One Tough Horse

I swear she really enjoys messing with me sometimes.

12 October
L was a little..."up" Saturday. It was cold and wet. Felt almost like November. So I decided to free lunge her and help her get it out of her system. I let her charge around like a nutbag for a minute and then we got down to work. After 20 minutes or so she carried her head low. Her eyes were soft. She licked her lips. Classic submissive posture. I'll admit. I was fooled.

All I did was divert my eyes from her and...boom. I didn't even look away from her. Just shifted my eyes. She leaped and spun an outside turn and wheeeeeeeee hahahahaha charged off in the other direction flagging her tail. Oh <groan>. She used to do this a lot. She was playing. Of course I couldn't leave it here. We were at it for another 30 minutes. After putting her through all of her moves. I had her do all her gaits. I had her turn. Turn again. And again. Do some circles. Halt. Back. After staring at each other for 5 or 6 minutes she turned to face me. And took one step. That's as much of a "join up" as you'll get with L.

L knows not to leave her stall without an escort. I can leave her door wide open all afternoon while I do barn work and she'll stay in her stall. I can even leave the barn. Go unload hay or make a trip to the manure pile and when I come back she'll be standing in her stall doorway watching the door. So several weeks ago I make a trip to the manure pile. I come back into the barn to find her watching the door. As soon as I come in...she takes a step out of her door. One step. And she stands and looks at me. So then I charge half the length of the barn screaming and barking and flailing my arms. Quietly, without hardly a blink, she steps back into her stall. Just past the threshold mind you. No further than what she knows is necessary. Really. What kind of horse does that?!

I'm very lucky she's such a sweet gentle animal. She's 100% Canadian Horse!

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Ok. I might be overreacting here. One of our local orchards.

$15.95 for a pie?!
Wow. Just. Wow. They're getting $15.95 for pies and people are lined up to buy them. And $14.95 for apple crisp? I thought I was seeing things. I think anyone that would pay $15.95 for a pie should have their head examined.

The Ground Game

And dividends.

We've done some lungeing and a lot of leading this week.

It's important to do it right. Practice doing it wrong isn't very productive. The focus is on control and discipline. Controlling a horse is controlling the way the horse moves. When we (free) lunge - starting from a halt, I expect L to walk when, lined up with her shoulder, I turn to face forward and lift my inside index finger. Even from 30 feet away.

That's her signal to change gate. When I lift my inside index finger again, I expect her to trot. Again and I expect her to canter. I expect her to pay attention. She should be looking for my signals. That's the way the herd behaves. Every horse in the herd is constantly looking for signals from the alpha horse.

When I pause ever so slightly with my outside foot and turn my outside shoulder in, that's her signal to transition downward. It's such a subtle move you won't even see me do it. Transitions encourage her to pay attention.

When I turn my outside shoulder in and lift my outside hand I want her to turn. Inside turn please. She has to do an inside turn, facing me. I never ever accept her butt when we're working. When I drop my outside hand I want her to change direction. If I raise my inside hand as I drop my outside hand I want a full circle.

When I abruptly spin with my outside shoulder lined up with her shoulder I expect her to halt. It took me a long time to get good at this. We started on a lunge line and worked from there. Things don't always go smoothly and sometimes I have to get after her and be mindful of every opportunity.

It's not about being forceful or simply dominating. It's more about persuasion. I don't force myself on L. I persuade her to accept my position. What I'm looking for when we work like this is soft relaxed posture. Soft eyes. She's not in charge, she has no reason to be concerned about *anything*. She still makes me earn it. When everything's just perfect, and we're about to quit, she'll leap into the air, spin around and go charging around like a nut bag. She'll flag her tail and when she looks me square in the eye I know, far as she's concerned, we've barely started. We're going to be there for a while.

The real trick however, is to bark at her as soon as you see her think of doing that. Once she's moved, it's too late. Same thing under saddle, by the way. Once she's moved, it's too late. She has to think you know what she's thinking.

And then there's the dividends

Saturday morning L managed to unlatch her stall door. Her stall door has two latches, a toggle and a snap. She was out flirting at 4:30 am. My trainer was awakened by all the squeeing and wall kicking. Now, L has this cat like quality. She's really not very big. What she has is a lot of "presence". And...she can puff up like a cat. She appears to almost double in size before your eyes and she'll fill the barn. Her father did that. I've never seen anything like it. She's had people slackjawed. She's done it when we're riding and it's like *holy crap*.

So here she is, all puffed up, 4:30 am, it's hot, it's barely twilight, she's doing scratches with her favorite gelding, and, having "assumed the position", she's squeeing and stomping her feet. My trainer walked over to the gelding, L immediately moved away, my trainer took a spot by her shoulder and marched her back to her stall without having to say a word or lay a hand on her.

I was very proud of my L. When she's on her game she's a perfect pleasure to handle.

Groundwork

The miracle of groundwork.

17 July
I admit it. I tend to be lazy by nature. And truth be told L and I haven't worked very hard on anything lately. But there was a time we worked our butts off building our basics. And when we had them down cold we went back over them again. And again. I wanted two things. I didn't want either one of us to have to think about our moves and I wanted it to be a huge surprise if we missed a mark.

And with a horse like L you *have* to get it right. As sweet as she can be she'll eat you for breakfast if you let her. There is no downside in having a solid foundation. The time you spend building your foundation is time with your horse. And that's really what it's all about isn't it?

So last Saturday I go out and do groundwork with L for about 15 minutes. I know when I've made my point. She glares at me like she thinks I have a lot of nerve. She's spot on every move but she doesn't like it. It's hilarious. She's a very funny horse and I've said this before, the funniest thing is she doesn't know she's funny. I insist on her being well behaved but I don't insist she like it. I make sure she has all the time she needs to be a horse so she can behave while she's with people.

Oh. And our last ride? She didn't even so much as turn a disagreeable ear in my direction.

I need to be more disciplined in my habits. Something else I try to work on all the time.

Follow the leader

There's a lot to be learned watching the herd.

And there isn't any single "right way" to make things work with your horse. And while it's simple, it isn't, really. Which makes no sense at all. Unless you know mares.

It's simple in that, ultimately, it's about being the herd leader, being the alpha horse. But at the same time it's not so simple in that one's relationship with a horse can have considerable depth and how to go about being the alpha horse isn't so obvious.

Take L, for example. She's a very bold, dominant horse. I remember somebody asked me once, "you ride that horse?". God bless her.

L never *ever* moves out of anyone's way. Everyone moves out of L's way. Always. Nobody *ever* "accidentally" bumps into L. And L never bumps into anyone. They've moved out of her way before she gets close enough to bump into them.

L knows where everyone is all the time. And everyone knows where L is all the time.

L is the one who "knows what's going on", she's the one watching the tree line and listening for things in the distance.

These rules are never broken and all is quiet and happy in the herd.

These are important. Has your horse ever accidentally bumped into you? Do you ever move out of your horse's way? Think about it.

L is very very funny. Sometimes I catch her in the corner of my eye watching. And when I look directly at her she'll fix her gaze and she'll abruptly, boldly and deliberately, step right into my space and she'll stare. When she does that I better smack her. Because if anyone in the herd ever did that to her, that's what she'd do to them. And if I'm the alpha horse, that's what she expects me to do. And if I don't, I'll regret it.

When we go out and hand graze I have this little game I play. I often hand graze on a lunge line. I'll sometimes drift into L's space and I expect her to just move off. If she doesn't she's gonna get a little poke. And I'll drift into my own space, often out at the end of the line, or close to it, and I like to see her just kind of drift in my direction a little bit.

I gave up on pulling on her years ago. I herd her around when we're out hand grazing. It's a lot easier than pulling on her and besides - that's how she does it. She herds horses around. She doesn't go pulling on them! Clearly she understands this herding thing more than the pulling thing. When we're done I lean down and take up some slack in the line and I say "ok we're done" and she lifts up and just about leads the way back to the barn.

The thing that has me thinking all this is the question - "what do you do when your horse spooks?" and well, I think the answer is, "nothing". Because the question really is "what does the herd leader do when a subordinate horse spooks?" and well, L doesn't do anything. She might look. She's confident if there's anything worth spooking at - she would have seen it first. So it's *extremely* unlikely anyone else would have seen anything dangerous before she did.

So I really don't do much of anything when a horse spooks. Horses spook. On the ground I expect them to stay out of my space. Or they're gonna get smacked. Not for spooking. For getting in my space.

Under saddle I'm going to be reassuring. How does one do that? Oh, I'd start with leg and contact. With L it's leg. It's like you "hold her" with your legs. You have to know your horse. And I expect that to settle it. If it doesn't its not so much about technique. I need a plan to establish my (alpha) position.

It's not fair for us to expect them to see the world our way. We choose to make them part of our world and as such we have to see many things from their point of view.

Seeing the world from their point of view, or at least trying to, is one of the reasons I do this horse thing.