Mastering "Natural" Horsemanship

We feel this post, an article by Ron Meredith is most relevant to owners and riders alike. Horsemanship is as much a journey in self-discovery as it is in learning new or established techniques. With many valuable tips and strategies to remind you of what your horse needs to feel comfortable with you. If they could speak in words, I'm sure they would say it is easier to listen to us when we take the time to ensure we are a are a clear channel of communication.

Most people think you control a horse by controlling its head. You put on a lead rope or a bridle and you use that to show the horse how you want him to start and stop and turn and move his feet and disengage this or that and other stuff. So how do you control a horse when you don’t have a lead rope or a bridle on him? Every day, there are a lot of people chasing horses around in pastures asking that question.

A horse-logical training system like heeding teaches people how to control the horse’s mind. If you’ve got his mind, you’ve got the horse whether or not he’s loaded with tack. It takes a very specific discipline to learn to do this correctly. I don’t mean discipline in the sense of obedience or punishment. When I use the word discipline, I mean calm compliance. It takes discipline or self control on the part of the trainer to make the horse into a disciple or follower, to cause the horse to willingly follow your lead.

In the animal kingdom, humans are predators and horses are prey animals. In order to work with horses, we have to figure out how to bridge that zoological gap. We do this by establishing a pattern, a feeling in the horse, that we are the safest, most comfortable place in the world to be rather than a predator out to do them harm. It is simple to describe how to do this but hard to master the program. Here are the ground rules:

Pay attention. You get the horse to pay attention to you by paying constant attention first to yourself, then to the horse. Say hello to your friends at the stables, scratch all the dogs and shoot the breeze with the yard manager before you head down the aisle to get your horse, not while you’re with him. Don’t forget to turn off the radio or put the compact disk player and ear buds away.

In order to pay full attention to what you are doing and what your horse is doing, you have to put any distractions aside. You need to focus and concentrate. If that’s hard for you, start with 10 minutes and work your way up. Eventually you want to be so focused on your horse that you wouldn’t notice if a bomb went off or someone came up alongside you waving a million pound check.

Pay attention to what you are thinking, to what you are doing, and to how you are breathing. If you’re thinking about what kind of pizza you want for dinner, you’re not with your horse. If you’re thinking about how your horse is going to perform at next week’s show, you’re not with your horse right now. Keep monitoring your attention and bringing it back to your horse.

As you are paying attention to your horse, ask yourself what kind of feedback he’s giving you? How is he breathing? What are his eyes and his ears signalling? Are his reactions to haltering, leading, grooming or whatever you’re doing with him the same as the last time you worked with him?

If you are paying attention to your horse, you will know when his attention wanders from you. You don’t jerk on the lead rope or spank or poke him. You don’t “correct” him or punish him. You just quietly do the smallest thing you need to do to get his attention back on you. It might be as little a brushing your hand against your nylon jacket to make a little noise or as much as using some sort of pressure that makes him move his feet a little. It’s going to vary from horse to horse and it will change as the horse spends more time with you.

The most important things to pay attention to are rhythm and relaxation. You start moving rhythmically from the moment the horse can hear your voice or footsteps or sees you coming toward his stall. Everything about your approach should be rhythmic and relaxed. Pay attention to your breathing because that’s where it starts. Then pay attention to every movement you make and the tension in your muscles, even your face.

As you greet the horse in his stable, put on his halter, stand him in the aisle, start grooming, tack him up, or whatever you’re doing that day, you work with a constant sense of rhythm. From the way you buckle the halter to the way you coil the end of the lead to the way you pick up and put down your brushes or lay the saddle pad on the horse’s back you don’t speed up, you don’t slow down, and you don’t let things get jerky or jittery. Rhythm. Rhythm. Rhythm.

Move your horse to the arena with rhythm, mount with rhythm, and ride with rhythm. Rhythm is the mother of relaxation and teaching your horse that pattern can help prevent a wreck down the road someday when something unusual and unplanned happens. And it will.

Never raise the excitement level to a predatory level. Keeping yourself rhythmic and relaxed will help you keep your wits and your patience so you never do anything that startles the horse. Never do anything that interrupts the feeling you want him to have that you are a safe place to be. If something you do elevates the excitement level, you put too much pressure on the horse. If you do something and he didn’t notice it, you need to go back and repeat the lessons about paying attention until you both have that down.

Here’s an example. If you are constantly paying attention to the horse you will be constantly aware of what he’s thinking and doing. You will start to catch little things before they escalate into big things. You will start to control your own reactions so that you can control the horse’s reactions. For instance, let’s say you have a horse in a round pen and something startles him and he leaves. You don’t react to his leaving by increasing the pressure and asking him for a few extra laps of the pen. That’s retribution and you are not trying to establish the pattern that if the horse leaves when you didn’t tell him to leave, he’s going to get punished for that.

Instead, if something unusual grabs his attention and raises his excitement level to the point that he needs to leave, you just let him go and act like nothing happened. Then you have to get his attention back before you can do anything else. So you do the smallest thing you need to do to get his attention back on you. Then you invite him to come back to you. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. After awhile when something startles him, he’ll start checking to see what you’re doing before he leaves. If you keep acting like nothing happened, he’ll start to follow your lead and act that way, too.
Repeat these steps until you figure it out. You have to work on paying attention, staying rhythmic and staying relaxed until your self control is a pattern the horse can absolutely trust. Then you can be in control of your horse.

Don’t be surprised if everything doesn’t just fall neatly in place the first day or week or even for several months when you start learning a non-predatory way of being horses. Some call it “natural” horsemanship but it doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people. Developing the mental self control that enables you to control a horse is hard work. A lot of the old horsemen teaching this took a lifetime to learn it. If you’re younger than they are, don’t get discouraged. Take your time and be as patient with yourself as you want to be with your horse.

Relationship Building

Regular readers of our blog will know that Briar has her own page where this update is can also be found. Her story is so inspiring, we've feel it is more than worthy of being front page news!

Briar came home to us a week ago and so I thought it was time for an update.... I know I have thanked you many times already but I have to thank you again because Briar is such a star . . Its been a long process but it has soooooo been worth it after what I have been witness to this week... tears in my eyes wouldnt quite cover it!

Briar came home a little earlier than expected as she had a perculiar health turn not really poorly as such but showing some symtoms that needed attention.. I treat homeopathically and for that reason she needed to be home so she could be watched as remedies need to altered depending on the change in symptoms.. I would like to take this opportunity to say that she has been looked after impeccably by my friends and  they were sad to see her leave it was really hard as they were so kind to drop her to us to what will be our new home very soon ..and their daughter cried as she said goodbye...... my friend told me it hit her when she looked across the field the next day and the little black cob wasnt there.. I tell you this little black mare touches hearts

During the last week Briar has had two Shiatsu sessions which were very revealing paticulaly the last one as she finds it hard to give of her self to these kind of treatmensts and actually to begin with was quite grumpy and unhappy about it all but eventually she secumbed to the gentle treatment and was enthralling with her muzzle nestled in Jeans face as she worked on meridian points in her face.. she carries a lot of anger ( not surprising really as she tries to keep being with us and I keep sending her off elsewhere BUT no more)this shows physically in pain behind the saddle and Avril found her sore here before so it is an area that definately needs keeping an eye on..

Lottie has been so patient desperate to sit on but knowing that Briar had to feel well and not in pain.. so she took to just sitting in her stable as often as she could... I went to check on them, crept quietly over so not to disturb  and there was Lottie sat on the floor legs out, back against the wall talking to Briar about her name and would she mind if she changed it as she felt that Briar was such a spiky sounding name and Briar was no longer a spiky person .. so she wondered if she could call her by her other name Ebony which means  dark strength .. Briar I have to tell you was stood over Lotties legs with her head down and falling asleep ... it was so so wonderful to see..her stable is very big and she could have chosen to stand anywhere but Lottie told me later she walked over and chose to stand with her..  Later on I asked Lottie how she would know what Briar felt about her name.. and she just said Briar is thinking about it... so will let you know when Briar lets Lottie know!

Lottie is very strict about following what she learnt on one of Avrils courses and from day one made Briar walk behind her and stop when asked... I say made as if it was an issue but with Lottie it just isnt she walks quietly behind and the paddock she is in is about 1/3 of mile away from the stables and  Briar never  moves from being behind... I have more trouble and I am certain it is because I find it harder to empty my head of junk whereas  Lottie seems able to totally focus...what was so funny /humbling in witnessing was a few days ago was the following... Lottie was leading Briar to the field and at a road junction put her arms out for Briar to stop and stand.. Briar immediately stopped but everso sweetly and slowly raised her head and just stretched her neck out without taking a step forward to rest her chin on Lotties outstretched arms... Lottie could hardly breathe at this gesture which is quite something from Briar.. so they just stood Lottie with outstretched arms and Briar resting her chin but never moving a hoof... what the traffic thought goodness knows!!

As Briars back ceased to be sore Lottie excitedly asked if she could ride her out to the field... I think that will be fine i said..  was she tacked ? no.. bridle maybe? no!... she jumped on bareback with a headcoller and reins and off we went.. Lottie in front and me behind leading her field companion... I have been waiting so long to see Lottie enjoying her pony like kids should but never did i think that pony would be Briar.. but hey what do I know about getting the right pony!!lol

Well the real tester was today and i cant help it but try as i could to be chilled i was in bits inside and i told Briar so... Lottie was taking her out on a hack on her own in a bitless Bridle .... She tacked up calmly stood like a rock to be mounted and off they went round the yard a bit.. she did a couple of halts to see if she felt ok which they both did so out the gate to explore..... I tried so hard to get on with other jobs and trust in Briars honourable nature and Lotties abilility... but I am afraid I am a mother and after 15minutes could stand it no longer and jumped into the car to casually ( ha ha ha not so casual inside!!) drive passed and check all was well.. gosh they looked so great together loose reins ears pricked and the biggest wave from Lots.. the sun was shining .. it was just one of those perfect moments... well I am so sad to say that i was intending to drive round the block back home but i just found the car couldnt help itself and it had this deep need to do a three point turn and casually drive passed again but from the other direction!!! of course  all was still well but instead of the entusiastic wave i got that look from Lottie that was saying what on earth are you doing you mad person go home we are fine! so i did .. and yes they arrived safely home .. Lottie high fived me later this evening .. its been a long time coming but truly we have finally arrived... we are very blessed...

I raise a glass of chilled wine to Avril and MSC dream makers extraordinaire!  x x x x x

Horse Training From The Ground Up

Have you ever wondered what your horse was thinking? Have you ever asked yourself ``Why doesn't he listen to me?'' or ``Why did he do that?'' Well did you ever stop to think that your horse may be asking those very same questions?

The three principles of the Horse/Human Relationship are Trust, Respect, and Communication. These principles have a priority in the horse's mind. If you try to get respect, or communicate with the horse before he trusts you, you will trigger the flight/fight instinct in the horse and he will run away, mentally if not physically.

The normal response to this is to restrict the horse's choices with cross ties, draw reins, martingales, etc. We prefer techniques that allow the horse to make choices, and then tell him when he makes the right one. This teaches the horse to respond to a request, rather than react to a stimulus. Most people never ask the horse what he thinks, because they're afraid he'll give the wrong answer. There's nothing wrong with the horse making a mistake (that's how he learns) as long as you let him know it was a mistake.

Trust is the first and most important priority in the horse/human relationship. Most people can gentle a horse but few earn his trust. In the horse's mind, gentleness is the horse not hurting us, trust is not hurting the horse. Therefore, trust allows the horse to step out of his comfort zone and expand his knowledge and experience.

Respect is to consider worthy of high regard and has nothing to do with fear or intimidation. Though closely intertwined, it differs from trust in that it helps define the relationship within the herd. Trust gives the horse confidence to act, respect motivates him to.

Communication is a process by which information is exchanged through a common system of symbols, signs or behaviour. The horse's language is a physical one of position and gestures, reinforced with verbal expression...just the opposite of ours. It is incumbent upon us to learn his language, and not expect him to learn ours. Many people believe the horse moves away from pressure. If that were true, try to pull a head down that hasn't been taught to lower it, or push him off a toe when he's standing on it. The horse learns to move away from pressure to seek a release. This is where feel, timing, and balance become critical. Feel allows us to recognize when the horse is responding (or thinking of responding). Timing the release tells the horse when he has responded correctly. Balance keeps us in position to feel the horse respond and time the release.

Whether interacting with humans or horses, the principles of a relationship remain the same, all that changes are the values of the individuals and the methods of communication. Treat your horse as you would your best friend, and he'll trust you as his herd leader. For both partners in the horse/human relationship, trust gives the freedom to act, respect motivates them to act, and communication tells them how to act.

Horses Never Forget Human Friends

Horses remain loyal to humans with which they have had past, positive encounters.
They remember people even after long separation. Horses understand vocal commands better than expected.

Human friends may come and go, but a horse could be one of your most loyal, long-term buddy if you treat him right, suggests a new study.
Horses also understand words better than expected, according to the research, and possess "excellent memories," allowing horses to not only recall their human friends after periods of separation, but also to remember complex, problem-solving strategies for ten years or more.

The bond with humans likely is an extension of horse behaviour in the wild, since horses value their own horse relatives and friends, and are also open to new, non-threatening acquaintances.
"Horses maintain long-term bonds with several members of their family group, but they also interact temporarily with members of other groups when forming herds," explained Carol Sankey, who led the research, and her team.
"Equid social relationships are long-lasting and, in some cases, lifelong," added the scientists, whose paper has been accepted for publication in the journal Animal Behaviour.

Ethologist Sankey of the University of Rennes and her colleagues studied 20 Anglo-Arabian and three French Saddlebred horses stabled in Chamberet, France. The scientists tested how well the horses remembered a female trainer and her instructions after she and the horses had been separated up to eight months.
The training program for the horses consisted of 41 steps associated with basic grooming and medical care. For example, the horses had to remain immobile in response to the verbal command "reste!" which is French for "stay." The horses also had to lift their feet, tolerate a thermometer inserted into the rectum and more. When a horse did as it was instructed, the trainer rewarded it with food pellets.
With tasty rewards, the horses "displayed more 'positive' behaviours toward the experimenter, such as sniffing and licking," the researchers wrote. Horses do this as a sign of affiliation with each other, so they weren't necessarily just seeking more food.

The scientists added, "Horses trained without reinforcement expressed four to six times more 'negative' behaviours, such as biting, kicking and 'falling down' on the experimenter."
Nevertheless, after the eight months of separation, the horses trained with food rewards gravitated towards the same experimenter. The horses also seemed to accept new people more readily, indicating they had developed a "positive memory of humans" in general.

From our results, it appears that horses are no different than humans (in terms of positive reinforcement teachings), according to the researchers. They behave, learn and memorize better when learning is associated with a positive situation."
While people often train dogs in this way, also using verbal commands, Sankey and her team point out that "the majority of horse-riding training is based on tactile sensations -- pressure from bits, movements of riders' legs, weight change in the saddle."

Since horses are able to learn and memorize human words and can hear the human voice better than even dogs can, due to their particular range of hearing, the scientists predict trainers could have success if they incorporate more vocal commands into their horse training programs.
Jill Starr is president and founder of Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, observed horses responding well to verbal commands, such as "trot," but she still feels horses and people get along better if the person doesn't chatter, since this causes the individual to have greater awareness of body language that is more familiar to horses.

She, however, agrees that horses are loyal, intelligent and have very long-lasting memories -- of both good and bad experiences. She said, "Horses can be very forgiving, but they never forget."

The smell of fear is real say scientists

Horsemen have always known that horses can smell fear but until recently, it wasn't fully accepted in scientific circles. Now there is proof humans are also aware of the smell of fear, it shows empirically the horse's need for continued confidence in our leadership. Horse know us sometimes better than we know ourselves by our odour.

The smell of fear, one of the most terrible cliches of pulp fiction, is founded in fact, scientists claim today.

People can unconsciously detect whether someone is stressed or scared by smelling a chemical pheromone released in their sweat, according to researchers who have investigated the underarm secretions of petrified skydivers.

The team found that the smell of fear triggered a heightened response in brain regions associated with fear when inhaled by volunteers in a brain scanner. The research suggests that like many animal species, humans can detect and subconsciously respond to pheromones released by other people.

The research was funded by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency – the Pentagon's military research wing – raising speculation that it is a first step to isolating the fear pheromone for use in warfare, perhaps to induce terror in enemy troops. But DARPA denied that it had any military plans for fear pheromones or plans to fund further research into the field.

Dr Lilianne Mujica-Parodi at Stony Brook University in New York State and her team taped absorbent pads to the armpits of 20 novice skydivers ­– 11 men and nine women – who were doing their first tandem jump. The pads soaked up sweat before they leaped from the plane and as they fell. For comparison, the team collected sweat from the same individuals as they ran on a treadmill for a similar duration at the same time of day they had made their jump.

They transferred the two types of sweat to nebulisers and asked volunteers in a brain scanner to breathe it in. To avoid biasing the results, the team did not tell the volunteers anything about the experiment. New Scientist magazine reported that the volunteers' amygdala and hypothalamus – brain regions associated with fear – were more active in people who breathed in the "fear" sweat compared with the control. The volunteers in the brain scanner were unable consciously to distinguish between the two types of sweat and rated them both as mild and non-aversive.

In a conference presentation last year, Mujica-Parodi wrote: "We demonstrate here the first direct evidence for a human alarm pheromone … Our findings indicate that there may be a hidden biological component to human social dynamics, in which emotional stress is, quite literally, 'contagious'." She declined to comment further on the results because the study is under review with a scientific journal.

Simon Wessely, a psychiatrist at the King Centre for Military Health Research at King's College London told New Scientist that the idea that a fear pheromone could be developed as a chemical weapon is scientifically implausible. He said that a purely physiological cue is not enough to induce fear if people are not in a frightening situation. "You can generate the physical symptoms of fear but people don't necessarily get scared," he said.

The findings will be controversial because most researchers do not believe that humans can detect pheromones. In other mammals, this is done using a structure in the nose called the vomeronasal organ. Although humans have one of these it is not connected to the brain. However, human pheromones could still be detected elsewhere and some small studies have suggested that human behaviour can be modified by an alarm pheromone. In one study in 2002, for example, 60 women were asked to distinguish between sweat pads worn by women who had watched the horror film Candyman or a documentary. They rated the sweat from the scary film watchers as stronger, less pleasant and smelling more "like aggression".

Horse Relationships

Relationships mean everything to horses. In fact, the type of leader you are determines exactly how your horse behaves.
Relationships mean everything to the horse. The structure and rules within the herd give the horse a feeling of comfort and security.
There is a basic hierarchy within a horse herd, a pecking order from highest to lowest and every horse knows his place within the herd. Unlike humans, horses are not inclined to climb that social hierarchy if they do not have to.
In fact, horses will only try to improve their standing when they become aware that the horse above them in the pecking order is faltering in his leadership abilities. There are exceptions, but for our purposes it is helpful to accept this as a rule of thumb.
Horses are natural followers and they look for natural leaders. It is up to the human to develop their leadership abilities so that the horse will naturally follow him. If the horse detects weakness in the leader he will feel the need to take over, because the safety of the herd is at stake. In other words, if you don't lead, your horse will.
There's a common mistake people make regarding this concept:
They think they have to be the "boss". They get "bossy". They turn the leader-follower relationship into a master-slave relationship. There is a huge difference. There are horses in herds that get "bossy" and bully other horses, but the herd does not willingly follow a boss. The boss will usually be a loner, largely avoided by the other horses. The boss can make the other horses do things, and the "bossy" human can do the same, but the followers are not inspired to follow willingly.
The dominant style of horsemanship for thousands of years has been this kind of "show them who is boss" style.
If you watch a horse herd closely, you will discover another type of leader, what Mark Rashid calls "a Passive Leader".
This type of leader is clearly in charge of the horses that surround her, but she does not bully them or "boss" them around.
The Passive Leader does just what needs to be done to accomplish a particular task, no more and no less. If she wants another horse to move she uses only the energy required. She will politely suggest the other horse move and then back it up only if she needs to.
The Passive Leader does not waste energy bullying or flagrantly displaying power. The other horses respect this type of leadership and will follow her willingly.
This passive leadership is what we should emulate. Everything we ask of our horses should be asked in a manner that respects the sensitivity of the horse.
If we consistently follow this rule, the horse will respect our leadership.
Not only will the horse respect our leadership, but they will want to be with us. They will be eager to follow us. We will develop a partnership and relationship with the horse that is intriguing to the horse. They will look forward to being with us and doing the things we ask of them.
Study what relationships mean to the horse. Do what you can to become a passive leader.
Whenever you suggest to your horse that he do anything, ask yourself the question Ray Hunt asks his students time and again, "Can you do less?"
Do less and watch the relationship flower.

Heart to heart

A new study by researchers in the Department of Animal Environment and Health at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala apparently shows that horses’ heart rates can be affected by a human’s heart rate. The study had people both ride and lead horses near someone holding an umbrella. The person with the horse thought the umbrella was going to be opened on the fourth time around, but it was not. There was an increase in both the human’s and the horse’s heart rate even though the umbrella was not opened, and the fourth pass was similar to the three previous passes.
This study is evidence that subtle gestures we may or may not be aware of can influence our horse. Heart rate is one of them to consider. If we are leading or riding a horse who is fearful, we must always remember to be calm, no matter what the situation may be. Calmness can prevent situations from arising, and if they do arise, it can prevent them from escalating. We also have to remember that if we are fearful when riding or when leading a horse, the horse will pick up on that. The most helpful thing we can do is learn how to centre when being around horses. Horses are herd animals, and it’s only natural for them to pick up on our nervousness and wonder if there is a reason to be nervous.
The next time you’re with a horse, consciously think of being centred and calm. Take deep breaths from your diaphragm. Let all of the stress that you may be experiencing, all of the thoughts of things you “have to do” leave your mind. When you’re with your horse, your focus should be on the relationship the two of you have. Being with horses is a wonderful way for us to be more balanced, centred, and connected. The natural world does not multitask; it is centred and focused. We can learn a lot from that way of being.
Another thing to keep in mind is that there are many other factors that influence our relationship with horses that we may not consciously think about. While this study focused on the factor of heart rate, think about others that might be creating communication between you and your horse without you even thinking about it. When you lead a horse near a potential scary situation, do you breathe faster, perhaps grip the lead rein tighter? When you’re riding, and you are worried something might spook your horse, do you hold your breath or breath very shallowly, sit up straighter and become more tense, close your fingers around the reins so that you’re putting pressure on the reins without realizing it?
What this study shows us and what it allows us to begin to consider are all of the tiny ways in which we influence and communicate with our horses all of the time. It also allows us to realize that we can have a much more subtle and sensitive relationship with our horses. And if that is true, if we have been relying too much on heavy handiness with our horses, what else have we been missing with our horses that may lead to a better relationship?