• Marketing Your Stable and Equine Business
• Equine locomotion
• Video and instruction on developing and building an equestrian center: how Horseman’s U, the facility, will be created.

Plus, April Reeves is moving to a new farm: details to come early next year on the location. The property will boast Eventing/cross country courses, including water obstacles, banks, ditches and permanent/non-permanent fences, permanent agility course, 2 roundpens (for ponies and warmbloods), jumping arena (so you don’t have to put the jumps away all the time), large all purpose sand arena (reining/sliding), pathway around perimeter of property, other open sand/grass/mixed rings and practice areas, and the ability to ride all around the entire property in the day! We’ll host week/days/day long intensive workshops and clinics for Western and English/Jumping riders, events, free riding days for trailer-ins,  and much more!

This site will remain the same, as it serves as a valuable resource for those seeking answers. Please continue to send in your questions and April will try to answer them.

If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see/read/watch on Horseman’s U.com please let us know! Hope to see some of you at the new facility next year!

We’re keeping the location a secret for now (simply because we haven’t quite bought it yet), but once we’re in, we’ll have a contest for the ones that can guess the location. Stay tuned for details!

Answer from April Reeves: Rescuing a horse is never a mistake, but he is a colt, he is young and you are green. That is the only mistake. Unfortunately, it’s a big one, if you cannot find someone with really great credentials to help you. They need to be there physically to show you how to work with him. I can help from this end but this type of situation needs a hand that’s not afraid or lacking confidence.

Let’s go over some of the issues you have at the immediate moment.

Carrots are okay; they contain beta-carotene, a necessary part of a horse’s diet. Bread however is deadly. Sugar is as well. Trade these for apples: they change the pH levels in the hindgut and create an environment that parasites cannot grow eggs in. An apple a day goes a long way to keeping horses healthy. Simple is often better. He will need to eat grass or a quality hay 24/7. Make sure he has either at all times. And full access to clean water.

Always think, when feeding horses: Is the food indigenous to the horse (would he find it in the wild?). Horses of North America are not going to find rice, tropical fruits, bread (processed foods) in their natural habitat. While many will argue that horses are “able” to digest these, I disagree. We often use “human” reasoning to come to conclusions, but when you take a close look at an animal that’s 55 Million years old, you are not going to change that physiology and habitual structure over night, or within a few breedings. And when you consider that horses today are prone to more diseases than ever before, at alarming rates, you have to stand back and ask, with wisdom first before knowledge, why that is.

I highly recommend Marijke van de Water’s book “Healing Horses Their Way.” It’s an approach to nutrition and health you won’t get from too many vets (although this is changing, finally!). This link will take you there.

Bullying for food: horses do not have the ability to understand that “you” are “giving” the food (varies with treats). What horses know, as their language (not ours) is that they are capable of “stealing” it from you (they steal from herd members). So once they know they can steal from you, you become subservient and low on the pecking order. Not good, as a colt will take over very quickly, and yes, you will get hurt.

Biting at your hand: this is a signal to end hand feeding. Feeding by hand: not recommended at the beginning stages. Until a horse knows there is a treat at the end of a work session, it’s never a good idea to feed a horse by hand. The only time I don’t apply this rule is during some intense training situations where I need to show the horse instantly that he did a good job. Otherwise, it’s taboo with this trainer. My horses know that when the treat is gone – don’t come looking for more.

There is a system of body language (as that is the language horses recognize) that will help you. I will post the links below. It’s important you get up to speed on them, as your body language speaks volumes to a young horse.

The raising of a head over another is the sign of domination. You can stop this colt and change his attitude quickly by making yourself “bigger”. You may want to work with this around him, especially at feeding time. I always carry a horseman’s stick or a heavy buggy whip or dressage crop. When the horse starts to raise his head at all, I lift my hands up as high as they will go. If the horse is big and can get over them, I bring the stick up as far as it will go. It’s a signal that they are not as dominant as they might like to be, and it’s the beginning to setting up the relationship between you two. I work with horses up to 18HH, so I have to get pretty big sometimes! Do not move your feet: the person that moves their feet loses the battle. Stand your ground (unless he turns to kick) and keep the hands and/or the stick up higher than he can go over. Eventually, and it’s often very quick, as in hours or days, he will stop doing it, and you may notice a change in attitude.

Again, there is other hand – body language you need to learn, and the links will be posted below.

The sound he makes with his mouth is, I’m assuming, a licking and chewing sound. It’s the sound a horse makes when his brain is in thinking mode, as opposed to instinct mode. They lick and chew because the brain area that’s working releases chemicals that create the licking and chewing. It’s a sign the horse is surrendering to the situation and is processing thoughts on it. However, being young, he can shift into instinct in a split second, so this “thinking” horse is temporary until a great deal of work is done to encourage the horse to think first before reacting.

Brushing and patting and being with him are very valuable. Horses need to know you are friendly as well as dominant. Far too many “trainers” use domination as the only methodology for training, but in the wild, horses recognize this as oppressive, and will eventually avoid other horses that are purely dominant. You need to show the horse that you are the boss but a friendly boss that he can rely on and feel safe with. We have destroyed our own society by losing the balance of this, especially with our kids. Horses are the same; they need to know what those boundaries are and that they are loved as well. As long as there is love, the “tough” love is understood. When love is gone, “tough love” turns to hate.

You may want to get him crop friendly; rub him with the crop or stick or whatever you are using to make yourself “bigger”. That way he will respect the “extension of your arm” and not fear it. There is no learning when horses are in fear.

One of my favorite “languages” I use with all my horses is the “follow me” sign. I stand in front of the horse facing him, and bend down slightly. I motion my hands to come forward and slowly back away. If they are on a halter and lead, I gently comb the lead with my hand, but not pull it: it is only suggesting they come forward.

When they begin to walk forward, I continue to back for a few steps, then stand up and raise my hands, palms flat to them, in a rhythmical gesture to stop. Once they stop, I bring my hands down, pause for one second, and walk in and pat them. Then I repeat the process. There are no treats for this lesson until the very last one. Always leave the lesson with a treat with horses that are learning this. Treat, and walk away immediately. They almost always follow you, and you are setting up the precursor to being caught easily.

Using your hands in a rhythmical motion will calm most horses and get them to start the thinking process. It’s not a mechanical motion; it’s rhythm, as in a song or a dance. Many use their bodies and hands mechanically and get nowhere. But your hands are a highly tuned instrument; capable of sending information to them. We are all bodies of energy, and horses are highly sensitive to this. I believe that is our connection to them.

Once your little guy has figured out he cannot bring his head over you, you can begin to use your hands to move him. You won’t need to touch him at all: the rhythmical pressure alone will move his body.

Pinning the ears back is likely going to change once he understands who is dominant. Watch for this and make sure it stops. It’s a sign that one day you may get hurt. Ears flat back is not appropriate behavior. It’s a sign of aggression and if you don’t comply the next request from him may hurt.

Yes, horses get use to a lot of things, and one thing I do with babies is to work with them loose in a ring or paddock (or your field) and get them use to everything. Try this: take a small tarp or piece of plastic in one corner and drag it around the field (I know it’s full of tall grass right now, but in a few weeks he’ll have it done to stubble in no time). He will light up like a fuse, guaranteed, but eventually it won’t mean anything. Do not stop if he freaks, or you will train him to freak – you will be rewarding him by stopping during behavior you do not want. Only stop any action once you get behavior you DO want (Never forget those words and you will find a great deal of success with horses in everything you do).

You will have to do this for about a week or so every day, but it will work towards his mental stability and trust. Don’t try to come near him. Don’t try to do anything “with” him: just walk around everywhere with this tarp/plastic. Pay no attention to him (other than watching him out of the corner of your eye). Eventually he may wander along with you, and often I have had the little one’s jump on the tarp and play. You can leave tarps spread out in their fields as well, and once they lose their spookiness over it, you can set up their feed buckets on it. Eventually they walk on it and some even sleep on them.

You can kick balls around as well. Buy one of those really big balls and move it around. He may start to play with it on his own. I like these because it teaches babies the mechanics of their own bodies. They need to run, jump and rear, and use their legs as much as possible.

The halter idea was a good instinct on your part. What you need to do is to take it on and off and not leave it on if you can help it. He may get it caught on something. What you must avoid is trying to “hold” him in place, as he will not understand that and you will have one big battle on your hands and lose the trust. Once he is really good at this, I leave a short lead line on it for a few days – one that’s long enough for him to step on with his front legs but not his back legs. Once he’s comfortable with that, you can put a longer one on and he will get use to ropes around his back legs. Just another way to get a horse to teach themselves – I call it “setting them up to be responsible”! Plus, this work will set him up for tying one day, as they eventually learn not to pull the rope when they step on it, but instead figure out what foot is on the rope, and either remove that foot or move away. But they quit fighting, and that is the point of the lesson.

The links to other articles that may help you are:

This post has a lot of groundwork information that may help: http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

Interesting article on energy and “feeling” as it pertains to training: http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/important-training-technique-horse/

How to move a horses shoulder away: advanced but interesting: http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/how-to-get-horse-to-move-shoulder/

I hope you stick with your little colt and move through the process together, with help. He chose you for a reason, and your learning curve just went through the sky, but don’t fear those things. You are never given more than you can handle, I believe, and it sounds as if you are compassionate and loving. Those ingredients alone within the human heart can move mountains.

Marijke van de Water

A SPECIAL POST BY MARIJKE VAN DE WATER, B.SC., DHMS

Question: I have an 18 year old horse who has been head shaking for several months. He only used to do it when we rode but it is now almost constant. I’ve tried everything from diet changes to medications but have had no success. I am at a loss as to how I can help him.

Answer from Marijke van de Water: Head-shaking syndrome symptoms include flinging and jerking the head – sometimes violently – sneezing, scratching, nose-rubbing and any other activities that seem to give them relief, including blowing the nose, holding the nose under water or sticking their heads into trees or corners. They often become lethargic and/or depressed as the constant discomfort “gets them down”. Many of these horses have been tested with blood work, X-rays, scopes and/or scans but unfortunately most times there are no positive results.
Nearly every head-shaking horse that I have worked with is suffering from allergy symptoms in the nasal passages and sinuses: tickling, itching, stinging and/or burning. These sensations can range in intensity from mild to very severe. They are caused by allergic reactions to inhalant allergies such as dust, pollens, molds and sometimes feathers. However, most “head shakers” have a particular problem with molds and mold spores which is why they have the most trouble in the spring and then again in the fall. There are over 400,000 types of molds and while many of them can survive year-around in warmer climates, in most parts of Canada they lie dormant in the winter. Mold spores are abundant everywhere – hay, grass, air and soil – and they often outnumber the pollen count. Some spores prefer dry wind, some need high moisture or fog, and some even disperse in the rain.
Mold spores are very small and microscopic and are therefore able to evade the protective mechanisms of the nose, sinuses and respiratory tract causing chronic irritation. It is likely that most horses (similar to people) acquire these allergies during a time that their immune systems have been compromised – illness, poor nutrition or over-medication for example. The immune system then becomes hyper-reactive to particles which are normally innocuous to the healthy horse.
The first step in treating a horse with HSS is to neutralize the allergy reaction. One of the most effective ways to offset any sensitivity to an allergen is through homeopathy – in other words, using dilutions made from the original substance that is causing the symptoms – in this case the mold spore itself. Since it is impossible to identify exactly which different molds are creating the problem I use a dilution prepared from three common molds that can cause the same symptoms as any other mold. The Riva’s Homeopathic Mold Combination and the Riva’s Allerg-Ease both contain mold dilutions. The Allerg-Ease also contains homeopathic pollens and dust along with remedies to improve overall immunity.
Secondly, the immune system must be boosted. Helpful herbs include raw garlic (anti-fungal, antibiotic and anti-viral); goldenseal which is excellent for irritation of the mucous membranes; astragalus which strengthens the immune defences; and milk thistle which is a liver detoxifier and also helps block the actual reaction to the allergen. Herbs are very beneficial when used together in a blend. It is also helpful to correct any nutrient deficiencies, especially those that have a marked effect upon the immune system such as iron, iodine, selenium and/or zinc. Also, avoid high sugar feeds – which depress the immune system – and any yeast-based supplements since these horses have most often become allergic to all yeasts and fungi. On the correct program improvements are usually quite rapid. Your horse will thank you.

Marijke van de Water (B.Sc., DHMS) is an Equine Health & Nutrition Specialist, Homeopathic Practitioner and Medical Intuitive. She is the author of “Healing Horses: Their Way!” and is a regular speaker at equine seminars and conferences.

Marijke van de Water, B. Sc., DHMS
Homeopathic Practitioner
Equine Health Consultant
Ph. # 1-800-405-6643

Email: rivas@nowcom.ca
Web: www.rivasremedies.com

Answer from April Reeves: Only thing that will help keep him somewhat sane will be for him to have access to hay 24/7. Horses that are comfortable in knowing their food source never dries up are also content in many other areas of their lives. There is no fix for herd instinct though: you may find he chews up the fields and paddock for some time until he gets use to the idea, at which point he goes crazy (anxiety) again the second he sees or smells another horse. Best thing for you to consider is how to keep him from wanting to get through fences, if he goes to that length to get back to a herd or a buddy.

I free feed first cut to every horse. It won’t make them fat or get them sick; horses self adjust after a few days once they realize it won’t go away, and as they would in the wild, they will eat only when they feel the need. You will also find that he is far more steady a riding horse, as he is never too full or too empty. You won’t have to time your rides to his stomach.

In the “Health and Nutrition” category are articles on feed: you may want to read some of them to get ideas on food/versus/emotion ratio.

Horses and drugging: I have never been comfortable drugging a horse to suit your purpose: eventually you as the human will have to confront the issue anyway and it is in your best interest to learn about your horse as he/she is. Denying a problem won’t get rid of it.

I want to open all of you to (in my humble opinion) perhaps the best equine writer I have yet to come across: my client Beatrice Singer and her horse sanctuary “Serendipity Farm”. In the matter of months, this Facebook site has amassed 676 loyal daily friends.

If you enjoy reading about the day to day lives of horse owners, this amazing writer will captivate you in a way I have not read before. Beatrice is learning about horses at a breakneck speed since her desire not long ago to rescue horses and provide them with a home of love and compassion. Her craftsmanship of the “equine language” is poetic and will have you in hysterics or tears (especially in the recent passing of her 9 year old thoroughbred, Jay, that started her “rescue” life). In any case, many go to Facebook for their daily delivery of the writings of Beatrice, the horse “angel”.

No one I know can write from the heart like this, so I leave you with the Facebook link to Serendipity Farms, and I hope you get lost in this emotional and beautiful world as I have done. Beatrice will one day be a world caliber equine writer.

“We care for our horse from the inside out.” April

Since everyone is listening, I will add another important post on feed. This one deals with chemicals. While our horses rarely see pesticides on our hays, it’s important to know where your hay comes from. Growing next to fields that use sprays (especially aerial spraying) means your hay crop will be contaminated.

A few years ago, I watched a farmer spraying a crop of peas. The cloud of insecticide drifted over to a horse facility and landed on 2 ponies and a quarter horse belonging to a friend of mine. In less than 6 months, the quarter horse lost weight and died. The 2 ponies lived, but one is still suffering.

The vets concluded that it could have been from vaccines. While I agree (as I don’t like vaccines), I did watch the insecticide cloud drift for 3 days in a row over to their small field. The other horses were not directly in the drift. The vets dismissed my findings.

GMO feeds are one thing, but we also need to increase our awareness and vigilance of our hays as well. I have always found a grower that farms the way I ask or I have cut my own hays. Be aware of the fields adjacent to your hay crops. Talk to the neighbors and ask if they spray, and follow wind directions. This may sound like a lot of trouble, but if you don’t pay at the front end, you may pay at the back end. We no longer live in a world where we can sleep through our lives.

The word “pesticide” is a blanket term for the many chemicals used to kill pests: that being weeds, molds, fungus and insects (also birds, rodents, virus’s, nematodes and more). Some crops (grains and forages) are sprayed throughout the year by a variation of mixtures of these pesticides. The GM crops carry these within their cells so farmers can spray GM crops without fear of the plants dying.

The article states: “Environmentalists, consumer groups and plant scientists from several countries are warning that heavy use of the chemical over the years is causing dangerous problems for plants, people and animals alike.”

The following is rather long but worthwhile for those seeking to understand the consequences of pesticides, for us and our animals. Thanks everyone for taking the time to learn about your horse from the inside out!

Cancer cause or crop aid? Herbicide faces big test

And as always, you can email me at: aprilreeves at shaw dot ca

I’d like to ask you to download the PDF files of a brochure on GE alfalfa, corn, sugar and soy, as it applies to your horse’s health, and distribute it to every place you can think of:

Feed Stores: bring them a handful and let them know you are not going to buy GM (GE, GMO) alfalfa when it’s harvested and baled at the end of this year.

Distribute it to: Tack stores – Horse organizations – Stables – Breeders – Local clubs – Horse shows and events – Friends – Put it out across the big wide web!

The most pressing issue for me are the 2011 sterility reports on humans. Within a single generation of eating GM foods, we are now seeing a proliferation of men with sterility problems ( http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=2011+sterility+and+gmo&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart http://www.google.ca/search?q=2011+sterility+and+gmo&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a). This is the beginning: don’t let it happen to your horses or animals.

A big thank you to everyone that’s taking this seriously. Yes, it will be an inconvenience getting non-GM alfalfa at the end of 2011, but we have time to turn it around with your help! So get these brochures downloaded and printed, and get them to your feed stores first – educate them if you can, but make sure they know you will not be buying this garbage, whose advantages are only for the profit of large corporations.

GE Alfalfa Brochure inside: Horse Industry Brochure Inside

GE Alfalfa Brochure outside:Horse Industry GE-GMO Alfalfa Brochure outside

Caution: the files are large, so if you have trouble printing kilobytes right now, this may be a long process. To start, print the outside PDF first. Then reinsert them into your printer again and print the inside. You may have to fiddle to get it right side up! If your paper jams on the second pass, let the paper sit flat for a day and it will feed better. On the outside sheet you will notice a tiny dot near the photo of the little girl feeding the horse, and another by the two horses discussing the cons of eating GE Alfalfa. Those dots are for you to find the “fold” when you are folding these brochures. This makes it real easy for you to get your brochures looking real nice. You will notice the inside fold is shorter: I planned it that way! I have to say this or else I will get hundreds of emails wondering why this doesn’t work. I have also added photos of the brochure below.

Happy printing and folding, and I’m interested to hear your stories and comments about your GE alfalfa blitz!! And as always, you can email me at: aprilreeves at shaw dot ca

A therapeutic riding facility in Henry County, Tennessee, has received $2,500 as part of a program administered by the Monsanto Fund.

Being heavily involved in the horse industry, and an Anti-GMO activist, I would refuse the money but I also have the ability to search for better ways to find funding, so it’s hard to find fault with this Tennessee facility that does such great work.

This is a double edged sword. These therapeutic riding groups need the funding. I can only hope these organizations can see Monsanto, the company, for what it really is, and not buy into their agendas or their foods and crops. Once GE alfalfa takes their horses lives, one horrid health issue after another, the horse industry will wake up.

GM alfalfa will now spread across the US, totally deregulated, and take out the entire organic industry. If you feed your horse alfalfa, you had better hope this experiment doesn’t fail. I predict that our horses will fall prey to a whole host of health disorders once this crop is into them. How can it not, with every cell in that plant being a living pesticide factory, and now alfalfa will be sprayed with deadly pesticides. Our horses have never been privy to such toxins before. The GM biotech industry states that while it acknowledges the toxins, it also acknowledges that the animals being fed this are for slaughter anyway.

They totally missed our horse industry. Shame on them. Shame on us for not standing up for our horses. I’m not a fear monger. I can see the future before it gets here, and it’s not that difficult any more.

Link to HoofBeat Of Hope: only an address: the main site is no longer working…..??

Answer from April Reeves: This is typical of a horse/pony in the beginning stages of laminitis. It is crucial that you have a vet out immediately. Laminitis comes first before founder, and once your pony passes into the founder stages, it’s not easy to bring a horse/pony back, if ever, once the coffin bone rotates and drops.

There are many reasons ponies get laminitis and founder, and you can find many of them on a Google search, but for you right now, GET A VET!

The pressure in his front hooves forces him to extend his front legs to relieve the pressure. The breathing is a condition of the pain he’s likely in. Right now he can likely stand not too bad, but that will change if you don’t look after him. You could lose him. And it can all happen in a matter of a day.

Use the back of your hand (as it’s more sensitive to hot and cold) and feel for heat. Any heat. Even the slightest increase in temperature tells you something is wrong.

If your horse or pony has any change in the way they stand or eat or anything out of the ordinary, CALL A VET IMMEDIATELY. The least that will happen is that you will explain your problem to them and they can give you advice over the phone to get you through until they show up.

There may be other issues with your pony, but since I cannot be there it would be irresponsible for me to even try to rethink this. Laminitis is something you can’t fool around with or leave.

Owning horses is expensive, but if it’s an expense you can’t afford, then horses should not be in your care. Take beautiful care of your horse: he will pay you back ten-fold. And you will be all the richer for it as well.

A new product is about to be force fed to your horse that you need to know about: Genetically modified alfalfa.

In Canada and the US, 2011 is the first year for GE alfalfa planting. For those asking why a horse owner should care, I have written the details so that you become educated on this. Feeding horses should be as important as learning how to ride and train.

What is GE Alfalfa? Monsanto has altered (in a lab) the alfalfa plant to be pesticide resistant. That means, every cell in the plant will produce a pesticide strong enough to kill bugs when they bite into it, AND allow farmers to spray pesticides as they need.

Non-GE Alfalfa (what our horses have eaten for decades) does not need to be sprayed. It rarely has weed issues or insect problems. The crop is often grown in-between other crops to bring nitrogen back to the soil. It has no need of modification, as it already is a wonderful plant just as it is!

Now, your horse will be exposed to chemicals two ways: through the cellular level in the plant, and through spraying, a process not necessary in the past. In short, there was no need to modify alfalfa. GE alfalfa was also not intended to be fed long term to any animal.

Why are they modifying alfalfa then? The biotech companies will be able to make money on the seeds, but first of all, they are chemical companies, and they make the majority of their money on chemical sales. The only benefits are to those companies.

What studies have been done on the impact of GE Alfalfa on horses? We don’t know. None have been done. Monsanto does not do long-term studies on health for ANY of their GM crops, even the ones you eat.

Any idea the impact this could have on our horses? For anyone that has been in the horse industry for years, you will remember that most of the horses had very little chronic diseases, like cancers, Cushings (IR), digestion problems, DSLD/ESPA, head shaking and shivers. You just never heard of it. Today, I can walk into a barn and at least find one horse that has shivers, stories of one that died of cancer, several that cannot digest food properly, and ulcers in around 80% of them.

We are creating an entire new host of equine diseases and problems, and we have to start looking at the potential sources that started this.

What could have created this situation? Horses are subjected to numerous toxic inputs. Vaccines are one of the worst. If you are vaccinating this year, DO NOT have your vet “dump” all the vaccines into your horse at once. Rule of thumb for being on the safe side is one vaccine per month, maximum. If your vet does not go along with this, switch vets. It’s time they woke up and got this.

Many horse feeds have GM products in them that are not approved for humans – just animals only, and most of the animals apart from horses that eat the following GM feeds are those destined for slaughter. Unfortunately, our horses eat this every day and most of you are completely unaware of this little detail until now.  Corn, Soy (two of the worst: have up to 8 modifications for numerous pesticides), canola (in many extruded feeds) are toxic at the cellular level and fed to our horses, daily.

We do not know the impact of this on our horses, but one thing for sure, our animals are getting diseases and health problems we did not see years ago. Yes, there is an increase in pollution (spraying of pesticides) but no studies have been done on the impact of GE foods on horses. Or humans either. If you pay attention you will find our horses are getting the same diseases we are. What needs to happen are long term studies for both animals and humans, but that will never happen.

About GE Alfalfa: This past week, the USDA opened the door to plant (deregulate) GE alfalfa everywhere. In Canada, they too will be able to grow it unregulated. Those farms growing non-GM alfalfa may as well give up: it cross-contaminates within one year. So while you think you are buying clean alfalfa, after this year, you likely are no longer able to buy non-GE. And the real crime: you will never be able to find it again in your lifetime or beyond. Once it’s out there, it’s forever. And we better hope it does not hurt our horses any more than they already are suffering.

What can we do? Let your feed dealer know you want non-GE alfalfa. Let them know you are aware of the problems. Monsanto pushed it through by stating it’s only fed to cows and farm animals, but they didn’t pay attention to the horse industry what so ever. Write, call, email your local politician, President, MLA, Senator, every politician you can! Read up on this and get educated.

Let farmers know you do not want them to buy into this. You may be well advised to wean your horses off it for next year, and find another way to keep the protein up in your horse’s diet.

If you live in the US, Canada or Australia, you may want to get educated beyond alfalfa, as these countries are quickly becoming testing grounds for biotech companies. Australia is in serious danger of losing all their organic and non-GE crops forever. All of them.

Your horse deserves the best, and GE horse feeds is not the answer.

Answer from April Reeves: Hi Caragh. This is a common problem for many horses, and it is not because they are afraid, especially since it sounds as if you already ride him. It is likely because he is not use to having a rider in such close contact with the sensitive back muscles, and having you sit on them without a saddle in-between can be very uncomfortable at first.

I rode Max once a week bareback (advantages of riding bareback), and every time I got on him he shuddered. He was ticklish and never got use to me getting on him, even though we did this for 5 years. Once I was on though he was great!

One thing I did before getting on was to stand on a tall mounting block (so that you can just slide on easily). I rubbed and patted the areas that I was about to sit on, in the attempt to desensitize Max as much as possible. He liked this part. This was a big help. Try not to lean on him though: it may be putting pressure on back muscles that may be sore or just sensitive.

You can also try an interim measure with a bareback pad. This will cushion you and the horse and transition him into learning about your weight and feeling you move around.

Being an ex-racehorse, this ticklish sensitive skin issue does not surprise me. Like Max, he may be like this forever.

One thing to maybe have a look at is whether the horse is sore. Often the saddle can buffer a bit of the pain, but the direct contact of a rider can often be the catalyst to a buck or rear or bolt. The muscles along the back are connected from the poll to the back hock: they are not separate. Once the horse is in pain in one area, they borrow from the 700 muscles in their body and eventually the horse is in pain all over. You will know if your horse has back issues: gently run your hand down either side of the spine. If he dips and tries to avoid your hand, it’s 99.99% likely he’s sore. That is a whole other problem that will continue to get worse in time.

Question: I have been riding English for about 7 years now. I think I’m a pretty good rider, and I do take lessons in the cooler months. I’m trying to learn about down transitions. I can’t get them and I’m confused from what my coach tells me. I have to keep my legs on and bring my hands back, but my mare just slows down and gets bouncy and doesn’t stop. I don’t understand what the reason for having my legs on the horse to stop is? My coach can’t tell me in a way that I get, and was hoping you could.

Answer from April Reeves: Well Alli you are not going to like my answer much, because it goes against everything your coach is telling you.

First, lets address legs on. If it confuses you, it should. It is the signal for forward and, done correctly, to bring the hindquarters under the horse, and although a lot of teachers believe you should have your legs on for downward transitions, I don’t and here’s why.

First off, your horse should be underneath you properly in the first place to begin a downward transition. Why is anyone attempting a down transition when their horse’s legs are “swinging out the barn doors” (my little saying for not being engaged).

Until you have “connection” with the horse and understand, both of you, that the horse’s power comes from behind your legs, and that her back legs must be underneath her, downward transitions will never be good or comfortable.

Another thing is you. What is your position like? How are you sitting at the point of “down”?

What I see is that most people “collapse” to do a down transition. What you need to do is the opposite. Sit up! Look ahead. Don’t drop your head: raise it up, way up high. That line will follow down your spine and into your pelvic area. Your core (bellybutton area) needs to be prominent, and your pelvis/hips move slightly forward. If you were a Western rider, I would tell you: “try to stuff your back pockets of your jeans into the saddle”. In English the feeling is the same but not such a dramatic move (the Western movements of reining and cutting are more sudden and fast, and demand a bit stronger, cleaner signal). At this point you are 2% behind the vertical, which is very, very small. You won’t bring your hand back: you will just close your hand on the reins.

Start at a walk. Move through the above and as you close your hands at the end, wait for the horse to pick up the signal. Make sure your leg is OFF the horse. If she doesn’t halt within 10 steps, add a bit of pressure with the reins but don’t “pull” the horse to a stop. If the horse is not use to this, and it’s possible she won’t be, you will have to do a lot of this until she begins to pick up the cues. How long that takes is up to you. The more consistent you do it, the faster the horse is at learning. Eventually she will pick this up quickly. Even though you are working at the walk, you still must ask her to engage her hindquarters. Ask her to walk with “enthusiasm” and you will get better downward transitions. If she doesn’t pick this up fast, do not change what you are doing and how you are asking her (provided you are doing it correctly). Any change in your instruction will only confuse her more. Less is more. Slower is faster.

Although you may not be able to feel this yet, a horse’s back rises when this is done properly. It’s subtle, but eventually you will have the experience to feel this.

When she stops, keep your position and in a loving voice, tell her she’s a good girl. All horses do better when they know they did it well. They do understand this, even if humans don’t.

Once you’ve perfected that, you can move into trot/walk transitions, and continue along your merry way until they are all comfortable and connected. That should take you about a year, if you are consistent.

You will know when you are not doing them properly:

The horse will hollow (you will sink in the saddle). This is the result of “collapsing” your body in the process. Your weight is coming down on the back improperly.

The horse will bring her head up and often open the mouth. Your hands are too abrupt and need to soften, plus the mare wasn’t connected in the first place.

Your end results should give you a soft, light horse that begins to connect and bring herself underneath her to prepare for the down transition. You should not have much if any rein pressure. And she will do this with happy ears.

Alli: Hi April, I did what you said to do. It worked the first time! I was so excited but I did do it again and it still worked and I’m more excited every time and it was easy. When can I start to trot?

April: Whoa there Alli – glad to see it worked (and I knew I should have bet good dollars on this one)! I guess, since your email was almost 2 weeks apart from when you started that you have worked on walk/halt transitions for at least 5 or more times. If they are consistent, and you are consistent, and she does not bring her head up or hollow her back, then try the trot/walk now. If you have trouble, go back to walk/halt. Always go back when you come into a roadblock. You will find once the horse is good at walk/halt, you will need less aids in the trot/walk. You will need to sit it at first to be able to give the horse clear, direct communication. If you are not comfortable with sitting trot work, there’s another thing to practice before you work on trot/walk transitions. Take your stirrups away and sit tall with your core forward. “Ride from your core!”

Alli: I practiced my sitting trot. You were right, I needed to work on that. I took away my stirrups and it did hurt for a while but now I feel okay. The first time I asked her she almost stopped. I went forward but she didn’t react. It is a bit trying but I am getting the hang of it. I will keep working though I promise! Thank you, and golly, I fired my coach. Haven’t seen her in a time anyway.

April: Do find another coach if you can: one that is at least open to trying new ways. Especially ones that work! When riding hurts it’s either because you are not doing it properly, or you are and you need to push past the pain and get tough (that’s what one of my instructors say). Good for you to do that. And, golly, email me again if you have questions. (I do love the way the opposite side of this planet speaks!).

After having received and answered questions on this blog for some time now, a recurring theme keeps popping up.

Riders of all disciplines seem to get to a certain level but never seem to be able to get past it. That’s when the questions come forth, and the frustration begins. People intuitively know, even if they don’t consciously know, that they are missing a very integral part of the “equine journey”.

It’s all fine to learn the “mechanics” of riding. We learn how to sit so that we and the horse are more comfortable and safe. We learn how to use our hands and legs to ask the horse how to do a specific task – but we really don’t feel, at a deeper level, what that truly is – to the horse. And so begins our feeling of being “stuck” and asking questions.

We brush our horses, feed them, kiss them goodnight or goodbye, and the second we step away, we move right back into our outer world beyond the horse. But our whole intention, if we search higher, of having a horse in the first place, is to connect very deeply with another spirit. Not another human or animal. Another spirit. And to retain that connection while away from them. This does not mean that you “think” about the horse. It means you bring forward “that” which you carry between you and your horse into all the other aspects of your life. Things like, patience, understanding, grounding, centeredness, unflappable and unshakeable – emotionally and ego free.

Why Groundwork

I teach groundwork and I love the performance and the teaching of it, as it makes me feel “energized” or something like that (we have not come across the words for this feeling yet, but I feel it on a cellular level). Groundwork produces a connection with a horse that riding either cannot do (for some), or often blocks the pathways.

Groundwork can be learned in many ways. Again, you learn the mechanics and the movements, and in the same time you gain fluidity and grace yourself, as good groundwork done over time is a dance. It enhances your performance as much as the horse’s. It is done on the “ground”, a place to reconnect and re-member your conscious self. Thus the word “grounding”.

Apart from sounding like a broken record, groundwork also transfers to the saddle. This is where the true understanding of the importance of this skill comes in. It has the ability to connect you and the horse at a level that is transferred to everything you do with your horse, including getting past any blocks in your riding. It also allows you to connect quickly with any horse, for that matter.

There are many exercises that may appear to look like something done in a circus, but if you truly understand the connection, they allow the horse to utilize his/her body in a sort of “horse yoga” fashion. One such exercise is having a horse stand with his front feet elevated. This is not merely teaching a horse to stand on a pedestal! So much more is happening here. Watch how the muscles in the horse stretch and flow, in ways the horse cannot do with four feet on the ground (as easily). Once up there, you can ask the horse to lower his/her head and get some great longitudinal stretching. You can do “belly lifts” and strengthen their backs and hindquarters. This is just a small example of the value these teachings bring to the relationship you and your horse move through, and how they improve the overall physical and spiritual nature of the horse.

Have you ever seen someone working in liberty (no physical connection to the horse) and it looks and feels like a dance? How the horse watches you for every change-up? This is what groundwork is all about. This is the connection you need to feel in order to move past the blocks that face you. By performing this on the ground first, you intuitively move it into your saddle work as well. Your training goes from “an okay trainer that can get the job done”, to “an exceptional trainer that people instinctively follow”. It is not about the horse: it has never been about the horse. It has always been about you.

Quit Going Along For The Ride

I see a real lack of this skill in the English disciplines, although at the time of this writing, I am working with only English riders in some very high-end facilities! Perhaps we are playing “catch up” with the recreational and Western disciplines, but the truth remains, as the English set begins to embrace the advantages of groundwork, it is truly the horse that will reap the benefits.

And it will begin to show up in our show arenas. We don’t need all the “inventions” to allow our horses to look better and move better. What we really need is the connection. This truly does show up as an amazing and individual “thing” right now – yet we are all capable of it. And it’s not so much a difficult thing to do as much as a difficult thing to “accept”. But it is the difference between an exceptional rider and a mechanical rider.

A Deeper Journey

We live in a new paradigm. What is a paradigm? It’s the movement “out” of old beliefs and patterns that no longer serve us, that leave our spirit, and thus, leave a “hole” if we do not follow where the “new” is leading us. Put simply.

In our lives today, we are being asked, and often challenged, to rise and take this new way of thinking and seeing things (mind and spirit together) into a brave new world.

The horse is not following us on this journey. He is leading us there. This is what we must understand: this is what we must “get” in order to move and advance our work with our horses. Animals are the ambassadors on this planet. They deserve our respect, our care, and our love in all ways. We have a symbiotic relationship with everything and all animals on this Pachamama. Yet look around you: the world has much “upgrading” to do still…

I will be writing about this subject more and more, as there is much to write about in regards to energy work and “balance” in the higher dimensions. I hope you will come with me on this journey of connection.

And please, continue your groundwork, every day, no matter how little you think you need to do. It’s not about “performing” it. It is about “living” it.

BUT the issue is with her little paddock mate.  A warmblood 3yr old, almost 4yr filly (Pipsqueak) who each time I take Charity away from her gallops and bucks around her paddock.  The last time she wasn’t even out of site but took off around her paddock and chest crashed a gate twice.  The 3rd time she knocked it off it’s hinges.  Very luck for us she didn’t cut herself but it must have bruised. Many times I thought she was going to jump the gate. Now she hasn’t always been like this.

I’ve done quite a bit with her and she is smart but impatient.  She can be handled all over etc and we got as far as saddling and lunging.  We being my petite 17 yr old and I.  We decided she was ready to be backed as she was cruisey and curious but very accepting.  My daughter decided to move her to her fathers farm where she has access to a fenced sand arena.  We made the move and left her with a retired gelding as company in the paddock.

Well after 3 weeks Pip had made no progress there and in fact had gone seriously backward.  My daughter said we had best bring her back home because she couldn’t do anything with her. After difficulties even loading her (a self loader previously) we got her home and she seemed so skittery and hyped up.  Back in with Charity she sort of settled though my horse put her smack bang in her place, where as she had been far more patient with her previously.

We are now 2 weeks along, she is fine to handle again, back almost to where we were at BUT she is a nut if I remove my horse, even if it isn’t out of sight of her.  What do we do?  Her attitude is rubbing off on Charity who gets anxious if I do take her out of sight and struggles to keep her mind on our own training.

I’m quite worried she may injure herself and I can’t be on Charity and sorting Pip out. So your help would be very much appreciated.
Regards
Glenys
New Zealand

Answer from April Reeves: This young filly needs a job to do. Not too physical a job, as she is coming 4, but definitely a mental job. Some horses are wired that way. They ask us to stay on our toes and figure it out for them. You now own such a horse. Take it as a good sign that she has come into your life to teach you, as difficult as it may appear.

One thing right away that I see is a young energetic filly in confinement. Moving a horse from a stall to a paddock is just a bit bigger outdoor stall. Horses need fields: space to run and figure out where their legs go when moving in all directions. The other purpose of letting horses move as much as possible is found within their feet. The bottom of the hoof is much like the bottom of your foot. If you understand reflexology you will know there are specific pressure points that align with organs in your body. Horses have the same functions. They are called “ting” points. Moving allows the horse’s internal organ system to stay at optimal health. Horses in the wild will travel many miles in one night. Just try keeping up to them: I have done so. I am not sure if Pip gets to do this every day or if you have access to a large field, but if you do, 12 hours a day minimum does a great deal for the body and the brain.

Pip has a strong instinct to remain with the herd. She has not yet understood that when Charity goes away, she will come back. Time has no meaning to the horse; only to the human. A youngster whose instinct is this strong will go to any length to remain in that herd, even hurting herself severely.

She may not have caused damage on the outside, but every fence break she adds scar tissue and a “history” of injury that may appear later in her life. Because it is not visible to the eye does not mean it doesn’t exist.

Moving her may or may not have worked: only testing out the theory would tell you. No one could have accurately predicted her reaction, so you did the right thing. She may have bonded to the gelding well, but it seems she prefers the company of mares. That’s not unusual. But it does tell me one thing: she has a very big hole in her training on the ground.

Thank you for describing your pattern with her. One thing I see right away is that you are doing all the things a normal rider/trainer would do with her: saddling, lunging, handling. This is fine but it’s not enough, and won’t give you the bond you are not just looking for but desperately need at this juncture in her life. Groundwork, as long and tedious as it often appears, needs to be done every day. It is not a training method as much as it is a way of life.

The most important thing groundwork does is set you up for success in saddle work and everything else. It gives the horse the confidence in herself to try something new, but most important, it establishes a trust in you so strong that you will wonder why you don’t do this with all your horses.

Two things I would do immediately that often make huge differences in a horse’s personality:

1.   Feeds: With all the training possible, I still find many Professional trainers completely miss the concept that the horse gets a significant percentage of their emotion from the feeds they are getting. I have come across many, many horses in my work that have done a 180 in attitude just by changing their diets. There are many posts on this blog about feed, and I suggest you read them over carefully. If you have any further questions, or want to send me your feeding schedule, please do so. But this is one very crucial aspect that’s always left out of the equation, yet feed can be changed easily, as long as you are open about it and not holding on to old beliefs that no longer serve the horse.

2.   Space: This filly needs to move, run, play and buck with a friend. I am not sure you have this ability as I don’t catch any reference to it, but this is so vitally important as well. We have come so far in our knowledge about the horse, but we have lost many valuable lessons from a world of “convenience” that again, we miss the obvious. I cannot stress this enough: she needs to move, and that means a minimum of 12 hours a day. At my barn the horses are out all night, moving and chomping the grass and keeping busy. In the day they are in and easy to access for work. This is the horses’ natural life cycle. They rest and move very little in the day, but when night comes they are on the move. It’s instinct we cannot change. Yet we do the opposite and expect them to accept it. Pip is telling you that her instinct is very primal.

Once you have gone over the feed and the freedom, and have adjusted where you can and experimented where you need to, it’s time for Pip to have a little attitude adjustment.

I use to have a tall solid wall with a heavy chain tie that I would clip a horse up to and walk away for about 6 hours, if needed. I always polo wrap all 4 legs or at least a good walled boot as they often use their legs pawing and jumping around at first, but Pip needs to learn to stand and stay quiet. This can only be learned in your absence. By allowing the horse to go through the emotions of abandonment and realizing she has no choice but to stand, she will eventually find that place where she is comfortable, and that is usually a quiet place. But she needs to do this on her own.

If you don’t have an outside wall, you probably have one in your stall. Put a really strong, big ring and hook up high: over her head at full height. Make sure it’s into a very, very strong board as well or attached to a main post from behind. The reason it needs to be up high is because they cannot get the leverage to pull when it’s above their heads, and if they lose their balance they have the chance to gain their balance back again quickly on their own. The length of the chain you attach to her halter (leather halter only as it needs to give if she somehow defies the law of gravity and gets hung up, although I’ve never seen this happen, touch wood…) must be no longer than her head height at normal height, and must have a quick release mechanism. Never tie a horse where they can get a leg over the lead line.

Tie her to this every day for no more than 6 hours, but if she’s quiet within 1 hour release her. However, I’ve seen mares test this for up to 5 hours, so pay close attention, as you don’t want to go that long if it’s not necessary.

Horses have to learn to take responsibility for their own actions and find their own comfort. They all learn this eventually, if you take the time to allow this teaching to exist. You won’t actually teach this, but you will set up the experience to learn. That’s important to remember. It’s not up to you how long it takes: it’s up to Pip.

The other thing I like about this is that it’s easier on the owner. Just walk away, clean stalls, do what ever you need to, take out Charity and ride her and ask “the petite 17 year old” to keep an eye on Pip at a distance while you ride Charity. If Pip is having an emotional tantrum, which I’ll bet big money on, DON’T acknowledge it in any way. Not by watching her openly, and definitely don’t speak to her. This is her lesson. Just make sure she doesn’t get into any REAL trouble.

Sometimes training is tough love, but it’s easier than trying to deal with a big strong mare that’s determined to hurt herself badly to get to where her primal instincts tell her. It is also safer for you and the “petite one” – no one needs to get hurt when there are alternatives.

Please take the time to go over groundwork as well. My big site, Horseman’s U has a few good video’s of Jay O’Jay, one of my hero’s of groundwork. Links to this video:

http://www.horsemansu.com/jay_ojay_video_roundpen

http://www.horsemansu.com/jay_ojay_video_roundpen_series

http://www.horsemansu.com/jay_ojay_video_roundpen_series_dvd

http://www.horsemansu.com/jay_ojay_video_roundpen_series_four

There are also tons of articles on this blog to help you with groundwork. I cannot stress this enough: you must treat groundwork not as a method to overcome an issue, but a way of life for you and your horse for the rest of your life. As you get more comfortable with the “language” and the subtle movements, you will find two things: that the bond between you and Pip will become “magic”, and you will have the tools to handle almost any horse presented to you with skill and confidence.

This summer I should have videos as well to help you out. Just have to find someone that can shoot as well as I like. Fussy can often be such a setback! But not when it comes to the horse.

I hope this helps you Glenys and please don’t hesitate to return your results, or ask for help. Many people here send me emails and often ask how to move further with their horses.

It really is all about the horse!

Answer from Guliz Unlu, Equine Energy Body Worker: Hi Cayley – The lumbar span is the weakest area of the horses back, unlike the spine above or below, which has ribs and pelvis attached, the lumbar span has no other supporting bones. This is an area where much of the riders weight is carried…

In terms of conformation, when the lumbo-sacral joint is forward, and the croup lengthened, the lumbar span is shorter and the stress is minimized (Image A).

When you get a horse with a hunters bump (Image B), it is possible that there has been trauma, swelling and/ or scar tissue to sacroiliac joint. I have also seen foals born with it, much of what can be done is based on the cause.

I would suggest having a chiropractor take a look – with the combined treatment of body work on a consistent basis, there is a chance for healing.

I would also recommend strength and flexibility exercises such as hill work – at a walk and or raised poles to walk over – take it slow, and consistent. Backing a horse up also strengthens the lumbar and haunches – first a few stride – then eventually work into a circle – both ways.

As your horse gets better through these exercises and body work, it will change how the spine and haunches are formed, in turn having to re-learn how to use various muscles, so be patient…

When your horse is stiff and or in pain in the lumbar vertebrae or loins, they are most likely not using their back muscles and hind quarters properly, what likely happens is that they propel all their weight from the stifle and hocks….resulting in some very sore, weak joints and strained ligaments.

Guliz Unlu is an Equine Energy Body Worker in BC Canada, and a guest author on this blog.

I work in several high-end barns of various English disciplines. My clients are looking for ways to work with their horses without always riding them. Some of those clients want specific training on the ground that transfers to the saddle and aids in the training of eventing, hunter/jumper, dressage and other specific disciplines.

What is Equine Agility Horsemanship?

Agility Horsemanship is working with your horse to improve his/her ability to become obedient, maneuverable, flexible and multi-tasked. The point of the work is to help keep the horse sound in both mind and body, and to set him up properly for his chosen discipline with select groundwork first. The horse learns to move his body in ways he would not come across naturally, but will have to learn once asked under saddle. Many horses get caught up with not understanding or feeling confident about their footfall patterns and lack grace and fluidity with lateral and backward moves. As the horse builds physical abilities, he builds mental as well, creating a versatile, safe and athletic mount that’s eager and happy to learn. It’s important to note that this work can speed up saddle training, and save hours of frustration. It’s also just plain fun.

It is NOT about circus tricks. The work performed may appear to use similar or same “props” and tools, but the outcomes and reasons are very specific.

A Growing Movement

Parelli began “Natural Horsemanship” years ago, as far as making it into a “business” model (many of us did this work years before – we just never thought of marketing it). Many great trainers have also perfected their own skills, and a whole new breed of “Natural Horsemen” appeared. From here, the movement has continued to grow worldwide.

I am now finding that many horse owners are looking to go back to advanced saddle work, competition and trail riding, but still want to use part of the NH skills to keep their horses safe. They are also looking for new methods of ground training, especially those that connect with a higher purpose of specific disciplines. The English disciplines are looking for ways to speed up the process of connection and collection, and to work out the bugs of event and show jumpers.

Where Agility Benefits – The Mind/Body Connection

In any equine discipline, there is always the challenge of getting your horse fit and sound for the work “ahead” of him. Unfortunately, we often don’t see the needs ahead, and horses get hurt, unsound and lose confidence when pushed before they are ready under saddle.

This form of “fitting” a horse for competition or tougher work also has to apply to their brains and their mental fitness as well as body. It has to be a win-win situation for both body and mind when using ground training for saddle work.

Agility work focuses on both. It sets up the horse’s body and mind to accept the tasks that “will” lie ahead of him. It teaches a horse to learn how to instinctively get out of trouble without fear attached to the outcome. I believe horses are far more intelligent than we have ever given them credit for, and we are just now beginning to scratch the surface of their abilities. In order to push the envelope, we need to set up the experiences for them to learn. Horses should not have to take large amounts of time to absorb and “do”. I have proven this point time and time again with the horses I work on. With consistency and patience, a human can help guide the horse through the work to give him the confidence to flow into his future.

How Do Horses Lose Their Natural Movement and Become Stiff?

One of the major areas horses get stiff is under the saddle. Those muscles, ligaments and skeletal structure are all connected to one long “thread”, from the poll, along the topline of the neck, down along the back, over the hip and down into the gaskin (Video of Longitudinal and Lateral Flexion). Known as the “longitudinal” line, any pain or misalignment in any of these areas will affect the entire line.

Horses that are stalled or penned, and unable to trot and canter freely and play, will lose the memory of how to move. This interrupts the connection between mind and body. Thus you have what you call a “stiff horse” when it’s simply the mechanics that are missing.

Horses mostly acquire back and movement issues from:

• Poor fitting saddles,
• Bouncy riders, (Guliz works on a LOT of school horses)
• Conformation faults/poor anatomy.
• Poor training methods also fit into this category. Lack of suppling, bending and stretching aid in the tying up of muscle and joints.
• Falls and accidents that damage the neck will affect the back and hip as well.

Horses with leg unsoundness can change how they move (to accommodate pain) and shift spines and necks out of alignment. Once a horse learns to walk any other way than what they do naturally, from injury, it becomes memory, and a difficult thing to change. But not impossible.

Let’s step through some of the ways Agility training techniques may help your horse.

Pedestals

You have seen horses standing on pedestals in the circus but have you ever thought it may have long-term benefits?

Longitudinal stretching can be accomplished from teaching horses to stand with their front legs on a pedestal. It allows a full stretch to extend from the poll right through to the back of the gaskin. To add to this exercise, teach your horse to drop his head as well, to extend the level of stretch. Once learned, your horse can get a great self-stretch and lower and raise his head and neck for additional benefit.

They get a stretch along their bottom line and core as well. Dropping the horse’s head while someone performs a “tummy tuck” will add to core strength, leading to a strong back.

Bridges

While walking over a bridge is most beneficial for mind/obedience, if you build your bridge with steeper inclines, you can use this for muscle building workouts as well. By standing on the upside or downside of the bridge, and backing down and backing up, you can work the back haunches and not only build muscle but teach your horse not to fear the feeling of backing into places unknown. The wider the bridge the better at first, graduating to a narrower bridge. You work mind and body, and build confidence all in one exercise.

Graduating Jump Length

Agility benefits many of the English disciplines, and sets up the horse for accuracy, obedience and self-judgment. A truly great horse must have these in order to excel.

This is one of my favorites, for all disciplines, especially eventing. Anyone can build this easily at home. You need a set of standards, and poles (3 each) that vary in length from the standard 12 feet, 10 feet, 8, 6, 4 and 2 feet. Start very low, as you want to set the horse up for success immediately. If you have problems with your horse through this, slow down. Slow is always faster!

Start on the ground teaching the horse to step over the 12 foot pole on the ground. Do it several times until the horse has no issue or worry. Then change out to the next smallest pole, continue until you are using the 2 foot pole. Simple. Once that is done, and the horse has no emotion attached to any of it, and has never tried to avoid the exercise, put the pole up about 6 inches off the ground, and repeat. Again, slowly move into higher poles until your horse is jumping over the 2 foot with ease. You don’t need to ask your horse to jump high. It’s not necessary in order to capture the lesson, as you are building confidence first. You may add height into one of the lessons down the road, but don’t get hung up on always going for the height. There is much learning in the “doing” of the lesson perfectly. You can use the height once under saddle.

I prefer to use 3 poles for the end of the “lesson” as I want the horse to jump a “wall” effect.

For eventers, you can add a square platform or box to jump at the end as well. Event and stadium jumping horses need to learn to jump without standards. Round small jumps are good training tools as well. There is no reason a horse cannot jump over a small round tire in an open field without evasion. It’s all about training, confidence and willing obedience.

This exercise is also highly beneficial for all trail horses.

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These are just a few of the benefits of Agility work. There are many techniques, but this just gives you an idea of whether this training may interest you should you wish to pursue it. Eventually, I hope you will find events and agility courses and clinics all over the world. It’s only a matter of time.

There’s a great site that’s working to move agility training and contests into mainstream horse culture. Vanessa Bee started it a year ago and it’s taken off in Europe – Horse Agility Club – check it out!

Guliz Unlu

Guliz (Gyu-lees) is a certified Equine Bowen Therapist from Guelph Canada. Her work extends from the Vancouver/Langley area of BC, up to the central interior/Okanagan area of BC.

Guliz is one of my most precious mentors, and I rely on her knowledge extensively to help me put together the ideas and concepts for teaching equine agility and other methods.

If you are on the west coast and need work done on your horse, you can reach Guiliz at: fourhoofsgrounded at gmail dot com. Or call her at: 604- 657-0293. I highly recommend her.

GMO – Genetically modified organisms are mankind’s way of producing desired effects within a plant/animal that nature either has not done yet, or cannot do. GM plants are created in a lab by scientists, that alter the DNA of the plant by adding a foreign gene into the plant’s DNA (one example was the flounder fish gene in tomatoes). It’s not an exact science, in the aspect that it works first time, every time. It can take years to perfect, adding millions to the cost of the experiment. The most common alteration to the plants horses eat (corn, sugar) is the addition of Bt bacteria, which alters the plant to resist the intense continual spraying of pesticides on the plants without killing them. It also allows any insects that come into contact with that plant to die from trying to eat it.

Think about this for a second, and then continue reading.

Your horse has the unfortunate ability come into contact with some of the most “advanced” GM (genetically modified) foods. Why is this unfortunate? Because many of them are not approved for human consumption, and to me, feeding a horse something that may not be good for you is, in no way, good enough for my horse either.

Many will tell you that plants have been genetically modified for years. The truth is, plants have been modified forever, and are being modified all the time in nature, according to their needs and what other plants they come into contact with, naturally. GM is different. This modification is not something a plant would come across in nature. Where would a corn plant find a pesticide gene? Plus the methods used to keep the genes stable come into question as well, as many modifications use virus’ and antibiotics as “marker genes” to keep the gene from becoming unstable.

While this is a simplified writing of how GM crops are constructed, I hope to give you enough information to continue to do some research and come up with your own conclusions. As a trainer, I won’t feed them. As a farmer and food producer/grower, I won’t grow them.

Let’s take a closer look at the crops your horse may come into contact with.

Corn

One of the most prolific GM crops in the world, corn, as we knew it before GM, is almost gone forever. The GM corn we find today has as many as 8 traits – meaning there are 8 alterations to the DNA of each cell in the corn plant. This includes gene changes to kill various bugs and pests and resistance to different pesticides.

The only GM corn fit for raw human consumption (eat without cooking) is a sweet corn that came to market in 2010. All other corns are either in processed human foods, or used in non-processed forms for animal feeds. Corn is a poor animal feed, a lousy fuel alternative and an unhealthy sweetener, yet we consume millions of pounds of it a day.

There have been no studies to show the effects of GM corn on horses, but research is coming out that questions specific gene changes within the horse that science cannot explain. According to The Horse.com (XY sex reversal in horses: the genes behind the switch) researchers have found “how” mares are now becoming infertile, but they still can’t tell “why” this is happening. In independent studies done by researchers looking for problems with GM foods, rats and mice were used, and the same problem arose. By the third generation of GM fed mice and rats, the generation was incapable of procreation. Big corporate interests dismiss these findings on the basis they are not scientific, but the facts remain:

1. There are no studies that show GM does no harm to horses or humans over the long term,
2. Corporate interests are expected to monitor their own research and present their findings, making the whole industry ripe for the challenges of integrity. One only has to question motivation to understand this.

Sugar

At the writing of this article, GM sugar hangs in the balance of those with integrity and forethought versus those whose greed and the almighty dollar dangle on the proverbial carrot. A US judge has ruled that GM sugar beets are in violation of federal law, and has ordered the uprooting of all GM sugar beet crops.

Sugar is in all sweet feeds, along with corn, and in many pelleted feeds. While no horse should come into contact with sugar, at least in their feeds or on a regular basis, many will not heed this advice and continue to spike their horse’s insulin levels without a full understanding of what happens inside the horse, and not just on the outside. Cushings and Metabolic Syndrome is rising faster than any of the equine diseases, and equine obesity is now being talked about as an epidemic.

I will keep you posted on future changes to this ruling.

Other Crops

Wheat, barley and oats are slated for the near future. They are currently being hotly debated in both the US and Canada. Europe has banned GM foods/crops for years until 2010, when the ban was lifted, giving individual countries the choice to grow or not to grow. It’s unlikely any of these grains will be grown in 2011, but they are posturing for 2012.

Alfalfa

GE alfalfa is on the table as I write. 2011 may be a test year for it in North America. Testing is not a good thing. Open crops can cross pollinate, and non-GM alfalfa has the potential to become extinct much like corn is close to becoming. Bees don’t need passports. Alfalfa is a cover crop for organic growers. While alfalfa is not the ideal forage for horses, it is used in mass quantities. Should we not be able to buy non-GM  alfalfa in the future, we had better hope this experiment works, or our horses lives are delicately placed on the chopping block. I’m not being mean – I’m just keeping it real. Corporate interests and shareholder value is above and beyond all else.

Hay

Although it’s unlikely hay will be modified in the near future, it does come into contact with pesticides from spraying neighboring crops. Pesticides have been linked to cancers and other diseases in humans. Know where your hay comes from. Spend the time to source quality pesticide-free hays.

Equine Health is Changing

Other health issues are cropping up in both humans and horses, such as allergies and genetic mutations. Another article from The Horse.com states that a new genetic mutation was found in Thoroughbreds. While there are many possibilities, such as pollution and pesticides, GM is never analyzed for fear of retaliation from Biotech firms.

Having been around horses for 50 plus years, cancer, allergies and Cushing’s disease was never heard of. A childhood horse died from a heart attack. I remember the vet stating he had never seen this before. Today, it’s becoming common-place. In 2010, in my local area, 5 horses died of cancer, and Max’s neigh-bour was on cancer drugs.

Almost all the crops, short of grass (wheat is a grass) may eventually become your horse’s diet. What concerns so many of those that oppose this technology, is the risk of failure, and the lack of long term studies on internal damage and disease.

What Can You Do

1. Talk to your feed provider. Let them know you are aware of this and that you will not support it.

2. Speak to feed manufacturers and find out where they source their grains and crops. Again, let them know of your discomfort with GM and that you may boycott their feeds should they not have a Non-GM policy in place.

3. Let other horse owners know about GM grains and forage crops. Education is power. The consumer does dictate the future of food, both for themselves and their animals. If no one buys GM, no one will grow it.

My wish: that a feed company would come up with a Non-GM brand of horse feeds. I would pay the price for it!

I urge you to look further into this and if you have questions on GM foods please email me. I have been researching, speaking with scientists, and doing a great deal of “due diligence” on this subject for almost a decade. I use to be excited about this new technology until 1989, when my neighbor showed me how his corn crop can kill a bug in one bite. As we watched the little beetle slowly slip off and die on the ground, it occurred to me – “Food should not kill.”

I encourage everyone to copy and paste this anywhere they like, as long as my name is on it. We need to get this out to all the horse owners possible.

If you want to know more about GM crops/seeds/foods, this PDF may help: GM Crops – just the science

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March 2011: Roundup-Ready GMO Crops May Be Causing Animal Miscarriages and Infertility – could Glyphosate pesticides and GE Alfalfa eventually catch up to the horse world in sterility and miscarriage issues?

A new unknown organism, only visible under an electron microscope (36,000X), with an approximate size range equal to a medium size virus, could have devastating effects on our horse’s miscarrying foals. It is able to reproduce and appears to be a micro-fungal-like organism. If so, it would be the first such micro-fungus ever identified. There is strong evidence that this infectious agent promotes diseases of both plants and mammals, which is very rare: link to article.

But the trick he used to get this filly to accept the bit, because she was terrible of course, was to turn her out with the bridle. (no reins)

Would you ever even consider this in the most dire situation or would you just give up and go bitless? My big fear at the time was that she would catch the ring of the snaffle on a part of the fence or something and rip her mouth apart in a panic, but luckily she didn’t but she actually became easier to bit and was less resistant to it after a week or so. But still, I think that’s too risky…
Just curious :)

Answer from April Reeves: There are many ways to ask a horse to accept a bit, and although many of those ways end up with a horse that will “take” a bit, the question remains, “Is there a better way?” I have had to work with some of the toughest of bitters, and have barely had as much as a fight or future problem.

First off I want to address riding a 3 year old hard. Anyone that’s spent any time on this blog knows I don’t approve of riding young horses hard, and it’s not because of their legs, but their backs and neck vertebrae are still developing, and that’s where I see, later in their lives, a whole series of problems and issues to deal with that are often chronic and non-fixable. I also know you don’t have to do that to train a horse. It’s not necessary. I get more from a young horse with short amounts of work done slowly. The slower you go, the faster the horse learns. If you are consistent….

Aggressive mares: I traded a jumper for a stunning 3 year old mare once. This mare was so incredibly aggressive I thought she just may be the horse to kill me! So I had to use my “herd” skills (I picked them up by following a wild herd in 1974). I had her in a paddock about 70′ by 70′. It was the third day she was at my farm. I had left her to chill out (no contact) for a few days and make friends over the fence. I placed a flake of really great hay in the corner, and walked into the paddock on the other side.

She immediately pinned her ears and warned me not to get close to her hay. I didn’t move. She snarled at me again and flung the front of her body around to warn me better. I didn’t move. Finally, after fussing and stomping the ground, she turned and came after me. I never moved. But (and there’s always a “but”) I had a long buggy whip with me, and as she got right up to me (running full tilt) I let her have it across the chest once, but only once, really really good. This is what the herd boss does – they don’t pick away at each other. They state their case and get on with living. She was so startled that she threw herself backwards and almost broke the fence (a response I wasn’t expecting). I never moved. She snorted and trotted around me, head in the air and nostrils going. I ignored her. It took about 15 minutes, but she came back, ears up and from that second on we were best of buddies. She had found her leader.

Crabby mares are asking you to step up and be a leader. But you won’t get that by picking at them in a human way. Had I put her into my broodmare band, my old mare would have taken a chunk of hide from her. I was tame in comparison: this is how horses find their place. This mare became one of the most amazing horses I had ever worked with, and she found a fabulous home in New York with a very wealthy doctor and her young son, who fell for her instantly. A fairy tale? Yes indeed!

The point was, I did not have to work the crap out of her to get my position  across. It was one simple moment: a gesture of herd dynamics that made the difference – not a gesture of human ego or non-compassion and submission. I must admit though, I was a bit apprehensive, watching a 1400 pound 16.2HH mare bulleting toward me… This work is not for everyone.

On bitting tough horses: I would never put a bit on a horse and send them out. I agree with you: if there is a place for that bit and bridle to get caught on, a horse will find it. For those that say they do this all the time, you are just lucky so far. Plus, as a trainer working with other people’s pets, you don’t put them in harm’s way. You just don’t. You don’t even put your own horse in harm’s way, but you really must treat someone else’s horse the way you would treat your own (here’s hoping you treat horses beautifully).

Keeping a bit in a horse’s mouth, to me, does nothing to improve the horse’s ability to accept the bit every time. In some cases I can see a horse resenting this even more. I want my horses to like the bit. I ask that they drop their heads and open their mouths and place the bit in their mouths, not me having to do this for them. Several things need to be in place for this:

1. The bit must be clean and warm. Sometimes a rubber bit is best as it won’t clunk against their teeth.

2. It must follow with a treat.

3. The headstall must be easy to put on and adjust: nothing complicated or fancy.

4. The horse’s teeth must be checked by a vet first.

Explaining “how” I go about teaching a horse that’s bit sour is not easy to describe in an article, but I will try. You really need to see it as there are subtle moves that are more about timing than anything else. And listening: you need to listen to the horse and have the patience to wait for the right answer.

This is where you really begin to understand how you set up patterns of “training” in a horse. These patterns can be good or bad, depending on your timing. The horse has NO idea what is good and bad: this is a human interpretation.

The first thing I do is get a pocket full of small carrot bits and use a halter only and have a handler at the lead. I will softly place my right hand under the face and gently over onto the bridge of the nose, but not applying pressure. The horse must be free from restriction. You must never let this hand slip, ever (not an easy task). With my left hand, I will place it in the horse’s mouth, getting the horse use to having someone play with their gums and tongue. I try to get as far up into the mouth as possible. With a difficult horse, this could take up to 2 hours. Here is where timing IS EVERYTHING. When the horse pulls away, you must follow them and keep your left hand in or close to their mouth. If the horse pulls away and you lose the horse with your hands every time, you are setting the horse up to be trained to move away when hands come close (see how important this is?)! ! This is also why you need to go slow and soft: if you get demanding, chances are you will lose contact with the horse too many times, and you will set up an even tougher pattern of behavior you don’t want. Ego and anger play no part in good training. Every time the horse submits and surrenders, take your hands away, but not until the horse is quiet and accepting.

The carrots come in when the horse stands quietly and lets you play with their mouth. Once they surrender, get a carrot piece and give it to the horse. They will look for more – expect it but don’t punish it. Horses that are treated responsibly will know the sign for when they can and cannot get a treat, eventually. Reward is an important role in establishing “bonds” with horses. Are you bribing them with treats? I use to think so, but having used them regularly for a few years now, I wonder why I didn’t use them earlier. I find treats, given correctly, can speed up many of the training I do. Live and learn…

I allow the horse to move around a bit, so the handler must allow the feet to move without the feet taking off. A good handler is worth their weight in gold.

For really bad horses, I will do this every day for as many days as it takes to get the horse use to my handling it – until the head does not go up, or the feet move. The horse must be fully accepting of this process. Take your time now or you will take twice as much time later: choose wisely.

Should you do the above fully and completely, bitting is barely an issue, unless the horse has had prior pain from a bit: this is a whole different set of problems. Young horses tend to really like this process, and you should find bitting to be easy after.

The next thing I do is make sure the bit is either soft (so it doesn’t clunk against the teeth) or thin mouthed. You will not be riding the horse in a bit until that horse is completely comfortable with the bit, so don’t worry about the mouthpiece not being the correct one for riding in. This is about training the horse to accept it. Remember: what is the lesson? The lesson is singular. Don’t lose the lesson…

I like to place my right hand over the poll and hold the crown of the headstall. That way the horse gets use to a hand above their eye. Often, this is the only reason a horse won’t bridle: they are not comfortable with hands above their eyes. I believe your horse should get use to your hands anywhere on them, and this is a good place to start. It’s also a good place for me to move with the horse as they dip and bob their heads every which way to avoid the inevitable.

My left hand is on the bit, but I won’t try to bit the horse right away. My first lesson is to get the horse use to me being there, and I will follow their head where ever it goes (for most of them, I still have a handler holding a lead line attached to a halter under the headstall). I don’t want the horse to wander off but I don’t like horses being restricted: they need to know they can move their feet, and can’t get rid of me.

If this is a young horse, you shouldn’t have too many problems, but I am writing this under the assumption the horse is really tough. So, put your “patient” hat on, unplug the phone and let’s go to work.

You want the same reaction: stand quiet while I have a bit in my hand and a finger in your mouth. Once the horse is quiet and accepting, drop the bit and treat the horse. Continue the above, and follow that horse’s head where ever it goes. This is always the fun part, because I make it sound easy, but it’s not. It really sucks. Some horses are very crafty, especially the older ones that have been scarred so badly you will exercise more patience than a human could tolerate. But you are a horse trainer, and therefore an extraordinary person to begin with! You can do it!

The turning point is when the horse feels the bit against the teeth. This is where you have to really listen. I have had horses blow over backwards, even though I had my fingers in their mouths for 3 days with no problems. This is history and you may not be privy to the abuse a horse may have endured. This is where compassion comes in, because there are horses you will never bit. Listen and watch the reaction of the horse you are working with. If the horse does begin to settle (and those signs can be very small, but if you pay attention you will spot them, and remember, what may be small to you is a really big deal to a horse) you have the green light to continue. Once in a lifetime, if you do this work enough, you will run into a horse that does not deserve a bit: usually from prior abuse, in which case I will surrender my work, play with their gums and teeth and find an alternative to a bit. There are many alternatives out there, and unless you are showing, there is no reason to subject a horse to more torture. Some things are best laid to rest…

But there is a big difference between a horse that has been terribly abused and a horse that has been craftily trained to avoid a bit. Listen carefully, watch for fear versus intelligence…

Most times the h0rse will eventually come around and once you are able to open the mouth wide without a fight, you can attempt to slip the bit in. Do this quickly and gently: timing must be on your side here. Do not rush this, as you don’t want the bit to hit the teeth. Take your time and get that mouth open for more than 1/10 of a second! Once you have the bit in, gently but quickly get the headstall on. Then it’s treat time: that horse must find a reward at the end of this. For a young horse, the first bit in the mouth will also be met with trouble eating, so don’t overload the carrot pieces.

So, the easy part is now over. NOW you have to take the bit OUT. This can sometimes break the whole lesson. Often, people get excited and pull the bridle off, which gets stuck on the teeth on the way out, and the horse throws their head up really high, pulls backward and you end up hurting the horse or scaring him and the whole 3 days of work was for nothing. So, once again, you are going to use timing and patience, and wait until that horse has their mouth really open, and you must bring that bit out of the mouth without hitting teeth.

This is why rubber bits come in handy: try to find a thin mouthed one. If you can’t, find a thin mouthed bit and wrap “Sealtex” on it: it’s a rubber wrap from the racetrack. You cut and stretch it onto a bit really tight and thin, and it makes a rubber bit for a short while (horses eventually chew it off).

If you are fairly new to horses and are not that comfortable with your timing, practice on an older, steady horse that is fairly good at bridling. Practice perfect bitting: no teeth banging, time the release of the bit and headstall (remember, you are holding onto the crown, and that hand must release as well).

Once a horse is good at bitting, you can refine the process. You can begin to just hold the cheeks of the bridle (sides) and bring the bit to the lips. Eventually the horse will get use to this method and open their mouth in anticipation. This in turn leads to the horse putting his face into the bridle without you doing much of anything.

And, of course, if you punish your horse in the mouth when you ride, don’t expect him to bit easily.

Hope that helps and have many happy trails!

Answer from April Reeves: Hi SallyAnne. This is a common problem but not easily solved at this stage. There may be several things going on here to build this mare up to this point so I will go over them individually.

Multiple riders: regarding having more than one person ride your horse, especially a young or green one. Humans need to fully understand how sensitive horses really are. While you may think both these riders ride the same as you, nothing is farther from the truth. It sounds like you started the mare and you both were getting along fine. Often instructors can ride a student’s horse for a short time, but eventually the horse may become frustrated at the slightest variance. Rider weight distribution through turns, balance, hand position and more all signal to the horse to do something. Without consistency, a horse can become agitated and bitter. And eventually fight back, if the horse has a tendency to this in the first place. There are many horses that will just tolerate it and shut down. That’s the other side of the problem.

I will give you an example of just one of the barns I teach at that suffers endlessly from this method of multiple riders, and has not figured it out yet. There is a 5 year old mare with little to no real training. I taught one student on this mare’s mother, and at the beginning it was a nightmare, as others would ride her, even though the owner said they all ride the same and are good riders. The mare eventually became a full lease to this student and things improved dramatically. We spent a year in shows doing exceptionally well. The student left and the horse went back to “other good riders”, where the mare went back into anxiety and stress, and at the age of 16, died in the pasture one day. No blood tests could find the problem. I knew what the problem was, but no one was listening.

I was asked to ride this mare’s filly. I only work young horses if I am the only person that touches them for the first 6 months. I was assured of this. At month 3, when this mare was making great headway, I found a group of kids riding the filly in the field. I stopped training on the filly that day.

I now teach another adult student on this filly, but the same signs are showing up in her as was in her mother. She is highly anxious and strung tight. It’s only a matter of time when fates collide.

Your statement “she started pinning her ears for everyone who got on her back” was the trigger for me. You don’t need anyone else on your horse. You have an instructor that’s good. You have support. You seem to be doing well. If your back still hurts, do slow work. Much can be accomplished at a walk: indeed, most of my work for precision is at a walk. I call it “the forgotten gait”. Everyone uses it at the end of the ride only. The walk is such a valuable tool.

Mares: I have ridden countless mares and find them to be the best, over geldings and stallions. When you get a good mare, you get a great one. I believe it’s because, like stallions, they have all their hormones. But one truth I know for sure, many of them are sensitive and one-person animals. Not everyone can ride a stallion, and the same goes for mares. So now we have this issue with your mare and being asked to accept 2 additional riders. Although I can’t watch this in person, I can put money on it that she is acting out her disgust at the lack of consistency (which humans cannot feel) and having to “process” each command given that has any variance what so ever. Not all mares can take this, especially at a young age.

Speed training: We ask too much too fast sometimes. Horses learn faster by going slower and steadier. Humans often have a difficult time acknowledging this, and trainers often push a horse before they are ready. Often you will know this is happening through the reaction the horse will give back. In your case, your mare is telling you something on no uncertain terms.

Punishment: I see far too many riders/trainers punish a trait out of a horse, thinking the horse needs “discipline”. What horses need is consistency (I keep going back to this because some things are worth repeating). When a horse does something you don’t want him to do, set him up to do the right thing. You can alter the habits of a horse easier by working with the things he does well, reward him often, and bring in new information once the horse is not just comfortable but firmly established in a permanent pattern to his previous training.

I’m not saying this was what was happening, but I am giving you big clues as to how to solve the problem of her pinned ears and kicking out. If you were to show any form of aggressive vocals when her ears go back, or spank her for her kicking, you could increase those nasty habits. Slow down, find something she’s good at and likes to do, reward the heck out of her (I like treats) and eventually she will enjoy her work.

Go slow……

I have watched brilliantly trained top show horses move into homes with really lovely riders on the outside, but instead of using proper “tools” to get through rough spots, they take it out on the horse, destroying the symbiotic relationship you can have with your mount.

Morgans: I have trained and showed many of them. I do know that there are certain lines that are more emotional than others. I have witnessed a Morgan gelding have a complete mental breakdown from being pushed too far too fast: it’s something you won’t ever forget. My first show horse was a Morgan mare, and one of the best horses I ever had. No one else rode her the whole time I owned her, and it showed. Beautiful, loyal, honest, faithful, trustworthy and kind. This is not a horse I got by chance: this was a horse I built, step by step, as she was emotional, and you could either bring it out or pay attention and ride her with respect. Many horses only ask that you meet them half way.

Back issues: you can test muscle damage yourself by running your thumb and index finger lightly down the back on either side of the spine. Start light so you don’t get hurt. Go back and repeat, adding pressure. If the horse still doesn’t flinch, repeat and add quite a bit of pressure, but not so much that any horse would flinch under this. You will know right away if it’s a back issue, and all horse owners need to know this simple exercise.

Equipment: Anyone using spurs improperly? Seen this more times than I want to. We can count the saddle as a neutral since you had a professional out. I examine everything: bit fit, headstalls, girths/cinches, saddle pads, everything. I was called to a big barn to work with a great horse that just started bucking out of the blue. I tore the saddle off to find a small piece of wood lodged in the sheepskin, poking him in the kidneys. The horse went back to work and was fine. I could have discovered this and brought the horse out and ridden him: his owners would have though I was magic, but it was a valuable lesson for them to look for the smallest of things. Overlook nothing.

Inconsistency: Here’s that “consistency” thing again! Everything we do is “training”. Everything. Should a horse begin to balk, and that balking and “getting sticky” is not addressed by the third time it happens, you have now begun to set up a bad habit (human words) but really, you’ve established “training”. The horse does not know the difference between bad training and good training. Maybe it’s not the training you wanted to see, but none the less, to the horse, it’s training/habit. If your mare went unchecked for too long by either of the other riders, she may have considered herself to be suppose to NOT move forward and getting sticky is okay. Then she’s either smacked or punished for the very thing she was just “trained” for, and in this, you set up a pattern for anxiety and aggressive behaviors as the horse “acts out” from sheer frustration. This is not an easy thing for many to see, but after enough years you can see this being set up within one ride. If a horse does not have a solid, consistent background, anyone can mess the horse up, unconsciously. People don’t mean to: it’s a tough habit for a rider to get out of or even realize they are doing it.

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I find when a rider is off for a while, consider it a good break for the horse. She is only 4. Her bones are still growing, especially her spine, more so than her legs. My thoughts: get everyone off the mare and only you work with her. You can longe her, take her for walks and do a lot of other things with her to re-establish your bonds. This is so vitally important for mares. They are strong herd members, and thrive on one-to-one contact. Just try it for 2 months and see if it works. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If you were my student I would suggest to keep your horse to yourself. If you don’t feel you have the ability to get the horse where you want it to go, either set your standards to a place your mare can work with, go slower, take lessons that deal specifically with the problem you are having at that point (I find way too many instructors hold students back or don’t focus on riding in the “here and now”).

And if your back still hurts, give me your address off this site and I’ll send you a free non-drug pain reliever that’s awesome. It’s my horseman’s little secret….

Thanks for the question SallyAnne and I hope something here resonates for you!

Answer from April Reeves: No Angela, he’s not likely sick. He’s likely trained to do that, and you trained him. I know what you’re thinking right now “Gosh, no April, I’ve never trained him for that!’ but we unconsciously train our horses to do many things we don’t want them to do.

This is a typical scenario when you first learn about jumping. You aim at a jump, pray the horse will keep going, and then immediately stop the horse after you go over the fence and take a look at your accomplishment. If that isn’t training a horse to stop after every fence I don’t know what is!

One of the first elements you need in a jumping horse is to get the horse “in front of your legs”. What does this mean? The horse must continue to move forward on it’s own accord until you ask it to change (You will get a good feel for this when you watch the below post’s video cam of Peter Atkin’s riding) . It’s not a horse running away from you: it’s a horse that has forward momentum without the feeling of him stalling out and backing away from your leg. Horses should go forward without spurs or continual use of legs every stride. When you apply your leg, the horse should respond and stay there. That takes training. That takes time and work, and if you are not prepared to do the work then you can’t move forward and do what you want to do with your horse. Very simple, but in my experience most riders will never make it to where they want to go. You can’t cheat: you can’t go from grade 2 to grade 12. It doesn’t work that way.

Another thing you must do when jumping: never, EVER, end at a jump. Always DO something else after it. Ride a circle, rein back and canter off again and stop, counter canter, change leads, but don’t stop and admire your work or you will ‘train’ your horse to do this and he will continue to stall out because he’s expecting you to stop!

You also need to train your horse how to ‘rate’ his speed. You have to be able to shorten and lengthen his strides at will. You can practice this with 2 poles on the ground. Set them at 4 ½ canter strides and ride them at 5 strides (what you would ride in a show ring course), 6 strides (a balanced, shorter strided canter) and 4 strides (stretched gallop canter).

Try a simple exercise (but do it perfectly). Sit centered and balanced with your leg a little longer. At the halt, ask nicely for the walk forward. If there is no response, ask again but stronger and if he still doesn’t move forward, ask with leg, voice (cluck) and crop all at the same time. Once he moves, stop nagging him. Go with it. Halt again and do it again. Eventually the horse will wake up and begin to move off your leg. Move up into the trot. Walk and trot and halt. Repeat. Once that’s better, skip the walk and go from a halt to the trot. Get your horse “hot” off your leg. This takes time and practice; really consistent practice done perfectly. This is the beginning of a horse in front of your leg.

Transfer this into faster gaits until the horse is in front of your leg. You will feel the difference. All this work must be done with your body upright and tall in the saddle. DO NOT lean forward!!

Just a note about tack: often I find people’s girths are too close to the front of the horse and impede his movement. Watch your horse move: is his front leg hitting the girth when it’s back? As he swings his legs, can the horse move freely without hitting the girth on the way back? If the girth interferes it will have an effect on the horse’s performance.

Always ask yourself if you have trained your horse to do the very thing you DON’T want him to do. More often than not, this is the case. Also, if your instructor can’t figure this one out, move on.

Video cam of Peter Atkins and Henny at Richland Park CIC, 2010

I hope that everyone that visits comes away with something, even if it’s small, that they can take back to their horse and work on.

We are always learning. As a clinician and trainer, I know I learn from you and my students every day as well. That’s the beauty about this industry: horses never cease to amaze and surprise us.

Through all these articles is a common thread: leave your ego and emotion at the gate before you see your horse – within every problem lies the solution – horses do not know the difference between English and Western – horses are more connected and sensitive than humans give them credit for – they cannot learn the English language.

A great big Thank You to everyone that made the 20,000! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it. If it helps the horse, it helps the world…

Answer from April Reeves: Hi Cindy, That is one of the strangest things I have ever heard, but I may have an explanation.

Years ago, my friend’s Champion Morgan gelding at the time took to climbing walls and diving into corners. Just out of the blue one day! So she got after him, and the horse lost it. It seems that he just had enough of whatever they did day after day, and he broke down mentally. Yes, it appears that horses can break mentally, and before they do, they send us a few “warning signs” much like your horse is doing, with unusual behaviors. Should we choose to ignore those signs, or take the horse’s confidence away with aggressive behavior or getting after them, we may get to witness a horse having a nervous breakdown. It wasn’t pretty.

There is a great deal of information that I am missing, such as how much work do you do in the arena, what else you do with him and what your training schedule is like, but from the little you have told me, it has an eerie similarity to the above gelding.

If your gelding changes direction in the same place, you could conclude it had something to do with that particular spot, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, so cancel that out.

Is there some riding “habit” you have formed that may signal this change, and that he is simply doing something you are asking (unconsciously)? Something even your trainer can’t pick up? I’m just throwing these suggestions out to you. This is a tough one to diagnose without being able to be there.

My gut instinct, from years of watching all forms of unusual behavior, is that your gelding has had enough of whatever you are doing, and he’s playing it out in a form of behavior that appears unusual (to you but not for a horse). Since they can’t speak English, they use their own language to say “Hey, let’s mix it up once in a while”. I use to say “horses don’t get bored – people get bored” but through my life I have altered that. There are the odd horses (and I just lost one) that need a change in their routines daily. If I attempted to do the same thing with my past horse, Max, he would take to halting whenever and wherever he wanted. It was his way of saying “enough is enough”. Not every horse can handle daily repetition.

How to test for this? Change what you are doing and where. Take him out for a ride every third day. Change arenas every day. Mix it up. Add new things. Go back to foundation work and keep it simple. One thing that really stresses almost any horse out, is to get on and immediately demand things from them. I see this daily: in fact, it keeps me in business! I have 2 things I do when I ride and I do this with EVERY horse: When I start my ride, I trot varying sized circles with “hands to the buckle” and allow the horse to stretch longitudinally and warm up those muscle sets, and to show, at the beginning, that I will not put that horse in any form of pain or harm. I build up trust this way and get a horse that, eventually, could be a “routine” horse if need be. Another thing I always do is allow a horse to “soak” in new things, or something he has done well. I will do this 20-30 times a ride. I usually let them walk “hands to the buckle” or stand quietly, and I never wind a horse when I ride. I use to years ago, but found a much better way to get through to them.

While training is all about progression, I often take a day now and then and just go back to basics. Real baby foundation work. It kind of gives them this added boost of confidence, since this is work that’s easy and they don’t have to think too much. I believe we put our horses into all kinds of situations that put huge amounts of stress on them: the kind of stress a horse will avoid “at all costs” should he be on his own in the wild. Then we lack the tolerance and patience needed to help him through those situations, and our horses pay the price.

Should you do all the above, then all I can suggest is that he has learned something from you that you will have to fix. You need to be keenly aware of what you are doing when he does this. What are your hands doing? Your body language? Legs?

The next step is to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. This is an idea that’s as old as the hills, but people forget it all the time. Keep it in your memory and you will solve 99% of all your riding problems.

The second he turns one way, shut him down the opposite way with a one rein stop, then once he has stopped, immediately move back into the original gait you were in. If he suddenly turns to the left, shut him down to the right. You will have to teach him the basics of this exercise first if he doesn’t know it. And if he doesn’t know this foundation, you are missing valuable work that may now be presenting itself in his behavior. I can always tell if a horse is missing work. It shows in many ways. That’s usually why problems come up: the horse does not have the tools to be able to deal with what you are asking him to do.

If you need to know how to use the One Rein Stop, you can read about it on this blog. There are great foundation exercises there as well. Otherwise, short of seeing this myself, the above is all I can offer you right now Cindy. I hope this works, and that you and your gelding go back to having fun again.

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

Link for advanced work:
http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/how-to-collect-horse/

Answer from April Reeves: This is such an important question and if you read my past posts you will see I say the same thing over and over again. Let’s review this, as we keep coming back to it, time and time again.

Why do horses lose their nerves? Why do they get edgy and do things we don’t want them to do? I want you to really think about this question, because if you can’t answer it, you can’t train or ride your horse past where you are now, and it’s likely you will get worse. The question poses a problem, and within every problem lies the answer. Now – start thinking…

What did you come up with? See if it matches anything I’m about to say.

It’s very simple, yet we cannot seem to wrap our “human” brains around this. It all comes back to “Foundation Training”. Every bit of it. When you hit a brick wall with your horse, it’s because of these things:

1. Your horse is missing something in his foundation work (flat work) that he needs to get him through what you are asking him. Horses need “tools” that we humans must provide in order for the horse to have the confidence to go places, do things and perform what we ask from them. As simple as this sounds, we never see this, so we continue to press the horse to perform the very thing he has no tools for, and then blows up. And we are left wondering why we bought such a stupid horse, when all along, it was us that was lacking the skills to help the horse move through his “job requirements”.

We get on our horses every day and ride them in the future. We think we should be jumping, when really, the horse, and always of course, the rider, does not have the skills it takes to get the horse there. The rider misses all the important work, and rides the horse as if it should perform the way top horses do – but the work it takes to get there is vast and difficult.

We need to learn to ride in the “here and now”. If our horse cannot handle a certain fence or cannot go quietly beside a man fanning himself, then we are riding that horse “in the future”, when we should be concentrating, at home, on the basics.

2. CONSISTENCY: I cannot stress this enough. Riders that lack the discipline it takes to ride well and ride correctly (equitation) will always be having problems they can’t fix. We buy the horse and we buy the feed, but we stop there and think we can learn this stuff on our own, but in reality, it’s so incredibly important to get the training to learn how to ride, sit, use your seat and legs, get soft hands and do it all, every day, with consistency. You can watch all the video in the world on flat work, but if you are not consistent with a quality ride from you, the human, everything else goes out the window.

Your pony and you need to go back to the beginning and start over. If you can, get really good lessons from someone with a track record of getting people to the top. I have two English/Jumping coaches: one was a Canadian Olympic rider and the other is a short list for the Canadian team. This is what it takes. My western trainers have always been at the top of their game in the show ring and training world. Not that you can’t learn from coaches and instructors that don’t have this: but it does matter that you get the discipline and equitation first.

3. Ride a finished horse. I can’t stress this enough. If you don’t know what your end result is, how can you possibly get there?

If your pony is not consistent and steady in the jumping ring, you need to go back to flat work and get it perfected. I won’t go through the work on this post, but there are many articles here on getting rhythm, balance and obedience.

You will find that once you start establishing the basic tools, your pony will not spook or run out, because he has the confidence to go where you lead him. We often try to fix problems, when really we need to replace the bad habits with good ones.

We spend too much time “correcting” problems like spooking and rearing, when it all comes down to basic work done well, consistently, until the horse knows it intrinsically. Horses have to know their jobs, but most of them have no clue what that looks or feels like. In fact, 95% of the horses out there have no idea what to do and what is expected from them. Most of them blindly go along, packing their human around and hopefully never encountering a problem so big that they need to run or bolt or rear.

Ride in the ‘here and now’. When you encounter a problem, go back to basics. Ask yourself what tool your horse is missing. Always ask yourself if you are riding consistently and correctly. Do the work it takes to improve every day. Read, absorb and go to every clinic you can, even if it’s just to audit. Study the great teachers and ride a finished horse. Grow.

On your basic question of your pony refusing – when a horse refuses a fence, drop it to the ground and have her trot over it until it means nothing to her. If she tries to go to either side to avoid it, put up guard poles to keep her centered. This helps her understand what you are asking her to do. Always set your horse up to win.

There are three things to check for before jumping: 1: Do you have enough impulsion for the horse to get over the fence? 2. Do you have an even consistent rhythm? Is your canter smooth and even in pace/tempo, or are you always going faster and slower? 3. Is your line to the fence straight? Are you in the middle of the fence? Three things need to be in place for a good jump: Impulsion, Rhythm, Line.

For you, the rider, make sure he moves off your legs. Keep your legs on her in a consistent fashion that she stays straight. Keep your eyes ahead: don’t look down. Horses follow your eyes. If you look down, that’s asking her to stay right there in that spot. Look where you are going. You ride the horse, not her face. Don’t lean forward: you overbalance your weight on the horse’s front end when you do that, and the result is a horse that stops. Sit back. Drive the hind end forward. Use your legs to steer, not the reins. Reins, hands: those are aids you use as a last resort. Your legs, seat, voice and weight always come first.

Set all the poles on the ground and trot over them until your pony is so accustomed to it that it means nothing to her as she has the confidence to know they won’t hurt her, bite him or scare her. Then, slowly, one by one, raise them an inch. Do the same thing over again, trotting over the poles about 2 inches off the ground. Move up very slowly over time: baby steps.

We don’t jump all the time. We often jump twice a week for 2 weeks, then go back to flat work for a month, get more consistent, and go back to cavaletti and small fences again. You won’t get a good jumper by jumping all the time. You get a good jumper by doing it correctly, and having great flat work.

Once your pony is consistent with small fences, add some unusual elements, like a small tarp, or colors and flowers or things that smell different. Get her so use to new smells and visuals that nothing is new to her anymore.

Get off the rail. Quit riding your horse on the rail. This is what inexperienced riders do, but how can you test if your horse is straight if you need the rail to always prop you up? Get off the rail and ride about 3-6 feet on the inside. Go across the diagonal a lot. Go up and down the inside of the ring at all gaits. Only a truly straight horse can jump well.

These tips should give you a head start to solving your problems. I urge you though to seek competent instruction. Even if it’s just 3 or 4 lessons to get you back in shape, please think about it. It will be the best money you ever spend.

Answer from April Reeves: Getting the shoulder from dropping is a task that requires a great deal of sensitivity and timing. I will walk you through it and you can take it as you feel comfortable.

As with any gait problems we’ll start at the walk:

Begin a medium sized circle.

Keep your outside rein loose and soft, and your hand in a comfortable position. Never bring your outside hand over the wither.

Drop a bit more weight on your outside stirrup than your inside stirrup. Do not twist your body or lean when doing this: continue to sit tall and straight. Leaning will destroy the lesson you are trying to teach.

Bring your inside hand (inside hand is always the hand on the inside of the turn) up towards your opposite shoulder, and move the rein in a soft give and take. Do not pull on the rein or lean on it. It is merely “suggesting” to the horse to lift the shoulder. Do it for a few times, then relax and move forward. It will feel like a soft tug on the rein.

Let the horse walk forward for a few strides, then repeat the circle and the process. Do this for about 10-15 times, and switch sides. Horses are never unbalanced on one side only: where there’s a problem on one side, there’s a problem on the other side as well. Problems are always connected.

Eventually, over a week or two with consistent soft work, you will begin to see your horse’s shoulder soften. This is not the type of training you can fix in a day: this is long term work that you may do for the life of the horse.

Once you get comfortable in the walk (after 3-5 days) bring the horse to a jog or trot and repeat the process. Eventually you will move into the canter.

One note: when riding, try to rotate at the waist instead of leaning. Keep your pelvic bones in the saddle as you are going forward, and rotate at the waist, bringing your outside shoulder into the turn. This transfers down to your horse, and eventually if you are consistent with this, the horse will pick up the signal for the turn and move into position quicker. Bringing your outside shoulder around also makes you a prettier rider: another technique in equitation classes.

There are many other contributing factors to a dropping shoulder. You may want to do some of the foundation work I have listed on his blog. These exercises will help with your horse’s general balance and bending.

Answer from April Reeves: Oddly enough, a well-mannered hot horse comes down to good ground manners, not time on a lunge line. I often see some of the hottest horses that are still safe because they have been taught the skills to know how to channel the “heat”. Ground manners are everything.

I do not lunge a horse that is quiet, as I don’t need to and like to have the energy in the saddle, not burned out around a circle.

If the horse is hot or not joined with me in the work, then that horse is put to work until his lungs catch up with his brain. They all have a “breaking point” where they finally exhale and chew. Then you can go to work and learn something.

A horse’s individual characteristics play a huge part in the history you will have with your horse. Once in a while you get the odd one that needs to grow up until the age of 7 or 8 before you can really do anything satisfactorily with them. Others are quiet and consistent from birth. It’s all a game of give and take. You never know what you will get.

It’s also a matter of your personal skills. I’ve seen quiet horses turn hot in the wrong hands. Horses have the potential to be anything: it’s up to us.

I do like to lunge the individual horse that’s not balanced or has inconsistent gaits. It gives them a chance to learn circles before I get on. I have a style that incorporates lunging and groundwork that helps the horse from getting too much of one thing, or overstresses joints and legs. I move from lunging to groundwork to lunging and back and forth until the horse and I see eye to eye, literally.

The “sending exercise” tends to “shake” the horse up and asks him to think continually as you change direction often (each time the horse evades you). It’s a technique for horses that are screaming to go back to the herd or any time you need two eyes (their full attention). They will get quite tired quickly (as you stress them mentally), and eventually they come to know this exercise as a method of connection rather than a method of exercise as lunging can be. I find lunging to be more of an exercise method and the sending exercise a way to join up with the horse quickly.

If you just lunge a hot horse and do not use any groundwork or behavioral methods, you run the risk of having a fit, unruly horse.

If your horse is safe under saddle, why not try to ride one day without lunging? You may be surprised. Once a horse is safe under saddle, I ride because there is magic in a horse that has raw energy. You will learn to work “with” that energy instead of exhausting it. This is a turning point for many riders. This is where you learn real skills and you become more tuned into horses and their behaviors.

Try this link for learning the sending exercise: http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

If your horse is safe to ride (no bolting, rearing, bucking) then try it one day. You may be surprised at just how lovely a horse with “contained energy” is. Now you have something you can work with. Try it and let me know how it goes!

3 months later:

Hello April,

I wrote to you in the early spring about my horse needing to be lunged. You suggested I ride him without being lunged, remember? Well, I tried it, and now I have retired my lunge line! Wow, I have a new horse now! It was quite fun at first, like getting to know him all over again. I am more confident as well. He was a really good horse all that time but I just went with the status quo and did what everyone just did. Thank you for the advice and keep this blog going! I am trying some of the groundwork you suggest. We english riders don’t really use it much but I’m beginning to see a need, especially with some of the new horses that just came in. I’ll send them to your site for some training! Let me know if you ever do a clinic this way. Thanks again, Michelle, VA

There are several issues around banning horse slaughter. One is simple: ignorant horse owners will simply abandon their horses somewhere or leave them to starve. An ugly truth for anyone that has come across this, but the horse world does have this reputation of attracting some of the bottom dregs of society (I don’t mince words and I don’t apologize for them). Secondly, Canada is about to put tons of our taxpaying dollars into an “Equine Passport” that no one can completely control. Once again.

I just lost a horse: I put him down as it was the humane thing to do. Someone commented after that I could have made $500 on his carcass. My horse was so full of antibiotics, bute, other chemicals and drugs to keep him alive for those 6 days that I’m sure his “meat” would have killed someone. But yes, I could have released him into society, if I lacked integrity.

Take a read on this and let me know what you think. Should we propose some “law/rule/governance” that every horse owner should partake in, such as a fee for euthanizing that goes into the “coffers” before a horse is bought? Or ????

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 17, 2010

ATAMANENKO MOVES TO BAN HORSE MEAT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION

OTTAWA – New Democrat Agriculture Critic, Alex Atamanenko (BC southern Interior) tabled a Private Members Bill (C-544) yesterday that would effectively shut down the slaughtering of horses for human consumption in Canada.

“The fact is that drugs which are prohibited for use during the life of any animals destined for the human food supply are routinely being administered to horses,” said Atamanenko. “It is irresponsible for Canada to allow the sale of meat from horses as a food item when they have never been raised in accordance with the food safety practices required for all other animals.”

Atamanenko points to the inexpensive, easily available and widely used anti-inflammatory drug, phenylbutazone (bute), as one example of what is quite likely to be prevalent in horsemeat.  Bute is a known carcinogen and its use is illegal in any animal that enters the food supply.

“It is more likely than not that the vast majority of horses will have been administered bute, or ‘horse’s aspirin’ as it is commonly called,” said Atamanenko.

According to Atamanenko, at least fifty per cent of the horses being slaughtered in Canada are imported from the US where horse slaughter has been banned. The meat is then sold to markets in Europe. There are no regulations in the US to prevent horse owners from administering banned substances because horses are not regarded or treated as food-producing animals.

Under pressure from the European Union (EU), Canada is set to introduce a new ‘equine passport’ system to track the health history and medical treatments of horses arriving at slaughterhouses, including those from the States.

Atamanenko believes that it will be impossible for CFIA to verify data in these passports and expects to see a high incidence of inaccurate records.

“Many in the US believe it should be our job to verify information from US horses since Canada is the only one slaughtering them for human consumption,” concluded the Atamanenko. “It’s a stretch to think that information on hundreds of thousands of unwanted horses that were never raised to be food, will be complete or accurate.”

-30-

For more information:
Office of Alex Atamanenko, 613-996-8036

Also, I read some other answers to similar questions like mine, and all the answers state that it is all the riders fault. I would just like you to know that I am a very good rider and I am never harsh on my horses. I just simply cannot find an appropriate bit, and am looking for suggestions. Your help is appreciated!! Thanks! Olivia

Answer from April Reeves: Hello Olivia. Thanks for asking me this question, as I will be honest and keep it real, but it may not be what you want to hear. I urge you to consider my answer, as it is the only way you will fix your problem.

My first suggestion: consider another coach and get the softest bit you can find. I kid you not, and this is why:

When a rider comes to me with a problem like your having over fences, it has nothing to do with bits and everything to do with lack of a good foundation on a horse (and rider). You won’t solve the problem with a harsher bit: it will only slow down the horse for a few days until that bit also becomes useless, as his mouth gets tougher and tougher and he gets stronger and stronger (ie: his brain). I’m not being mean: I’m just keeping it real.

A twisted D ring is used only for a short time, like a lesson per month, to get the horse’s brain back, and in my lifetime I have only known about 5 horses that could even handle that style of “re-training”. Any twisted mouthpiece is not a daily bit. Ever. It takes sensitive, experienced hands to not damage and destroy what you started with.

It’s important to step back and ask why the horse gets strong in the first place. It’s not a bit issue: a new bit won’t solve it. It’s the training. Somewhere in his training he has missed some very vital steps. You can either ignore this and get a harsher bit and keep your problems, or you, as the good rider you say you are, can learn how to solve problems through patient and consistent work. I do question your trainer. Anyone worth paying for should have the basic sense to discover the solution, not increase the bit. It’s inexcusable. Since you are a good rider, read on.

Your horse has gone from grade 2 to grade 12 somewhere in his work, missing all the important stuff in the middle. It’s your job to go back to grade 2, take the time you need, and fill in the blanks.

Put the mildest bit on him you can find (French link), before you start this work. You will not be jumping high for a few weeks or even a month, but the end result will give you more reward than finding a new bit in the store every few weeks. It will make you a better rider and horseman.

I have helped hundreds of jumping students with this problem so I urge you to work through this.

First, consider WHY the horse does this? Often it’s anxiety that builds up over time from not having the “tools” to be able to do what you are asking him to do, easily and confidently. Yes, he can get over a jump, but that’s not a healthy picture. Horses rush fences because they are not equipped to “think” and assess the challenges you continually put in front of them. In order for a horse to jump calmly and clearly, he needs the luxury of time and SLOW, patient work to build up his confidence and his body. Many horses that are jumped too soon, too fast and too high also suffer pain somewhere, and are looking to get it over with as soon as possible. I have not yet seen a jumper without some pain somewhere. It’s chronic: horses can jump: but it doesn’t mean they should be, especially all the time as some do.

The first thing you are going to do is to allow your horse to teach himself, so that you don’t have to do all the thinking for you both. Teach him to think. This is where confidence is built. When you micro-manage a horse through every step, you take away his ability to think and you create anxiety that leads to dozens of behavioral problems like what you are discovering now: plus if you ever change your aids even slightly or ask just a little different one day because you are tired or cranky, you set up a pattern of fear in a horse because they lose faith in your ability to make good choices for the horse’s survival.

Once you add a harder bit to the equation you will likely get a worse response than what you are currently dealing with.

However, before I go into great lengths to explain what and how to get your horse soft and responsive, I first want to know from you if this is something you want to know. It takes me hours to write these pieces and I want to know it’s something you are interested in. From your question it seems you only need a bit recommendation, but everyone is telling you it’s training. Should you still feel it’s just a bit, let me know. I’m sincerely interested in helping you – it’s good to see a happy horse and rider team, especially when the horse is light and soft over fences.

You may want to go over some of my jumping articles and see if something clicks with you. I’ll post the links to them here for you to consider. Otherwise, I hope you and your horse sort it out without any more pain to the horse. When horses have problems, they are trying to tell you something. Listen carefully.

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/oldenburghorse-over-jumps/

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/jumper-surges-falls-forehand/

This last article was a horse very similar to yours Olivia. She did the work and had interesting things to say after.

http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/horse-rushes-refuses-jumps/

Hope these links help Olivia. If you need or want further information please don’t hesitate to contact me!

June 16 Response:

Olivia: Thank you very much! You were very helpful and the articles are very similar to my problem. I will continue to focus on the basics and collecting my horse. I will also get a soft bit. Would you suggest a happy mouth rubber D ring?

April: I’m glad it helped!

As for bits, I’m not an advocate of rubber bits. Yes, they are soft, but they are also somewhat ineffective in a short time. They work on babies just learning what a bit is about, but very few horses can spend their lives in them.

I use two styles: a french link and a french link with a roller in the middle. The basic french link has a little dog bone in the middle (I like the flat dog bone) and the other roller french link has a roller instead of the dog bone. It’s my favorite bit and works well on almost any horse, but it’s hard to find. What I will do is post this on my blog along with a photo of the french link roller. That way you will be able to see the bits and make an informed choice. Give me a day or so: I have to shoot the photos! But I will do that for you and probably hundreds of others that would like to see the difference. You can order the roller bit from most tack stores, but you need to bring in the photo of the bit for them, as most people won’t know what you’re talking about! It’s unusual. But highly effective. It has link joints that no other bit has: I believe it contributes to it’s effectiveness.

Thanks Olivia, and let me know how it goes. If you need anything just ask.

Answer from April Reeves: Arabians are one of my favorite breeds: they are highly sensitive and intelligent, and learn fast. And they’re just incredibly beautiful as well.

They also can get a little out of control, which always brings me back to groundwork. An Arabian can never have enough groundwork. It’s great for their minds and they catch on to it faster than many breeds.

I have many articles for you to read from my blog, as the answer to your problems is a small book. I’ll post the links below for you. I always answer questions that give a rider real results, not fluff, so take some time and go through them.

One note: It’s not likely your horse has a back issue or needs medical attention. When he is standing quiet (in his stall?) run your hand gently down each side of his spine. If he dips his back or gestures any form of discomfort or pain, you will know if his back is a problem.

So, lots and lots of groundwork! Especially for English horses: they often lack ground manners. Western horses are usually quieter, and it’s not always a “breed” thing. I’ve watched the Arabian English classes and then watched the Arabian reining classes, and it looks like two completely different breeds sometimes! Western trainers know how to connect with their horses a bit better sometimes…

Here are the links:

Arabian with fast trot: http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/arabian-mare-fast-trot/

Great article on basic manners both under saddle and on the ground – this article has the sending exercise which I believe could help your Arab: http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/groundwork-saddle-work-herd-bound-horse/

Another good under-saddle set of exercises for framing and finishing: http://aprilreeveshorsetraining.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/how-to-collect-horse/

One thing to always remember, groundwork needs to be done consistently and you need to keep going until you get a result, even if it’s small. Too many people give up and concede victory to the horse, not realizing you just set him up to being “trained” to become worse! This will be especially true in the sending exercise: don’t quit, even if it means you are both soaked with sweat. As long as he is still behaving badly, keep up the work. It will pay off.

Let me know how it goes Stefanie! Arabians are awesome horses! Well worth the work!

We drove to this large farm and a rolling field with 11 mares: most with foals and back in foal. The stallion ran wild with them: a no-so-great quarter horse with a nasty chunk of hide off his back leg (exposed and proud fleshed) with nice side profile but on the weedy side. No papers (as usual) and breeding mares of almost every breed other than quarter horse.

Also, as usual, a group of drug addicted men were there to shout and scream to get the horses to “obey”. This is why I don’t usually do this: just want to tie them all up and duct tape their mouths. I soon discovered, all the horses were completely wild: I don’t imagine many of them had been handled in over a decade, and most never touched by a human at all. Their feet were unbelievable.

My friend was after an Arabian cross mare and her colt. After a closer look, once we “softly” moved them into a smaller corral, I noticed the Arabian cross was broken down in the back pastern area, and my friend wanted her to pleasure ride into the hills for several days. Not a good choice.

There were 2 big mares: dark bays with 4 white legs. One had foaled that previous night, and her placenta was not fully discarded. The owners of these horses (son of the father) didn’t seem to understand the consequences of this. I suggested to my friend to get to like bays really quick, because the one mare not yet foaled was stunning. It was later revealed she was half hackney.

We tried to connect with the Arabian cross: this mare and colt were completely wild, and any movement too fast would have sent her over a fence. Since we had to use a chute to move them into the trailer, I didn’t want any part of this, so we abandoned this mare. My friend decided to work with the hackney mare and her unborn foal. She was lovely: ate a few apples from our hands and softly moved towards the trailer and hopped on.

It’s a sign: this mare was meant to be. She free hauled home with no sweating or screaming. I have always said: the right thing is often the easiest. We are not meant to struggle: it’s the Universe’s way of saying we are on the right path. I use this motto in all my training as well.

Today though, I am paying the price of horse rescue: my heart can’t handle this well. As I write this, the other mares and their babies are going to slaughter in a huge truck to Saskatchewan. The bigger hackney mom will likely not survive the trip: her placenta will infect and eventually kill her, and it’s quick. Her newborn will not survive the trip. The other new foals will be crushed in travel.

Why do we do this to horses? Why do we neglect and treat them this way? These are questions I will likely never answer: I often lose faith in mankind. The two words: man and kind do not always blend well on this planet.

When you receive this post in your email, those horses will have their fates sealed. Take a moment in silence and say goodbye. One of them is alive and well, and galloping with 2 other very special mares. She was worth rescuing.

I would do it again.