A Horse is a Horse

A Horse is a Horse: A Step by Step Training Manual

by GaWaNi Pony Boy

Sample Chapters

Sample #1

Introduction

Is it possible to guide someone through training his or her horse from the pages of a book? I have been asking myself this question for the past 10 years. This training manual is the result of me working with over 3000 horses. I can only pray that it leads more than it misleads. Many of the concepts in this manual can only be truly appreciated in doing the exercises. The exercises are really meant to put you in a position of learning. I trust that my equine brothers and sisters will be gracious enough to teach you as they have taught me. This book is for those of you who want to enjoy your horses more and are willing to work for it. If you want to learn how to force your horse into submission… If you want to manipulate your horse into a corner… If you want to learn how to show off in front of your friends… If these were your motives, it would be best for both of us if you would put this book back on the shelf and pick out another. I have come to teach you how to understand your horse better and to enjoy your horse more. Your horse has come to teach you patience, empathy, and humility. If you have come to learn, we are glad that you have come…. Pony and friends

What is the horse?

We treat our horses like an incredible number of things that they simply are not. We treat them like dogs more often than any other animal. We treat them like infants; we treat them like grandmothers, like teen-agers, like lions and like cows. Any time we choose to treat our horse like something that is not a horse, we will experience difficulties interacting with that horse.

So what is a horse? How do they think? What motivates them? If we do not know the answers to these questions, we cannot expect satisfactory results when riding or training. A horse is a horse… of course... of course. Every one of us knows this familiar tune form the 50’s TV series, Mr. Ed. It is the “Of course, of course” part that gets me. The expression “Of course” is the short term of the expression “a matter of course” meaning something that is an accepted part of the process. Breathing while running is a matter of course. Were you breathing while you were running? Of course I was. But a horse is a horse… “Of course” implies that we know what a horse is. This begs the question.... What is a horse? In this chapter, we will discuss some of the inherent behavioral assets that determine the horse’s actions and reactions. Before we can motivate the student we must know how to motivate the student, or what motivates the student. Horse behavioral assets are the cornerstones for our training principles and exercises.

“Throughout all of the exercises, it is the learning that we crave from the horse, not necessarily the process. We look not for the inside turn but rather for what the inside turn produces.” -Pony

The horse is a prey animal.

We have heard this many times. By controlling the flight response, we control the horse. Let us examine the domestic animal that we nonchalantly call a prey animal. Keep in mind; I am not talking about the feral horses of the western United States, but rather our domestic horses; our “pet” horses, if you will. The telling behaviors of a prey animal are the behaviors they exhibit at the moment they realize that they are prey. What does the rabbit do when she realizes she is no longer sharing the yard with your dog but is now being looked at as if she were lunch? How does the Amber Jack’s swimming pattern change when the shark now exhibits predatory behavior. What changes in the field mouse’s gestures when she realizes that the peregrine above has gone into its classic hunting hover? These actions will tell us what a prey animal looks like. Keep in mind that horses are never preyed upon by other horses. I have heard and read that an alpha mare or alpha stallion will exhibit predatory behaviors towards other horses to obtain status and/or respect. This notion is absurd. The only thing you will ever see a horse prey upon is ...

Sample#2

#1 Forward Movement

Objectives: Initiate and control your horse’s forward movement. Without mastery of this exercise, your training efforts will be mostly fruitless.

Benefits. Your horse will begin to follow your lead rather that his own.

Exercise #1 is the cornerstone on which all of the other exercises are built. Without this exercise being firmly set in place, we can expect only half-successes in the rest of the exercises.

Horses are created and designed to move forward. Although they are able to move backwards, up, down, and sideways, everything about their body says forward movement. This forward design is in large part due to their place as a prey animal in the animal kingdom. If we are to control or coax any part of this animal, we must first be able to control the part of the brain that controls forward movement.

We begin this exercise by putting the horse in the classroom at liberty. It is important that the horse not be tied or have a halter on her head. We should only need the 14’ training lead for this exercise but for the extremely lazy horse, we may need to tie a plastic bag to the end of a stick or dressage whip. This tool is known as a flag and should only be used if you are having difficulty in moving the horse forward. Once the horse understands that you are asking for forward and moves off willingly, return to the training lead.

Enter the classroom with your 14’ training lead in your throwing hand and position your self in the center. It is very important that you be the one to make the first move. If you ever have the opportunity to get into the classroom with a mustang or other feral breed, Make the first move or be run over. If your horse is already moving, you may have to slow her down or stop her by stepping in front of her space. Once the horse is settled and not moving, you can begin the forward movement exercise.

Face the horse’s hind and begin to make a kissing sound to your horse. You should be looking at the part of the body that will produce the most results. When requesting forward we focus on the hind because this is the part of the body that provides impulsion. In addition, we are trying to drive the horse forward so we should stand slightly behind the horse. Standing slightly behind the horse will give us the angle necessary to push the horse forward.

If the horse moves forward in any way, we stop kissing, stop coaxing, turn your body in the same direction that the horse was traveling and walk to the opposite rail. We then touch the rail looking outside the classroom. Your posture and body language should be overemphasized in the beginning. We want to send the clearest signal possible and we want the correct answer to our request to be obvious.

Remember that you are asking for forward. If you get forward movement from the horse, you need to reward the horse immediately. This means that if the horse lifts any foot and places it down in front of where the foot started, the horse has gone forward. If the horse extends her nose beyond the starting point, the horse has gone forward. In fact, if you notice that the horse, on your cue, rounds her back and tucks her hind underneath herself without moving her feet, she has moved forward, even if only in her mind.

This is probably the best place in this book to discuss the first of three qualities that make someone a great teacher of horses. Your level of success will be directly linked to your ability to recognize very small successes. I have heard other trainers refer to these small successes as “tries.” We need to find success not in completion of an exercise, but rather in the thousands of little “tries” or efforts that our horse has made. The more of these small successes that we recognize, the more successful we will be in the end. If you do not recognize these very small successes or attempts at successes, your training sessions will be filled with failure, frustration, and resentment.

When you ask for forward, and your horse moves forward or even just tries to move forward, reward her. If everything in your classroom goes the way that it does on paper, the next step is to build on your successes and refine the forward movement. However, we know that in the real world, it is not always that easy. Below are some of the difficulties that you can experience while trying to get your horse to move forward.

The most common difficulty that we will experience, especially with the horse that is the family pet, our friend, is the horse that hears our request and turns to face us. Some horses will even turn and walk towards us. This turning towards the trainer happens for one of three reasons.

The first reason your horse will turn towards you is that your horse is confused about what you are asking. If your horse has not ever been asked to move forward in this way, she may turn to you and ask, “What do you want me to do?” I see this response most often in horses that have not had the experience of living with other horses and are a bit socially challenged.

The second reason a horse will turn towards you is that they have experienced a very hard time in a training corral in the past. The horse’s natural flight mechanism is to run away. If in the past, the horse was taught, “if you run away you will be pressured more and scared more,” the horse will avoid forward movement in the classroom.

The third reason a horse will turn toward you is the most common. Horses that have spent even a small amount of time in ground training, with a misinformed or inexperienced trainer, can learn the game quickly. The most dramatic part of any groundwork is when the horse chooses you over running away. This choice has been called partnering, joining up, or herding up. No matter the name, we achieve the result by asking for the inside turn (Exercise #3). This partnering, because it is the most emotional part of the training, inadvertently becomes most trainers’ desired result. The goal becomes getting the horse to turn and face us. Hence the horse learns, “all I have to do is face the trainer in the middle of the corral and I don’t have to work anymore.”

Remember that the inside turn, in and of itself, should never be the goal. The attitude that is obtained with the inside turn is our desired goal.

In order to have success with exercise three you must first achieve success with exercises one and two. Remember also that the degree of success that you experience in exercise three is based on the degree of success that you achieved in exercises one and two.

What do we do with the horse that faces us when we ask for forward? No matter which of the three reasons our horse gives us, we respond the same. We need to break the horse of this response as quickly as we can so that we do not reinforce it. If I see the horse starting to turn towards me, as I am asking for forward, I will immediately get very aggressive. I will increase the intensity of my verbal cue, slap the rope against my thigh, perhaps swing the rope in large circles in the direction of the horse, and increase the pressure until the horse takes one forward step. As the horse takes that first forward step, I stop all of the stimuli and try to become invisible. I would walk to the far side of the classroom, Touch the rail, and look outside the classroom. I want the horse to understand that because she took one forward step, rather than face me, the pressure was relieved. She was immediately made to feel comfortable. How well she understands this relief depends on how well I can communicate it. I would let the horse rest for thirty or forty seconds and then move back to the center of the classroom and ask for forward once again.

Some horses will not turn toward you. Some horses start running before you even start the lesson. I have seen horses that if they were not stopped would run in the round corral until they dropped from exhaustion. Remember that we need to start exercise number one from a standstill, so if the horse is running we will need to stop the horse. In exercise two, (changing direction), we will be working on turning the horse but here we are faced with a situation in which we need to turn the horse before we can work on exercise number one. Luckily, the horse that is racing around is easy to turn. Give yourself plenty of room and use the principles in exercise two to turn the horse. Continue turning the horse back and forth until the horse looks up as if to say, "How do I find relief?” This pause is your cue to back off. Repeat this turning routine until the horse realizes that it is more comfortable to pause than it is to race around. When a horse learns that option A is more comfortable than option B, the horse will always choose option A.

Another problem that we can experience in the classroom is the extremely lethargic horse that simply does not move forward. This horse does not exhibit the tenacity that a stubborn or aggressive horse would. This horse has simply chosen that not moving is more comfortable than moving.

In this case, I would always review the physical health of the horse. I would pay close attention to nutrition and degenerative problems. If I determine, possibly with the help of a veterinarian, that the horse is physically sound I need to ask the question “What would this horse do if at feeding time she was threatened by the alpha mare? “ What if the Alpha Mare backed up toward her and indicated that she was about to kick her squarely in the head with both back hooves? Would she move? If the answer is yes, we need to be that alpha mare. If the answer is No, we need to figure out what is wrong and why? More often than not, if the horse would not move when threatened by the alpha mare, there is probably something physically wrong and more tests would be strongly suggested.

How do we become that alpha mare? Her tactics to move another horse are systematic. First, she will coax then she will startle or scare and finally she will use her physical strength to intimidate or attack the lower ranked horse. Since we have already tried coaxing, to no avail, we now move on to scare tactics. You might now ask the question “Are you saying that we should scare the horse to get the horse to move?” Precisely. To convince the horse that it is more comfortable to move than not, we will have to provide an appropriate discomfort for not moving. In classic alpha mare style we startle the horse just enough to obtain movement and immediately reward the horse for the forward movement. I mentioned the flag earlier. I like this training tool for initially moving the lazy horse. I do not want to have to use a scare tactic every time I want to move the horse. Eventually, I would like to be able to move the horse with my rope, then just my hands and finally with just a kissing sound and a glance in the horses direction.

Now that we have obtained some form of forward movement, we must refine it. We need to be able to control the forward movement. Your first concern should be your horse’s foot placement. In the classroom, you own all of the available ground and will allow the horse to use the three feet closest to the rail. If your horse tries to infringe upon your property, you should move her back out into her space, the last three feet. The easiest way to do this is to toss the rope at your horses inside front hoof. This will push her back to the outside. It will be necessary to carefully watch your horse’s position at all times. She will test your space by entering it.

Your next concern will be controlling her speed and her gait. Before moving on to exercise #2, I would like to know that you could move your horse through all of the gaits without the aid of your rope. I would like to see you in the center of the classroom, beginning with your horse at rest, and kissing your horse into the walk, trot, canter, trot, walk, and stop. If you can perform this consistently, you are ready to move on to exercise #2.

Please remember, most training failures begin with the teacher not having the patience to see exercise one through to completion. Your future successes will rest firmly on how well you teach this first exercise.

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