like fear and lack of confidence? Would you like to be trained by a Three Time Olympic Coach? Learn how by going to: http://www.janesavoie.com/

Visit Jane’s Membership site: http://dressagementor.com/

Question: A lesson student did not pay for the last 3 lessons. I still have to pay for the instructors. How can I recoup the money? Should I send a legal letter or collection agency after her? Do you think I will benefit by going after her?

Answer from April Reeves: I have a policy and I don’t move from it. People pay me the day they take the lesson, or they prepay for lessons. There are no exceptions.

The problem in the horse industry is that most people are afraid to lose business. Freebies or unpaid services are always going to end up a loss. If you are truly a professional, you get paid for the services you offer, and that attitude transforms into loyal customers.

In all my years I have never not been paid. It’s because I don’t work for free. Hold this attitude within, stand your ground firmly but caringly, and you will find customers begin to respect what you do and who you are.
The next time a mother drops off the daughter and they don’t have money, tell her she can watch the next lesson but to remember the cheque or money for next time if she wants to ride. You may be surprised. Mothers can find all sorts of cash when the daughter realizes her ride won’t happen.

I’m just keeping it real. It’s a business. Customers will come and go, from your place and to your place. It’s the nature of the horse industry. Keep your word to your policies and thrive, not just survive.

Oh, and write it off as a loss. Your reputation starts here.

A Little Thought About Money

We humans can be a funny lot when it comes to money. We can’t win either way – we’re damned if we have it and we’re damned if we don’t.  So here’s my way of looking at money, and if you believe in the law of attraction, start saying this every day.

Money isn’t evil. People’s response to money is what gets them into trouble. Money is part of us: it helps feed, shelter and clothe us.

When someone pays you for your services, what they are saying is “I truly appreciate what you do.” Money is about another person respecting and appreciating what you do.

Don’t be afraid to ask for money either. When you ask, it’s your way of saying “I add value to people’s lives.”

Shrinking from it, being afraid to ask for it, not believing it should be a part of you is only an inner reflection of your belief about you. Not the money.

Look at money as appreciation, and you will find yourself starting to do things that you think people will appreciate. It’s a big circle, this money thing.

When people skip paying you, they will repeat the pattern time and time again. The minute you accept their behavior in doing this, you also set up the pattern.

It’s not your customer. It’s you. Change the way you think.

Go forth, my little horseperson, and collect what is yours.

This bit, in the wrong hands, is abuse

Question: Hello I have an 8 yr. old reg. quarter horse and he is the most wonderful, trustworthy horse ever!. But the problem is throughout training  him (since he was 2) I have had problems with his listening to a bit or hackamore. I have everything from a snaffle to a severe curve bit. Same for the hack – I have a hack that has a metal band and a snaffle bit on it and he does listen but I hate it! I feel like it is abuse :(. Im at my wits-end its to the point that I don’t want to ride him sometimes and will pick one of our other horses. I need some new advice if you could help me I would love it. Thank-you

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: You have good gut instincts, as the harder the bit, the tougher the horse is going to be, and some of the equipment you have is abusive, even in light hands. There are very few harsher bits that have any purpose being near a horse, and they must have some result that is acquired without heavy handling.

Horses that do not respond to tougher bits and equipment are not bad or insensitive. They are a result of improper training.

Problem is, humans resort to harder bits because they don’t want to take the time to train the horse properly. The horse just gets use to the pain and pressure, which causes the bit to stop working, so the human seeks a harder bit, and so the evil process proliferates. Some humans don’t care about the horse’s well being either. This is life.

Whenever you get a tough mouthed horse, lower the harshness on the bit – find the softest one on the market and use it. Why? Horses will fight pain. They will become resistant and irritated, and that always plays out in “bad” behavior (human’s interpretation). The behavior is not bad to the horse: he’s just trying to protect himself. When you take the pain away, you give the horse a chance to work for you. A happy horse free of pain is a horse that will work harder, learn faster and bond with you better.

I have some great articles for you to read through that will help you with your problem, plus give you some additional training to work on.

You have come this far with your gelding, so don’t quit now. He can become responsive and light, with your help, but it will take longer than a green horse would take because you now have to undo the damage and start over. From what I can tell, you have missed a big part of his foundation, and will have to go back and redo it. Don’t worry though – this is the fun part! It’s so rewarding to rebuild a horse! And how many people get the experience, or even know how to!

Here are the articles. First one is on basic groundwork (you may or may not need this) and leads into riding and foundation training. It does not expressly contain hard mouth horses but the techniques involved do help with fixing those ‘holes’.

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

Here are the ‘connection’ and ‘collection’ articles for helping your gelding work softer. The exercise for Vertical Flexion will help your horse. It will be a bit harder for you as he is insensitive, but don’t give up or give in. Follow the exercise carefully. If done right, you will eventually see the difference.

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/how-to-collect-horse/

Question: We have a colt pony that is approx. 18 months old.  He ran the pasture with our 2 geldings and mare for the last 10 months.  He is starting to act like a stud naturally.  We plan on gelding him. But in the mean time how do we keep him from getting so hot headed around the mare.  We have built a wood fenced area for him because when we pasture him separately he just walks through or jumps the fence to get to the mare.

We tried to pasture him with one of the other geldings and they just constantly bite and harass each other. (they also do this when they are all together) Is this just playing or him trying to be the boss because he is a colt?  They remove chunks of hair and skin.

He is becoming hard to handle, throwing his head, pawing the ground and getting pushy.

I know it comes down to training, but I don’t want to do the wrong thing and make him worse.  Any advice would be very helpful.

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: Your attempts to alter your colt’s behavior by changing his surroundings and pasture buddies will not work in any way, shape or form.

Colts (uncastrated males) have a deeper sense of ‘being’ in this world than a gelding does, simply because he has hormones that a gelding doesn’t. It’s that simple, yet we humans still try to ‘correct’ these bad and unwanted behaviors as if the horse was able to communicate like a human. They can’t.

There is only one solution: castrate him now. What are you waiting for? Call your vet the second after reading this. Nothing will change until you do – that may not be correct advice – he may change: he may get worse.

Putting a mare in with him could eventually lead to several things:

1. The mare could get pregnant – I give it an 80% chance.
2. The geldings could get seriously hurt – I give it an 80% chance.
3. The little guy will get very seriously hurt trying to get through a fence.
4. You will spend more in time and money trying to alleviate his behavior than the vet fee to castrate him.

We (humans) cannot alter what Nature has given the Stallion. We can soften the nature by teaching him obedience, but the underlying ‘currents of resistance’ will always be there. Colts are guided by this impending urge. If he walks the paddock now, he will run it soon.

He will need some ground manners though, regardless of what you do with him. I am going to give you a link to a very long but very useful article on groundwork and basic saddle work. I know you are not interested in riding him at this point, if ever, but there are good basic training tips in the entire article that will give you some insight into the mind of the horse.

This groundwork will help your relationship with him, and since he is a colt, you will have to do this work daily in order to keep him obedient. Stallions are a great deal of work, which is why so few people should own them. They take dedication and time. They also take a different approach to training. You are now working with ‘the raw material’. There are very few mares who get aggressive around breeding season, although I have seen one that could break out of anything she was put behind – and nasty. Geldings are great – they like girls, they just don’t know why.

Have fun reading through this article, and I hope you get on that ‘parts removal’ issue asap:

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

Good straight legs

Question: I have a 4-year-old, 17HH Dutch Warmblood mare that’s got an odd angle to her back legs. When she stands, there is a straight line from hip to hock, but then it dives in.  I want to use her for jumping, but something tells me (gut instinct) that those back legs may not take the work involved. Everyone at the barn tells me that her legs are big so there is no problem, and that I should be riding her by now. What do you think? Can I breed her?

Also, what exercises can I do to strengthen them without having to go over fences?

Answer from April Reeves: Good instincts. This appearance of a sharp angled hock is called ‘camped out’ or ‘sickle hocked’. If you were to stand the mare so that her back legs had a vertical line from top of hock to bottom of pastern, you would find that line would be pushed out behind the point of the hip. Some sickle hocked horses just stand with their back legs up and under, and some (camped out) stand with their back legs out. Sickle hocked horses tend to have too much angle to their hock joints, while ‘camped out’ back legs sit back from the hip line, with the angle more pronounced through the gaskin.

Slightly 'camped out'

A good leg has a straight line from hip to hock to pastern. Although there is more to a back leg than the side view. How straight does the horse travel in the back? I have seen some nasty looking side views that traveled perfectly straight, and some perfect side views I would not have in my barn. In my years, I have seen straight travelers remain sounder than their counterparts.

It’s not something I would breed, unless you were dead sure the stallion threw perfect back legs, and even then it’s a crap shoot. Also, it’s cheaper to buy a three year old right now than to raise one of your own. The odds are better too.

When will people understand that more bone does not mean stronger legs? It just means that you have more bone to fix when something goes wrong. No breed or color of horse will grow and solidify their bones faster than another breed or color. None. But humans still live in the human mind, thinking that their ‘big’ horse can start earlier and do more. Nothing is further from the truth.

Yes, there are horses with crooked legs that have been started early and are still going sound at 20, but I prefer to call them lucky, not smart. Why risk doing that to a horse, when you can take an extra year or two and create better bone (through exercises I will list below) and a sound mind? If you have put all this time and energy and money into a horse, why blow it now?

Sickle hocks

Ever wonder why horses in the wild don’t suffer the same leg problems as their stalled cousins? When foals are born, they stand and go all day long. They move over rocky terrain and travel for miles, every day, all day long. Their bones develop strength and size. But we take foals and stick them into stalls and confined areas for several years. Then we take them, break them and ask that their bones remain strong and sound. It’s a fifty-fifty chance.

At 4, you should be able to start riding her, and with those legs, it’s not a bad idea, especially if she stands around in a stall and small paddock. Horses that are out running and playing all day long will have better, stronger bone, feet and organs. Through exercise, the bone has a chance to strengthen and thicken. As you slowly increase pressure by soft concussion, the cells tell the bone “hey, we had better react to this, so lets add more bone to compensate” (I’m keeping this example simple).

The same rule applies to blemishes and unsoundness, such as splints and bog spavins. They are simply a sign that there was an abundance of concussion at that particular point, and the cells reacted, creating the excess calcium build-up on the bone. Unfortunately, many bog spavins and bone injuries develop in joint areas, often rendering the horse useless for life.

When my Arabian stallion was weaned, I asked the vet what I could do to strengthen his bone and feet. He had the skinniest legs and tiniest feet I had ever seen. He told me to walk him, every day, down the road and back, and each month, increase the length of the walk. So I did. I walked the horse on the pavement until he was a yearling. Then we started to add jogging. When he was 2, I jogged him every day down the pavement, slowly (I’m a wimp of a jogger) and not only were his ground manners impeccable, his legs and feet were like iron. What was happening is that I had created a very soft impact every day, and as the bones grew, they responded. He had bigger feet than my quarter horse today, and through his entire life, he was never shod (other than back slider plates), reined and worked cattle for years, showed and went into the bush for days at a time. When he died, he still had perfect, unblemished legs.

The other advantage of this exercise is that the horse moved in a straight line during the exercise. I find too many owners take their horse out of the stalls and lunge them. The horse rarely knows the benefits of moving in a straight line for any distance, where his skeleton gets a chance to lengthen and ‘pull free’ from contracted, tight muscles. A horse must be able to move straight before he can perform good circles.

While you may find trotting your mare down the road for 10 minutes a day is time consuming, or you don’t have a safe road to do this, there is another way to train a horse on a lunge line to go straight. All my horses can do this exercise, and it’s a great workout for me too. It’s a good alternative if you don’t have driving equipment.

As the horse gets better at staying out while lunging, I slowly begin to take a few straight lines by bringing my leading hand up (encourages the horse to move forward) and walking (or jogging) a few strides straight. As the horse gets into this, you can add more length. Eventually, you can move around an entire arena, going straight down the sides. It has built up my stamina also to where I can now follow the horse at the canter down the long side – the ‘side’ benefits to this work, ha ha.

When you first begin, you may get tired quickly. If you do, just stop and ask the horse to keep moving in a circle around you until you catch your breath. Then move the horse back out on the straight line again. I use the intermittent circles to enhance the horse’s balance. Once you get into the swing of this exercise, you will find that the corners give you a resting place, as you can park yourself for a second while the horse finishes the corners.

I also find that this exercise really helps their minds, as they have to focus on the next move you make. Mix it up so they don’t get into a routine. Change directions and do transitions often. The two of you will be in fine shape by the spring!

One other side thought about lunging – when you ask for a circle, stand still. If you want perfect circles you have to quit moving around or your horse will only know the egg shaped circle. Perfect circles are created by you standing still. When you decide to come off the straight line into a circle, plant yourself. Grow roots.

Standard Cavaletti

You can add obstacles, Cavaletti and jumps to the mix. Have fun.

Once she is safe under saddle, Cavaletti are a great way to engage and strengthen legs, muscle and bone. Start with one until she gets the idea, and over the weeks, add one more until you can do a line of 4. Doing a line of 6 is for horses with lots of experience with Cavaletti. If you try using too many too soon, the horse can get tangled half way and scare itself. Let the horse adjust slowly and gain strength. Cavaletti takes strength and precision to do well. It’s also good for back muscles. If you have used them during lunging, the horse will have a head start, but still introduce them slowly, as she will be learning to balance you as well.

Stacked Cavaletti

Word of caution: don’t use round poles on the ground for Cavaletti. If a horse misjudges and slips on one, they can damage shoulders and tendons. If they catch the pole as they are placing their feet, they will slide on that pole. Use square poles or build proper Cavaletti with the supports at each end. That way if the horse hits it, it won’t move. The proper Cavaletti has advantages – they can be raised or lowered. You can start at the lowest point and as the horse gets stronger, you can raise them. They also stack for jumping.

'In Hand' work over cavaletti

Cavaletti work should give you some indication as to whether those back legs will hold out. If you go slow and your horse still comes up unsound, it’s a good indication she may not be the world’s next big jumper. If she stays sound, she will build bone density and muscle strength to be able to perform the movements you ask of her in a year or two.

Question: I had a question about building stalls, I don’t have a huge barn but its a pretty good size so I wanted to know what would be the smallest but safest size stall to build. I have four horses and we just moved and this barn doesn’t have them already built so we were going to but I just don’t want to make them too small. They would only be stalled at night and turned out in the day.

Also I have a four-year-old gelding who has never really been ridden but we’ve had him since he was born and is just as gentle and respectful as he can be. When we get on him he just stands still. I know he just doesn’t know what ‘giddy up’ means yet but how do I teach him that? What about lunging him -  how do I get him to go in a circle and not backwards? Thanks

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: In regards to the stalls, the smallest I would put a horse in (under 16 hands high) would be 10 by 10 feet. At 16 hands, 11 by 11 or 12 by 12 (best). A horse must be able to move around in a circle, and when a stall is too small, the horse ends up rotating on his hindquarters. Any repetitive movement to the joints and skeleton will eventually end up in pain and discomfort, leading to an unrideable horse. The horse also is not a cave dweller, so the larger the stall, the better mind you will have on your horse. I’m not an advocate of the tie stall – I think they are cruel. Horses should be able to lie down where they choose and move around.

Your 4 year old gelding has several options to learning the leg commands. Let’s not teach the “giddy-up”. Instead, lets teach him to simply move off pressure.

Have a handler on the ground with you as you get on the gelding. Once your feet are in the stirrups, keep your legs off and away from the horse. You are going to teach the horse that the instant he feels the legs move into his sides, he is to move forward.

Timing is important here. You and your handler must do this at the same time. Cluck to the horse no more than twice, and at the same time, close your legs on the horse for one second, then off again. As your legs begin to close on the horse, the handler must walk the horse forward.

It’s simple, but simple is often the fastest way to train. You will have to do this over and over again, for several days in a row, for about 15 minutes at a time. You can alter how long you let him walk; sometimes for one or two strides, and sometimes for 20 to 30 strides or around the ring or pathway. Repetition teaches, along with consistency. DO NOT alter the way you ask. DO NOT squeeze harder. Continue to do exactly the same thing over and over.

The minute you change the smallest detail, you are asking the horse a different question. This is one of the most valuable things to know in horse training.

While you do this, you also need to teach him to stop. Whoa and Go are the two basic elements of training. Again, timing between you and the handler is important. Pick up on the reins at the same time the handler stops the horse (you will be wearing the halter under the bridle). As the handler asks the horse to stop, say the word “ho” in a very short and abrupt style (much like the ‘sound of a halt’ would sound). At the same time, pick up the reins and without pulling hard, just make contact with the horse’s mouth so that he can feel there is a difference.

Pulling hard will accomplish nothing positive. The softer you work with a horse, the more sensitive he becomes and responsive. The rougher you are with a horse, the more the horse will tune you out.

As you take up the reins and make contact, immediately release the contact as the horse is stopping. If you continue to make contact or increase it, the horse won’t understand the lesson and begin to move through you every time you pick up the reins. You want that horse to associate the increase in rein pressure with the action of stopping. This will transfer into faster gaits, where you will increase or just pick up the reins to ask the horse to slow down or stop.

(We often teach our horses bad manners through poor training methods. This is a classic example of a horse that moves forward when you pick up the reins. He has been taught to do this by his owner, unconsciously.)

Try not to move your body forward when doing this. Keep your body position either upright or just slightly behind. Moving forward means go and will confuse the horse.

So you now have 2 things to train the gelding – whoa and go.

As the horse begins to understand your signals, have the handler walk with you on a lead, but carry the lead very loose. You are now going to see if the horse is beginning to understand or not. You are going to test the horse by asking him to go with soft legs and a cluck, and have the handler stand still until you move first. Once that is established, have the handler take the lead off the horse. Test again to see if the horse will move off of leg pressure and a cluck. Once he does, the handler can slowly move out of the way until you no longer need him/her.

If you find the horse is not getting this, it is you, not the horse that is having the problem. This is one of the easiest and simple training methods around, so if you are not consistent, then the horse will not be learning the lesson properly.

Another way to train a horse to go is to use a roundpen. As you are walking quietly around the pen, on the horse, use the ends of your reins to ask the horse to go forward. Continue to flip them from side to side in front of you, watching that you do not scare the horse, but encourage him to move forward. Cluck at the same time. Once the horse goes, you stop the rein activity and sit quietly. If the horse goes back into a walk, use the reins again to encourage the horse to move forward and stay in the trot. Your legs are not in use while doing this exercise. Once the horse learns to move forward, you begin to incorporate legs and seat (weight). You teach horses by adding one lesson at a time. As they learn, you begin to add more requests (aids).

This is for advanced riders as it requires timing and confidence. The horse can get a bit bucky and unpredictable with this method if you are not good at timing and listening. I added it because it’s valuable to know more than one method of training. All horses are different.

Once your horse is moving forward into the walk without problems, you can use this technique to get him to trot up. Again, use the cluck and spank him quietly with the rein ends. If you don’t have rein ends, find a longer piece of leather, about 4 feet, and use that. Cluck, spank and use your legs softly once, on and off. Continue to spank until he moves into the trot. Stay quiet, keep your legs off, and ask him gently to walk by picking up on the reins and saying “ho”.

If you run into problems, it’s best to send the horse out for 30 days to get a good basic foundation on him. These are crucial times of training and done poorly will only hurt the horse. I see beautiful horses in the slaughter pen because the owner did not have the tools to train properly and did not seek help.

For the other problem of lunging, I am going to refer you to an article I have on ‘sending’ the horse:

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

It is also a comprehensive article on basic foundation work that you may want to read over and try. It will answer the next set of questions I know will pop up for you.

Question: I have a problem when I tack up my horse, Thea. Bridling she is fine, placing the saddle on her is fine, but doing up the girth is not. She turns around to bite you so I have to either have someone holding her or I have a long rein one side that I can pull on. After the girth is done up she pulls back and does a mini jump in the air. She doesn’t have a sore back and I’m sure her saddle is ok [vet confirmed], I think its just behavior. How can I resolve it?

Answer: Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: Good for you Mel – you’ve diagnosed the problem correctly. Most people never get there. Just so you know – the solution is easy.

I have rehabbed hundreds of horses with this problem, and I will tell you that the horse never gets to the place where he’s happy to be cinched up. What we are going to do is to alleviate the discomfort for the horse, get the horse to accept the process with obedience, and learn something new about training horses.

When I tack any horse up, whether the horse is older, unbroken or even happy about being cinched (they do exist), I never draw up the girth tight at first. I will do it up so that if the horse were to move, the saddle won’t fall off or fall under the horse. Then I go about bridling and whatever fussing I need to do before I move the horse away from the area of saddling. I will walk the horse for about 5-10 steps, then softly draw the girth up again, but not to where I will ride with it. Then I walk the horse again, and finally softly snug the girth up to where I need it. I use this process for all horses, regardless of their like or dislike of being cinched.

I never do the girth up tight. I use saddles that fit the horse, so I don’t need to crank it. You may want to ease up on how tight you are cinching.

Once I have the girth where I need it, I will gently bring each front leg up and stretch it, giving the skin a chance to unfold from underneath. Some horses get pinched and irritated. In all my years of riding, even for days in the bush, I have never had a saddle sore or a cinch gall.

You will use the same technique as I have described above, and you will be adding one more training tip – how to keep the horse out of your space when you are saddling.

Horses should never reach around to you unless invited. It’s a sign of disrespect and disobedience. It can lead to being dangerous if you own the wrong horse.

Let’s establish the rules of space – we are going to teach Thea that when your hand comes up, her head gets out of the way. We will begin on the ground with a halter and lead. If you have a rope halter – that’s best, otherwise the thinnest one you have and a long lead line and long crop or dressage/buggy/lunge whip.

We often get into the habit of pulling our horses around us because it’s just easier that way, but what you are saying to the horse every time you do that is “please walk on me and by the way, it’s ok if you invade my bubble. Trouble is, it’s not ok. So for the next while (the rest of your life with horses) you will lead Thea away from you. You will walk into her space and she is expected to move away, even if she has to sit on her haunches and swing around. Those are the rules for life.

Begin in a large ring or space that’s flat. Walk her as you normally would, staying between her head and shoulder. Don’t hold onto the lead rope tightly. Keep slack in it and don’t add pressure at any time (unless she runs away). As you move forward, you will now turn to the right, meaning you are going to walk into her head. Make a large circle at first, and as you ask her to turn away from you, hold the end of the whip in your hands up higher that her head will ever go, and hold your hands up to her eye. Gently pulse with both hands in a rhythm at her eye, and if she makes contact with your hands, let it happen. She is hitting you (as opposed to you hitting her) as she is in your way. This is what you want. Don’t back down or drop your hands if she doesn’t comply right away, just let her keep bumping her head into your hand. Your hands are a brick wall, not a soft sponge. Don’t panic if she hits your hands either, just keep them high and in a rhythmical pulsing motion.

Mares have a tendency to not like this exercise very much, and can get quite sticky. They often throw their heads up as high as they can and back up, so keep the end of the whip really high and let her hit it on her own. Having a horse swing its head over you is a sign of dominance, so we are going to change the rules forever. If she backs up, move quietly with her as far as she wants to go. Just keep following her with your hands at her eye and the whip end up. The whip won’t hurt her; it just makes you appear larger and taller than you are.

Your hands need to follow her eye wherever it goes. This is important.

When she finally does submit even just a little bit, and moves away from you, praise her a lot. This is really tough work for a mare. This is one of those things‚ few mares are ever good at naturally.

Keep working at this for about 3 days. If you are doing it consistently then you will find a difference in the first day. While she may still challenge you each time, she should eventually submit over time.

Don’t change how you do this work if she doesn’t submit quickly. Keep it up and be consistent. This is the key to training horses. Too many horse owners get emotional and quit too early. Think of it this way – hold a piece of string between your two hands. The left hand represents the start of the training, and the right hand represents the end of the training; where you want the horse to be. Your training at this moment is somewhere on the timeline‚ of this string. But you don’t know where that place is exactly on the string. It could be at either end. So, don’t give up. It may be at the right hand.

A good trainer always believes he is at the right hand, even if it takes longer than expected.

And the smallest try is a very big thing to a horse.

Ask Thea to move about a step at a time at first, then a quarter turn each time as she progresses, and always praise her. The moment she lowers her head and moves away, love on her as much as she will take. Lowering the head is a huge sign of submission. You are almost there! So, ask her to move a step, and when she does, move forward a few steps, then ask for another step away from you, move forward, and eventually ask for more steps away from you. Build up the process.

For the first day, keep this up for as long as it takes and when she is submitting somewhat (or if she is submitting well) take her to the saddle up area. Begin to saddle, and keep the girth loose but safe, in case she moves. Keep a watch on her reaction at first to the girth. Get the bridle and everything else done, then move her from the area. Stop again, tighten about one notch or hole, and move her again.

Try not to tie her up. Keep the lead either on the ground or draped over the post. I never tie up a horse tightly. I train them to ‘want’ to stand and stay, and if I do have to contain a horse I don’t know, I will drape the lead around a post for one turn, so that if the horse pulls back they can get free. I am fortunately faster than they are, and can grab the lead. You want her to have the freedom to express her dislike, and you want to set up the situation where she can learn the lesson. Tying her will only restrict her from learning.

If she turns her head to snap at you, bring that left hand up as fast as you can to match her speed. Let her bump into it, and when she does, and she moves away again, just stand quietly with her and let her soak in what just happened.

Then try to bring the girth up one more notch. Move slowly but confidently. Again, repeat the process with your hand up and let her smack into it. When she puts her head back again, praise her and stand quietly to let her soak this lesson up.

If Thea does her little hop and jump routine after the girth has been taken up one notch, move her away from you in a circle quickly. This will make her little routine uncomfortable, and she will get the idea eventually that every time she hops about and gets emotional, she has to work at something. They come down pretty quick when there’s a job attached to a behavior (this is something to remember – if you want your horse to settle down or chill out, give the horse a job and make him do it quickly). Do not reprimand her for hopping – you don’t need to ever punish a horse. All you have to do is replace behavior you don’t want with behavior you do want.

The process you do with leading and moving her away from you will help you with the saddling issue. We often solve horse behavior problems correctly by teaching them another method. You don‚t have to fix a saddling issue with a saddling solution. Often the solutions lie in other methods and areas. The reason for this is that most problems are a result of a hole in the horse’s training. All we are doing here is going back to groundwork foundations and re-establishing good manners. When confronted with a sudden problem, go back, not forward. Horse issues are always about holes.

Don’t expect a miracle the first week or so. Mares like this will take time to come around. If you are consistent and patient, you will learn something very valuable that horse training often takes a lot of time, but the rewards are so amazing.

Question: Hi, I have a colt 17 mths, I have recently purchased who is sweet and friendly until it comes to feed time, when he becomes very bad tempered. He barges me out of the way with his shoulder with his ears back, and turns his rear to me and kicks out, he has got me once and it hurt. I am now scared of him, which I know is what he wants. If I smack him with the carrot stick it makes him more angry and he reverses to me to kick. If I keep him on a lead short enough so he can’t reach me  I can’t drive him away. I don’t know what to do.

I have rehabbed nervous horses before very successfully but I have never dealt with a dominant confident colt before. He shows these tendencies when I ask him to move away, I think because he has had no education before and doesn’t understand what I am asking.

What should I be expecting of a 17 month old?

Please tell me what I should do. This is usually only round feed time, rest of the time he is sweet and follows me round and is starting to see me as his friend. I have owned him a week. Thanks.

Answer from April Reeves: To start off, what anyone should expect from a 17-month colt is respect and obedience, especially from a colt (uncastrated male) as they have all their hormones and are just about ready to discover them.

Respect and obedience come from you being the dominant herd member (end result). You are at a tipping point for getting there, especially if you want to make the colt a stallion one day. I find that if you want to keep a young horse a stallion, and you know this from the start, the work begins from birth. Otherwise, gelding will help with his aggression (but not his manners).

We will go over training techniques, but there are a few issues I want to address before training, as they are key issues to a horse’s behavior that almost no one asks. Before you begin a long training program, ask these questions first:

Feed: is his food making him aggressive? You can alter the hotter attitudes by adjusting the sugars and carbs in your feed. Oats, sweet feeds and cheap pellets can turn a nice horse into an idiot. Horses are just like us; some are sensitive, some are not. Also, when and how you feed makes a difference. I always free feed hay to my horses. And because of this I have consistent rides and happy animals. You may want to think about this first.

Confinement: How much time does he get to run and exercise? Play with friends? This is social behavior that cannot be ignored. Many horses are not able to ‘blow out’ the steam on a daily basis and can begin to express that frustration through aggressive and unruly behavior. Some horses can handle confinement and some can’t – make sure you know if and how this may affect him.

If both feed and confinement are not part of the problem, then it’s on to training. I am going to send you a link for groundwork that I have on my blog: http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

Read that over – it’s full of useful information to get you up and rolling. I also have a great video series from Jay O’Jay on Horseman’s U.com: http://www.horsemansu.com/jay_ojay_video_roundpen Jay works in a roundpen, but many of the techniques work anywhere.

I hope this helps you, and do take a look at the other video and articles. It’s not always easy to read and then try to remember and ‘do’ – you often need a visual to really understand the theory. The video will help you.

Regarding feed times, I just posted an article about why horses get nasty. Here’s a direct link to the article:

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/horse-feeding-aggressive/

Question: I bought a 4yr old tbx gelding 3 months ago and am concerned by his behavior. He was initially very stubborn to lunge (he would rear and refuse to go out on a circle) but I managed to get him going well within a week or two. He was very friendly and easy to handle on the ground. Then I began to ride him (he was only backed at this point). He has been riding really well and learning quickly. I’ve been careful to praise him a lot and have not had much need to scold him. Then suddenly he changed. I rode him and he refused to go forwards, instead cowkicking and bucking whenever I put my leg on. He’s also started to kick out violently when asked to move over in his stable! Out of the stable, he will move over fine! The only changes I have made are bringing him in overnight and feeding him! please help! Im scared of my 17hh youngster!

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: I’ll be honest: this is a problem for a professional that is not scared. From here, it will take a very firm hand, and a very brave heart.

Somewhere in your training, the horse got the impression that the roles between you two had been reversed. You are at where you are because somehow, somewhere, you lost the dominant position. Getting it back may not be easy.

Just a side note – I never start any horse with an English saddle. I always use a western saddle. It is safer and will help you with your confidence when something does go wrong.

Where it may have started is during groundwork. All too often we move quickly into it, and find our horse is pretty good, so we move quickly to the riding, and skip past the groundwork or leave it out entirely. For any horse about to be broke, this is not a great idea, as it often takes many months to secure the relationship between horse and rider from the ground. I will work on the ground for 3-4 months before riding, and when I begin to ride, I add it to the list of the work I am already doing, not replace it. If it’s a horse I intend to keep, I will continue to do groundwork before many of our rides for the rest of our time together.

One of the purposes to groundwork is to ‘hunt for bugs’ – those little quirks to the horse’s personality that will come out eventually. You may not find it in the first few months of groundwork, and you may not find it in the first 20 rides, but it’s there, waiting. Those quirks may not be much at all – a smell the horse does not like; a sound, what ever. Some horses act up for a moment and then get back to brain, while others lose their brain entirely. Just when you think you know the horse, they fool you.

In your case you have found a rather large intimidating ‘bug’ that needs the help of a professional. If you let it go, you will have a horse that could hurt you quite seriously one day.

I had a similar experience not long ago. I rode a horse for the first 10 rides, and everything was wonderful. I thought he was the best little horse going. Then one day, I had to push him. He was always a bit ‘sticky’ (where they won’t move forward quick enough from the leg). One day he was very sticky, so he got spanked.

And the rodeo show was on.

First thing he did was rear (typical of a sticky horse) and then buck. This little horse was not just bucking, but pinning his ears flat back on his head, with a challenge I have not seen in a horse for a very, very long time. Unfortunately the owner did not want the horse to ever know what bucking was about, so she immediately shut the whole thing down. The next day, we only walked around with the owner leading the horse and me riding – big mistake #1. Big mistake #2 was not letting me do the groundwork at the front end, or letting me handle the horse the way I needed to.

When you come across these larger problems, you need to get on them quickly and efficiently. Sometimes it’s not pretty and you have to get after and spank Fluffy, but the horse must know that this behavior is inappropriate, and it must be done right away.

Also, when you pay for a professional to work with your horse, you must trust his/her judgment. They know what to do and what needs to be done. If you choose this route, and I hope you do, please search out a qualified trainer with a good track record.

What will likely happen is the horse will undergo a few days of groundwork to engage the thinking part of the horse’s brain (we have to teach this to the horse – it’s not his natural instinct). In order to get a 17 hand horse over rearing and kicking, the trainer will have to be a bit more forceful than what you may like. During groundwork, the horse must be asked to move – all the time. The horse should be asked to change direction often, and to move out on request. They should get to the point where they become a bit winded, as their brain often kicks in when they are tired, and they surrender to the training.

Once the horse is thinking and listening with obedience (and only then) it’s time to get on. If the horse pins it’s ears and challenges me at any time, we continue to do groundwork until the horse is listening and obedient. For the first ride, the only thing the trainer will do is to teach one single lesson – move forward with obedience. That is it. That will be the whole lesson.

This is about teaching the horse to be responsible for his gaits. You should never have to use leg all the time to keep a horse in a gait. There is no need to do this, but it is a habit that far too many English instructors continue to teach and ride.

For most young horses, they take to this eagerly, but if your horse is sticky and challenges you, it becomes a tougher job. Once the trainer gets your horse moving forward, he/she must keep the horse going. The horse can trot slower or fast, but must stay in the trot gait, not a walk or a canter. If he gets sticky and won’t move forward, and I suspect he will, the trainer will have to get after him without using leg. Leg won’t work – the horse is too young to understand it, and if the horse does not listen by the third attempt, the horse won’t listen to any leg pressure beyond that anyway. I use the reins and slap them behind me on the hindquarters to drive the horse forward. The further back you ask for power, the more power you will get.

This is where it may get rough. Your horse may rise to the challenge, and it will take a good trainer to move the horse out and get the horse out of the sticky pattern he is in. This takes timing and courage.

If you choose to do this yourself, I would suggest you read my article on my blog that outlines in detail, the groundwork and saddle work you need to do for foundation training:

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

As for the kicking out in the stall, you must get on this right away. You will have to either find someone who is comfortable with the timing of reprimanding him, or try it yourself, but you will have to mean business and not nag him, or you will have a worse problem. If the horse uses ten pounds of pressure, fight back with fifteen. When I get a big horse like this, they only kick at me once. I get after them only once, and I mean it. They never forget it. Sometimes you just have to spank Fluffy.

If you work with him in the stall and he kicks, you may get pinned in the stall. I would take him out, do a lot of groundwork with him and make sure you can touch him everywhere. If he even pins his ears and postures to kick, even in the smallest way, get after him aggressively. Do it once and mean business. I will send a horse back on his hind end by using a small dressage whip at his chest, and while it may look rough, I never have to do it twice. I want that horse to stand up and pay attention to me, not wait for the right moment to take me out. You are in control here, not the horse. Once you tie into him and send him back, let him stand for a moment and soak in what just happened. Let the horse move back with all the freedom he needs. I like to let the lead drop to the ground with me holding just the end. This allows the horse to stand free for a moment after the ‘lesson’, much like a reward with a lesson attached. Once the horse is chewing or licking his lips, I will take him back to what I was originally doing. Often they will retest you to see if you meant it. If the horse is just fishing, I usually just have to posture, but with a larger horse, I will send him right back on his hind end again, and let him soak it in for another moment.

Normally I would suggest looking the horse over for any broken bones or soreness, but it seems to be that this is more of a case of an owner not dealing with a problem correctly from the start, and because he is so big, it escalated very quickly.

Big horses are interesting to ride, but they come with challenges that are also larger. In order to deal with them, you often have to become larger yourself and rise to the challenges you may come across.

Another thing you might want to reconsider is his feed. Many horses change their attitudes with specific feeds and grains. Like us, they are sensitive and may have reactions and allergies to various products. You may have to do some research on this. I have a big AQHA gelding and like you, went through an agonizing period of groundwork and help to get this horse’s brain engaged. He was extremely challenging, and although I had help from 3 of the top Natural Horsemen, they all missed one vital ingredient to a horses temperament: feed. I spent a long time researching feed. I now feed this horse extruded (they look like dog food) with ground flax, Triple Crown vitamins and Farrier’s Formula for his crappy quarter horse feet. He is free fed hay, and has become a very quiet, well mannered individual. I like to free feed hay as it takes the anxiety out of feed time, and I always have a consistent ride. While groundwork helped, it was the feed in the end that settled the horse down into what I wanted from the start. To this day, I have never come across a horse as challenging and difficult as this one was, but if you stick to it, you will learn things very few horse owners will ever know, and it is one of the most rewarding experiences you will have. I would never trade my experience with this horse for anything.

I hope you find a professional to help you with the horse. I have outlined a program I use, but it may not be what they will do. However, make sure that the trainer does have the ability and courage to see this through. You can’t negotiate with your horse through kind words. I’m just keeping it real.

Question: Hi there like you I have a reputation for riding and re-training horses that are deemed dangerous untrainable or non ridable however I have just bought a lovely ex-racehorse who is terrified of life. He has been completely checked over from head to toe and there is nothing physically wrong with him however he trembles if he sees his tack, rears when being bridled and has progressed to rearing and going over with his current rider. I am bringing him home tomorrow and plan on riding him as he was great when I tried him out. He did try to rear but got a good boot and a slap on the bum with my stick and sent fowards and then he went lovely.

I believe he just needs a firm hand but am concerned for his well-being mentally as his tack terrifies him and his rearing has already broken bones of his previous rider.

It would be great if you could give me your insight as to the possible cause of his fears and how you would rectify the situation.

He will not be sold on as I believe he has had a rough enough life, so I expect him to work, and after an initial tantrum was a well behaved, well balanced horse. Thanks for your time.

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: When you get a horse like this, unless you dig and ask questions you will never know the history that made the horse what he is today. On the other hand, does it matter?

I try to assess how chronic the problems are. That alone tells me how long the horse has had the problems. And how long it will take to change them.

You have a set of problems that will take skill, but more importantly, time. I’ll start with rearing. I have found that horses rear for a variety of reasons, and some of those reasons are easy to deal with and solve. I just worked on a horse that reared every time the owner went to get on. He was graceful and eloquent about it, with no real intent to hurt anyone. When I got on him, he reared, and promptly got smacked on the hind legs. He shot forward, shook his head, and has never reared again. I can only assess that the horse was ‘trained’ to do this, unintentionally, but the previous owner likely trained this horse to rear without realizing she was doing this.

You however seem to have a horse that rears from fear. This is a long process, and one that I would suggest you spend tons of time with. Not just time in training, but just being with the horse, handling, brushing, walking (I find this a huge benefit, just to walk a horse somewhere) and moving around the barn, in and out of stalls, up and down aisle ways, back up into spaces, you get the picture.

This horse needs to know you will not put him in harm’s way, which is what the history of the horse is, and what has put him where he is now.  Somewhere in his history, someone did something to him on a continual basis to cause enough anxiety for him to fight for his life.

Think of your job, for the immediate future, to be the person who allows him to trust again. Take this into everything you do with him. Do not attempt to do anything that scares him. If he rears to bridle, don’t bridle him. Instead take his halter on and off a dozen times a day until he is comfortable with it. If he hates tack, bring it out and put it on the fence near him, but don’t do anything with it for a few days. Once his eye looks soft when the tack comes out, just put the saddle pad on him every day, on and off, until his eye is soft again.

This is so important to read the horse through all of this. Great trainers are not magic; they just pay attention to these details and work according to them. Training is not in the big things we do, like teaching spins and stops. It is in the way we listen. And when you have a fearful horse, you pay close attention to this, or get injured.

You can speed through all of the training and work you do by listening. If I can offer any advice, this is the most important, especially with this boy. There are the horses I love to work with the most, as they demand that you pay attention and be fair. You can also turn some really damaged animals into brilliant working partners. The speed at which you do this is determined by you. If you are paying attention, the horse will reciprocate.

I never come out with a set agenda each day when working with fearful horses. I let the horse tell me what we will work with next. I always set the horse up for success. This means that should we be walking somewhere, say around the arena, (this is just an example) and there is a spooky corner with a purple jump in it, and the horse’s head shoots up, I immediately turn him around and walk away. Why would I do that? Their basic instinct is to approach and retreat. They will do this several times to see if the purple jump will eat them. Once they realize the jump is dead, they accept, and often move right up to it and investigate.

It is important that you allow the horse this natural instinct with everything you do. When the horse begins to panic, take him away from the source. Eventually he will begin to trust that you will not put him in harm’s way, and you will have a willing partner that few horsemen on this planet have discovered.

When I bring a horse into an arena, no matter how long we have worked in that place, I still walk them around the perimeter first, either on foot or in the saddle – if they are more mature and stable. It tells me a story I need to know before I begin the day with them. If the purple jump could attack at any moment on a particular day, I avoid the area, working in the quiet places, and slowly move into larger circles until the horse realizes the purple monster is still dead. This is how they think: this is how you must think too. I always shake my head at people who force their horses into spooky situations, and then get after them aggressively if the horse panics. You won’t win. If you ask the horse gently but firmly, and the horse still won’t accept, you either need to use the approach/retreat method or go back and get the trust of that horse before you go there again.

As far as fear of tack, make sure everything fits properly. Check for dry spots after a ride; they are not areas where the saddle does not sit – they are areas where the saddle sits and pinches hard enough to block sweat glands, and eventually will erode muscle tissue and atrophy the muscles in the area, which are not recoverable.

I find that once a horse realizes I will not put him in harm’s way, I can do almost anything with him. When most trainers work only on the direct problem, I gain trust and correct all the problems at once. Problems are not singular unto themselves; they are all part of one systemic problem, usually fear or spoiled behavior.

It’s like taking a pill for a headache. Find the source of the headache, fix that, and you will find a whole bunch of other problems disappear also.

I also let fearful horses be just horses; put him out with another buddy for a few hours a day to enjoy a run and eat some grass. When you are stressed, the last thing you want to do is go back to work. Sometimes you need that short vacation to clear your head and refocus. This is one area where horse and human are similar.

I don’t know how old the horse is, but if he is 3 or younger, I would give him at least 6 months off from seeing any bridle or saddle. I believe, with OTTB’s, that they need this time to get their brain back. I have rehabbed many of them, and the time I left them alone turned them into better horses. Call it an ‘extended vacation’.

So, words of wisdom to you – do not push any issue. Take the time it takes. Allow him to set the pace. Pay attention. Watch his eye; it tells the story. Set him up for success. Firmness is not aggressive. Go for trust first before you ride. And – lots of groundwork.

I hope you enjoy him and become one of the few in this world that experience what it’s truly like to connect with a fearful horse. It’s one of the most rewarding things you will ever do.

Question: My horse is mean at feeding time. She pins her ears back and lunges at the hay in my hands. Yesterday she bit me. I can’t even put grain in her stall any more without her attacking me. Help.

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: First, let’s understand the psychology behind why a horse reacts this way.

While it seems like a lack of manners (human explanation), it originates from the horse’s natural instincts and self-preservation. When all the food is gone, the horse does not know if and when the next meal will arrive. If he is behind a fence or locked in a stall, he now has to deal with not only the stress of having no food, but also the stress of how to get out to find more food.

Along you come, hay in hand, and nicely present it to the horse. This is how the human sees the picture.

Along you come, hay in hand – “I must grab it away from this lesser herd member as fast as I can, as I am the dominant herd member and control the food, and if they don’t surrender fast enough, I will have to bite and kick”. That is how the horse views the situation.

When you lay down feed in the horse’s space, you are surrendering your portion of the meal. Surrender in a horse’s world means that they are dominant and you are below on the pecking order. They don’t know you don’t eat hay. They only know that they do. So you, the human, begin a process of ‘training’ your horse (inadvertently) to display ‘bad manners’ (human explanation), dominance and aggression, by dropping the food as quickly as possible and getting out of the stall before you get killed.

So your problem is that you have surrendered your position of authority to your mare. What you need to do is re-establish the order.

Take a long crop with you into her stall, and a very small amount of grain in a small pail. As you enter, stay close to the door (as it may be an escape route if she turns to kick) and when she comes into your space, promptly use the crop on her chest or shoulder to get her to move back. Do it once and mean it. Don’t nag the horse. She may bolt back into the corner. She may barely move at all. If she doesn’t move, you nagged her. You need to get the message across clearly. Once she gets back, stand there quietly for a second or two, and put a small handful of grain in her bucket. Watch her feet and movements very closely, and when she barely begins to move up to eat it, bring the crop up to her eye level. Do not hit her with it. It is her warning to only approach when you are ready to leave the food. This is what a dominant herd member will do. They will eat their fill and leave the remainder to the herd, but until they are ready, they posture with their feet and head. Your crop is your extended foot.

Once she backs up the second time, and you wait another second or two, walk out and let her eat quietly. Once she is finished, take a few minutes and go back in and repeat. Do this a few times until she backs up when you enter with food. She may still pin her ears and look annoyed, but if she is surrendering to the aggressive ‘in your space’ attitude, that may be all you can expect from a mare, especially if she is older. Just remember that what you need to accomplish is that your mare displays subordinate behavior when you enter, and that she stays subordinate until you leave.

When I get a horse to consistently surrender, all I need to do from then on is to bring my hand up, and in a rhythmical motion, ask the horse to stay out of my space until I am ready to leave. If I find the horse gets pushy again, I will bring both hands up and move the horse back. You make yourself ‘bigger’ by doing this.

There are times when you just have to spank Fluffy, so don’t be too upset if this is what is asked of you. Horses are big animals with a great deal of power, and can do serious damage to a human. I have had clients get cornered by their horses, bitten and kicked multiple times before they escaped over the wall or through the door. Horses will attack each other with some pretty tough aggression, so a hard swat once in a while may be the only way to get the message across as one herd member to another.

Horses eat 24/7. They are on the move during this time, searching for food. We restrict both of these natural instincts, and then wonder why our horses react the way they do. In order to understand a horse, you must learn to think like one.

We really have no idea, for the most part, of the stress we put on our horses. Feeding is a basic need in all of us, yet we fail to realize how primitive our equine friends are when it comes to these needs. Perhaps in a few thousand years from now, the horse may be evolved enough to be able to make those judgments for himself, but today, it is up to us to keep his life balanced naturally, and stress free.

Question: I have a Quarab mare and one main bad habit she has, is that she is herd bound. The people we got her from kept her out in the pasture with 6 other horses all the time and so now she doesn’t like it when I take my miniature horse away. She doesn’t usually care when I separate her from my miniature horse, but she cannot stand me taking my miniature horse away. I have been working with her on it, taking my mini horse away and walking her back and taking her farther and walking back, just so Twinkle (my horse) knows I will bring Sophie (mini horse) back.
We have a fence up and Twinkle is separated from Sophie but they can still talk and see each other. We had to recently put up a hot wire fence as well because Twinkle was leaning on the fence and trying to walk it, getting her legs stuck in the fence, which it is also good because she doesn’t freak out, she waits patiently for us to get her untied. I was wondering if there is any possible way I can get her to stop being herd bound? She is getting better but I still worry about the fence and her getting hurt.

I also have recently started riding her english. I want to be able to do cross-country and show jumping with her and if we work hard enough, possibly learn some dressage techniques. One bad thing, is that the previous owners galloped her a lot, so a lot of times she wants to run, run, run, or she doesn’t listen to my leg commands. If I ask her to trot, she will either burst into a gallop or trot for a second then go faster. I would like for her to be a better horse for English. She can be impatient and doesn’t listen well to “whoa” or only a “walk” or “trot” command. I will be getting a new English bit because the one I have for her does not work, she doesn’t respect it, but I would love for her to be a better well-behaved horse. I wasn’t sure if I could help get her to listen to my commands and whether or not I can train her to only trot when asked.

Is there a way I can train her myself, or is a professional trainer a better idea? We don’t have a lot of money for a professional trainer, but her and I having a great bond through english riding and my dream of jumping to happen.

Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: I first want to address the fence issue. No fence should allow a horse to get tangled. Although your horse is quiet about it right now, it’s a matter of time when that changes, and you lose the horse from serious leg injuries. I have a saying, “that horse never died before”.

Herd bound issues can only be altered by two choices: 1. Take the horses completely away from each other, or 2. Go through an extensive program of groundwork so that the horse is of the understanding that when she is with you, she is to put her full concentration on you, not the other herd members. This is an issue of trust.

While jumping and cross-country is a great discipline to learn, it all stems from dressage. A horse must have skills under saddle before embarking over jumps as a career, so while you put dressage at the end, it really goes to the front. For instance, when approaching a fence, and the horse is not pacing itself to take that fence nicely, you have to be able to either move the horse out or set him back in order to change his striding for a smoother jump. Dressage training helps you deal with this and other challenges before you consider going over fences.

It sound like you are at the beginning with a horse that doesn’t have a basic foundation. Your job over the next year is to put that on her first before any jumping or dressage happens.

Horse training is like school. You start at home, learning from your Mom and Dad, then on to kindergarten, where you get to interact with other kids and play with new toys and gadgets. Then on to grade 1 and each year, you progress one more until grade 12. From grade 12 you decide what to do with your life now that you have a ‘basic’ education.

Horse training is the same. Your horse is barely in kindergarten right now. Once she has groundwork established, she will be in grade 2. Grade 3 is foundation work under saddle, where she will learn aids singularly, and her response times will improve, until grade 7. Then on to more intensive work, where the aids are now being asked in ‘groups’ and the horse is now showing some sign of what she can do. (We all have plans for our horse, and we ride them in the future, but we miss the point of what our horse wants to do or can do. Show jumping and cross-country is a sport for horses with heart and bone. In order to do it well, they are usually bred for it, if higher levels are your goal. You will be able to learn the process at a lower level with your mare to see if it is something that you will want to continue with. It takes intense work and training 7 days a week, and a dedication to the sport like no other.)

Once a horse is soft and supple, light to the aids and obedient, the horse is at grade 12 and ready to move into a discipline. Regardless of English or Western riding, all horses move through their training program this way. I use the ‘grade’ system as it gets the message across well, but you can call it levels or what ever. The point is, there is a process, and when you miss steps in the process, your horse has problems down the road, as she is not equipped to deal with those problems.

There are many good articles on my blog April Reeves Horse Training (aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com). There are good video’s on groundwork with Jay O’Jay on Horseman’s U (horsemansu.com) also. There you will get a good start on what and how of groundwork and foundation saddle work.

There are good exercises in my blog articles for your problems with her running off, and not listening to leg commands.

When a horse doesn’t listen, it is not the horse. It is the rider not having consistency with the way you ask. This is training you have to get, not the horse. Find a qualified coach in your area and even if you just get one lesson a month, tell the coach you want to be given enough work for that month until the next lesson. I set up lots of students with this method, as many of my students are a days drive away. A good coach can do this for you.

Also, changing bits is not a matter of the horse not respecting the bit. Again, it always comes down to the rider’s ability to send the correct message to the horse. A harder bit is not the answer, and will only serve to make the condition worse. When a horse has problems in a bit, I will move into the softest bit I can find, and work from there. There are many training techniques in foundation training that do not require any bit pressure at all, and they get the responses you need.

So for you, if you truly want to work with your horse, find a coach before you take your horse to a trainer. I believe that people should learn to work with their horses. If you have someone else train her, you will only be wasting money as you will revert back to old habits and lose the training you paid for. You need to learn to ride and use aids consistently, along with timing, plus groundwork for herd bound issues.

Try not to get into the trap of English versus Western when training. The horse does not know the difference (other than the feel of the saddle) and if you get stuck on being ‘English’, you will miss valuable information. Training is training, and if it has value and solves your problems, it does not matter what discipline it belongs to. Do not hesitate to watch top western professionals; there is much to be learned from them for the English rider.

Read and watch other professionals. The internet is full of fools, but if you search for skilled people by first typing their names, then add ‘horse’ to the end of it, and you don’t find their names on almost every entry on the first page of Google, they may not be the best ones to follow and learn from.

These are a few trainers I would suggest, and while some of them are western, the horse does not know the difference. It is the lesson that is important.

Clinton Anderson, Jay O’Jay, Ken McNabb, Raye Lochert (groundwork, western saddle work), Lynn Palm, Julie Goodnight, Jane Savoie (dressage). These people all have good video on YouTube to watch, especially Jane Savoie, who has generously added real value to her video with tips and techniques you usually have to pay for.

I hope you take the time to study and learn horsemanship. It sounds like you have a really nice mare waiting for you to have fun with. Mares are my favorite, as they turn into exceptional horses when you get a good one.

Question: I’m a little confused about the timing for changing bits. I have been using an O ring snaffle for almost 2 years. My gelding is 5. He knows basic stuff – stop, forward, turns and I can ride him on the road and trails. I may want to show him some day and I know I can’t ride him in a snaffle for western. How do I transition into a harder bit? When do I do that?

Answer from April Reeves: Thanks for the good question. I suspect lots of riders are at this crossroad.

If you never plan to show your horse, I see no real reason to move into any bit with shanks.

Horses should be able to perform every movement you want without changing bits, as long as you have kept the horse light and responsive; in other words, a trained mouth. In western, they should be able to stop, slide, turn, rollback, spin, change leads, neck rein, rate speed, stay between the reins, cut cattle and anything else you want him to do.

In English, they should be able to stop, turn, rollback, change leads, neck (bearing) rein from pressure, stay between the reins, change gaits and speed, jump, engage and elevate with connection and the beginnings of collection.

Once you move into a bit with shanks you begin to refine what the horse already knows. Along with understanding hand to bit aids, and being obedient through each movement, the horse should have some degree of safety to his personality. I don’t like to see a hot horse with a spooky, unpredictable attitude, move into a tougher bit to calm him down, even though he may be well trained.

So to answer the ‘when’ part, when the horse has met the above conditions, he is ready for refining into a shank bit.

What bit is simply a matter of being able to try various shank lengths and mouthpieces. Below is a short list of bits I like (or don’t) and how they work.

Tom thumb Bit

Tom thumb snaffle – don’t own one, never will, don’t like them and this is why. They provide just enough pressure to peck and poke at the mouth without giving true, direct communication.

Shank bits are meant to be direct in what they ask the horse to do. Tom Thumb bits do not have this ability. They confuse the horse, and they have no place in my tack room.

‘S’ shanks – as long as they have a solid mouthpiece, I don’t mind the shorter

S Shank bit

shank, but again, if they have a broken snaffle mouth and short shanks, I have no purpose for them. Otherwise, they are good choices to start with.

Shank lengths – again, if the mouthpiece is solid, I can try a shorter shank, and when the shank gets longer, I will experiment with broken and solid mouthpieces.

The Curb bit

Curb mouthpieces – most horses work in a curb of various sizes and shapes. You may want to try a Mullen mouth; they have a gentle lift in the middle, to accommodate the tongue.

When I drive or need to use a Pelham, I like to use a straight bar mouthpiece. I have had good response from them especially on horses that could not handle high ports.

Higher ports – there is purpose in high ports. They give very direct communication, and are for very

Mona Lisa Mouthpiece

trained horses and riders (although all shank bits are).

When you get into high ports with copper rollers and covered fronts (see first photo), you are now asking something very specific to the horse. While they appear to be ‘evil’ or for hard mouthed horses, the opposite is true. They help to keep a horse vertical and soft, as when the horse elevates his head, the weight of the bit naturally puts pressure on the upper palate of the mouth, and encourages the horse to drop his head. There is no need for the rider to add rein pressure; the bit does the work for you, if the horse is soft and educated.

These are my favorite bits to show in. I have had 5 that I have used on almost every horse I have shown throughout the years. Their sizes vary, a few shanks are longer, but the mouthpieces are mostly the same. It is the rare horse that won’t accept them.

Twisted wire snaffle bit

Twisted and chain mouthpieces – I have used twisted mouthpieces in the past, but that was the past, and they now collect dust in a corner. I may find a horse that could use it for the odd tune-up, but that would be the only purpose for it, and the tune-up would only last for one ride. Chain mouthpieces are just plain cruel. Get lessons.

Myler bits – if you don’t know what Myler bits are, go to their site (Mylerbits.com) and get educated. They have some very well made shank bits with interchangeable mouthpieces. Some tack stores have a rental program that allows you to try the bit.

Chain Mouthpiece

Do be warned, and I need to repeat this, they are meant to be in skilled hands on educated horses.

When it comes to advanced bits, you often have to experiment a lot. If you have worked a lot of horses in your lifetime, you get to know what the horse will transition into. There is no science to it; it’s trial and error.

Don’t just put a new bit on your horse and get on. Stand on the ground beside him and pick up the reins. Ask him to give laterally, and bend both sides laterally. Watch how the horse releases to the pressure. If the chin strap is too tight try adjusting it until it’s not too loose or too tight.  When you do mount for the first time, stand there for a minute and do the same exercises before walking away.

Don’t try gag bits; they are for riders who either have no interest in learning how to get a horse soft and educated properly, or for riders who have a high degree of ability and softness and control; Professionals. These bits only exacerbate the problem in the wrong hands. You need to address the source and fix it.

Futurity bit: one of my favorite for starting a horse

Keep your riding style the same when trying a new bit for the first time. You can scare a horse easily if you ride rougher in a harsher bit, and set yourself back in your training. If I think the horse is not ready that day for the transition, I listen to that. If it’s windy and all the horses have lost their brains that morning, I will wait. I would rather they lose their brain in a snaffle.

As for how long to ride in this new bit once you found one – I like to use them about once a week or so. I use them for shows mostly, and continue to work in the snaffle, especially when I take the horse out on trails. I have not found a reason to ride a horse full time in one once they are familiar and comfortable with their advanced bit, other than the odd reining horse.

So, to recap, keep your horse in a snaffle for most of his life. Use a bit stronger snaffle such as a twisted wire to tune him up once in a while, for one lesson (unless you are not good with your hands, or inexperienced). Use a shank bit once a week or when he needs to be reminded of it, especially before a show.

I also think from your question, that you have a bit more training to do before you make the transition. I feel you may have some holes in your training.

Question: Can I use a chain on my horse? When I lead him, he pulls his head down to eat anything on the ground. It’s killing my arms to try and pull him up all the time. He leads with his head on the ground sniffing for food.

Answer from April Reeves: In my world, a chain is a way of saying “I’m not willing to take the time and learn the proper way, so just give me a quick solution”. The other problem with them, is that once the chain comes off, the horse usually reverts back to old behavior. They know the difference. They’re not stupid.

I am concerned about why the horse is constantly looking for food. Either it’s a habit formed over a long time, or this horse needs more groceries, or possible free feeding. That is for you to decide, unless you want to send me photos.

If you want a horse that’s easy to lead, you need to learn how to train for groundwork. Without it, you will fight with him your entire life. Another thing to consider, and I consider this the most important, is that a horse that pulls you around on the lead will also continue that behavior under saddle. You need to understand that groundwork leads to a better saddle horse.

There is nothing simpler than teaching a horse to lead properly, yet one of the most denied form of education a rider gives his/her mount. You can change difficult habits in minutes by changing your habits and actions, and being consistent with your training.

I have many articles on this blog regarding groundwork, and I suggest you look them over, study them and use them. Just type in ‘groundwork’ in the search box. The best article is ‘Basic groundwork and saddle work for the herd bound horse’.

I also have a great video series by Jay O’Jay on Horseman’s U.com. Follow this link:

Horseman’s U.com: Jay O’Jay Roundpen Techniques.

I hope you take the time to learn and grow with your horse.