It's About The Horse

HopeMissouri · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 6:54 pm Post subject:

Unless you do it often, riding away from your own pasture is going to be more difficult than trailering away to ride elsewhere. Your horse is likely to be more concerned about her herd when she's home. Don't think it has anything to do with taking her away to the trainer. It's just horse nature.

There was a time I even had difficulty keeping Chip and Jazz's minds on me in our arena, adjacent to our front pasture where they could see the other horses in the distance. Taking them even farther away to the house to saddle could be quite a deal. It was easier for me to keep my riding horses' attention by keeping them more relaxed if I allowed another horse in the arena with us, or just outside the arena fence. The more I allowed them to be comfortable, the less we needed the presence of the other horses nearby. The less we argued, the faster we progressed. We can now ride in the frontyard and up and down our street without concern. When I wasn't comfortable riding my horses because they were being silly, I lead them. In fact, you posted some good information about leading that you learned at one of Brent's clinics.

I have found that it also helps to ride with purpose and a destination in mind. We're doing something and going some place. For example: In my neighborhood, we would ride at a certain gait to the fire hydrant or a mailbox. Point-to-point with purpose. Relax at the point.

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Hertha · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:52 pm Post subject:

I'd start the mat business on the ground

.

But you've given me a great idea. Once the horse is really into mats you can minimize them until they are little plastic lids that you can throw out like frizbees................

Should work on days without a big wind!!! and you could carry a heap with you

I would have been stuck with the idea of going out beforehand and laying them out where I intend to ride (after having done the same circuit about 10 times walking together).

I've found that the little solid rubber doormats tend to not blow around too much in the wind, in which case you could 'plant' some of them on your tracks and not have the hassle of putting them out each time. You could also plonk a rock on one corner to keep them in situ.

Keep us posted!!!
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PasoBaby_CarolU · Site Admin Joined: 31 Jan 2009 Posts: 9038

I was thinking you could take two mats, each with a rope attached. Throw out one and go to it, throw out the second one. When the horse steps off the first one, pick it up to throw out again after you get to the second one. This would be good training for trail class too. You might have to practice a bit and not have too heavy a mat, otherwise a miss would hit the horse in the head. This would be ME!

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Carol Nudell
Corazon de Oro Paso Finos

"The path to your horse's heart lies through your own."

Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots. - Words of Wisdom - Mhar

‎"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss activities; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Hertha · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:50 pm Post subject:

Love it Carol!!! The Fishing Line Mat Technique for training on less windy days

The mat idea came from Alexandra Kurland. She said she could write a whole book on using mats and it wouldn't be a short one.

Super for developing horizontal body flexion. Since the horse is seeking to return to the mat, it learns to line up all parts of its body BECAUSE IT WILL NATURALLY try to find the most efficient way to return to its mat.

You can set up four or six barrels or biggish markers of some sort in a circle and put the mat in the middle. Walk with the horse around the barrel and head straight back to the mat. Try to keep your feet moving and your energy consistent as you go around the barrel together (horse on the outside, person nearest the barrel) so that the horse doesn't stall out.

This exercise works in-hand or ridden. It both slows down horses that want to take off because they need to slow down to stop at the mat for their click/treat, and speeds up the 'energy conserving horses' (plodders

) because they will be in a hurry to get to the mat and their click/treat. Magic.

Quite a bit of this is illustrated on my DVD & Note set: Walking with Horses.
_________________
Author of
*Book: N H STUDY GUIDE
*DVDs: Clicker Training Your Horse; Learning Universal Horse Language; 29 Ways to Ask Your Horse to Back Up; Building Your Horse's Hind End; Walking with Horses; Trailer Loading with Positive Reinforcement

sandra smith · Member Joined: 01 Apr 2011 Posts: 50

If I can add my thoughts here. Riding to meet another horse has helped lots of horses I've known to feel confidant in riding away from home. Have a friend ride nearly all the way to meet you. Increase the distance your horse has to go to meet the other horse. Perhaps worth a try??
Sandra

bit · Member Joined: 02 Feb 2009 Posts: 4356 Location: Kansas

lol, another cartoon. Me and Eclipse in jail for littering plastic lids! Honest your honor, we were gonna pick em up!
I bought hula hoops that light up. Hawk used to love em! I'd look out my window at night, and he'd be playing with them in the play pen. Go out the next morning and they be hula tubes, totally taken apart! I miss Hawk.
Tony wants me driving the truck more, so I aims to please! We are doing a lot of clinics, and trailering this year. Ms. Eclipse and I will be a herd of two because we are going to be spending a lot of quality time together!
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"It was once said I should clear my head for one cannot ride a Thoroughbred. Hot they are. And too fast they be. Forever on the fly. But I stayed the course and have no remorse. I love my off the track racehorse!"

Clarissa · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:44 am Post subject:

I think taking your horse away for one on one time is a good idea. Like going to clinics or trail rides, etc. You are still with your horse so it hopefully looks to you for leadership with unfamiliar surroundings & happenings.

It’s the one or ones left behind that suffer worse. Their routine is gone along with their leader(you) & or their herd leader & or friend, the horse you have taken away. If you leave someone else to look after them the routine is still different & they may react if they disapprove of that person. We have all heard those sorts of stories. My horses would suss out that person & play up accordingly! When I went away I tried to have a person learn the ropes but that usually failed so in the end I would set the place up so all that person had to do was throw hay over the fence & fill troughs. Much easier all round.

There have been times during the last few years when I would have liked to take Jude with me online when I rode Sonny out but I know Cassie has never been alone & would jump the fence to get to us with all that scenario conjures up. I can leave Jude alone as she is much older & been left in the paddock alone in the early days before Cassie entered their lives. But even then Jude usually had others in other paddocks around her like the stallions & their mares or horses there for retraining etc. However she is more level headed & wouldn’t try to jump out nor run around too much. Also she knows we WILL return soonish so she just stands at the corner & cranes her neck to peer over the crest of the ridge to see down the driveway. Also Jude is RBI & Cassie is LBEeeeeee.

I don’t have a problem with teaching horses to stay in their paddock alone for a few hours extending to a few days while you take the other out. So long as it is done right, gradually extending the time & distance from a few minutes down the driveway but in sight, extending it out from there. Rewarding the one left behind for good emotional stability by returning as soon as that horse relaxes.

But horses that have never done the separation training properly will usually fret themselves into a lather & never learn to be any better but may learn to be different by attempting to get out, damaging themselves on the way.

Cassie is getting to that age where she is starting to understand things better hence she doesn’t get quite so het up. Unfortunately there is nowhere here I can safely put her to teach her the separation lesson & nowhere she can’t gallop to in a few seconds where she can’t get some sort of view of us if we walked away down the driveway. She is so nimble & agile she would leap any fence here & not even an ‘on’ 5 strand electric fence will hold her when she is of a mind to be somewhere else.
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PasoBaby_CarolU · Site Admin Joined: 31 Jan 2009 Posts: 9038

Clarissa has an excellent point. Horses need to be taught to spend the night visually separated from their herd. It is best done at home, in increments, gradually building on the time. If you don't do this, on the day you finally do go to a clinic or haul the horse alone, you put it in a very stressful situation with no preparation.

My horse Diablo spent his first five years living in an open environment of pastures and shelters. No stalls, no separation, just a herd. When they decided to train him they loaded him in a stock trailer, hauled him to the training barn and locked him in a solid wall, solid door stall, and left him to deal with his terror himself. He became very claustrophobic and I'm not sure how they kept putting him in that stall after that, but I do know the first time I put him in a stall alone, he was soaked with sweat and trembling. So, it had to be pretty bad. A little time, a little work, and it all could have been avoided.

It's like trailer loading. The time to teach the horse is not when you HAVE TO load him or else.
_________________
Carol Nudell
Corazon de Oro Paso Finos

"The path to your horse's heart lies through your own."

Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots. - Words of Wisdom - Mhar

‎"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss activities; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

bit · Member Joined: 02 Feb 2009 Posts: 4356 Location: Kansas

When I took Hawk and Eclipse down to Tony and Jenny Voughts, I spent three days with them. The Vought's introduced them to the herd, and they did just fine. If I take Eclipse to a clinic, we spend a lot of time together, grazing, and just hanging out. She is pretty attached when it's just us. Maybe because she's not "working" as lead mare. We have done a lot of clinics together.
I'm real picky on who takes care of horses when I leave. It's either Amanda, or a friend that I have really worked with. He's very anal about doing everything just right. Horses like him.
Riding with neighbor today, so Eclipse will be able to see her herd, as well as the next door morgans. She is in heat and quite attached to the next door stallion right now. Going to get out the hula hoops, do some ground play, and work on timing, feel and softness. 55 today!
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"It was once said I should clear my head for one cannot ride a Thoroughbred. Hot they are. And too fast they be. Forever on the fly. But I stayed the course and have no remorse. I love my off the track racehorse!"

Malcolm · Member Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Posts: 135

This is an interesting thread which i have missed since I moved to a farm with no internet to speak of. It is a major key to horsmanship. I battled with this with a very difficult mare (a proper mad alpha bitch) which nearly had me beat until I read Buck's book when it came out. Interpreting it as adrenaline raising is not the whole story since he advocates taking the horse off to a quiet place with a juicy patch of grass away from the herd and spending time comforting it while it grazes.

I do this with colts when the herd has just about finished a paddock and ready to move to greener pasture. They know the human can do this for them but just do it with the herd bound horse first.

I guess treats in winter are necessary but its summer here and mostly to hot or wet to ride but perfect for leading a horse for a walk to greener pastures which soon enough can become an adventure of discovery. This really puts a spring in the horse's stride going out and even better, let the adventure lead from nice patches of grass to neighbouring horses for a little visit.

Of course you must make the horse feel safe and comforted by you since fear and curiousity are closely related. This is the key to the relationship and is easier said than done. Some horses are tougher nuts to crack with this soft approach and making them uncomfortable when they are around the barn is more necessary. For this school at home using Sandy Collier's Bag of Magic Tricks.

The article is free on her website but the DVD costs. She uses her theory of mental magnets and shows how slowly to break them down without scaring the horse. She reckons she spent 20 years figuring what Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt meant to come up with this drill. It works, but before drilling I start by working with curiousity which is what Tom Dorrance on his deathbed warned Pat P not to knock out of the colt. This is so much easier when you have natural environment to explore with your horse and am enjoying the new place for that reason amongst many others. NH is harder with no natural environment.

Malcolm

bit · Member Joined: 02 Feb 2009 Posts: 4356 Location: Kansas

Malcom, where ARE you? Summer? That means you are Aus, or NZ? S. Africa? Always thought you were somewhere in Colorado, for some reason!
Ms Eclipse and I have been riding out of a neighbors barn, and that's going well. Road is a loop, and she is not sure where the point of going back is. She went right into a fast fox trot the first day, of which I said, "yes, please do!" She realized she was going no where she wanted to be, fast and slowed back down to a walk. Having a great time with liberty and round penning. It's weird, but she's a lot more attached to me because of the work we are doing.
Have also been playing with the herd at liberty, and Shuan is proving to be a pretty smart guy. Lots of try, very sensitive so the ask as to be tiny, with a real quick release.
I know that it seems this started out as a "problem" with my horse. I think what it has proven to be (and it always tends to be) is an opportunity for me to find a better connection with the herd.
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"It was once said I should clear my head for one cannot ride a Thoroughbred. Hot they are. And too fast they be. Forever on the fly. But I stayed the course and have no remorse. I love my off the track racehorse!"

Malcolm · Member Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Posts: 135

South Africa. The language of horsemanship is universal but seasons are upside down in the south. You are on the right track when problems become opportunities. thumbup

Malcolm

bit · Member Joined: 02 Feb 2009 Posts: 4356 Location: Kansas

Malcom, you must have that babe magnet accent!
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"It was once said I should clear my head for one cannot ride a Thoroughbred. Hot they are. And too fast they be. Forever on the fly. But I stayed the course and have no remorse. I love my off the track racehorse!"

Malcolm · Member Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Posts: 135

Well it is not as effective as Buck' drawl!