Life's little worthiness lessons

Phew! At the Denver Horse and Soul (June 2013) tour Pat finished a fantastic and LONG trailer loading session with a horse that, as Pat said, had opposition at both ends. Pretty intense pull back issue as well as being bracey about zones 3/4/5.

On Friday evening the horse had arrived with its lovely owners, who I had observed struggling for a fair while trying to get the horse into the small 8x10 stalls at the fairgrounds. I could tell they were getting frustrated so I offered to help, and they accepted. The horse was very introverted, to me on the cusp of LBI and RBI. In the past I have had strong set ups from Pat NOT to "train" the demo horses when dealing with them in the barn as it is very easy for people to see this and then think that that is why Pat is successful in the show. Which of course we all know isn't the case! But in an attempt to give people as few reasons as possible to brace, it is always something I take very seriously.

As such, I didn't switch halters, or spend a long time trying to teach the horse to yield, I just set about helping her to get into her stall for the weekend in a natural and non-confrontational way. Unfortunately this was easier said than done! This little horse had learned that it is pretty easy to pull a human around with your head so we spent a long time dealing with that! The horse would pull back and I would keep the pressure on, walking with him until he chose the apropriate response. After about 45 minutes .... And me starting to struggle with feeling like a failure, we got into the stall. Phewf!

Now, the interesting thing about this whole lesson is that it was at this point that I choose to break principle #2 ( don't make or teach assptions).... I assumed that it was MY lack of skill and ability that caused me to struggle with this little horse so much... Those of you that were in Denver know that that was not the case! :)

The next day in the show it took Pat the better part of 4 hours to help this horse make a change in his willingness to listen to human leadership. The horse demonstrated some extreme Prey animal behaviors such as goat kicking (when they leap in the air and kick out with hind feet). He also demonstrated some learned, dominant behaviors like not yielding to pressure on his poll, and using this strongly to his advantage.

When Pat came out of the arena and de-briefed with some of the instructors I shared that it had taken me 45 minutes to get him in his stall.... Pat said, "well that would have been nice to know!"

Haha! I laughed .... Took a few deep breaths and took stock of the assumption that I had made ... a moment in time to remember that assuming that YOU are the one who lacks the skill is sometimes JUST as damaging as thinking you have all the answers ;)

Thanks for listening ... 

Holes Vs. Strengths: Part 2 Developing Vs. Helping ....

Here are some more of my musings on Horse development and my sessions with a 2 Year old Hanoverian in Australia named Finn.

He was pretty high to start with, almost bordering on RBE, but more just energetic LBE. Anyway, I played with him with a few of the conecpts we have been focusing on while encouraging more movement since he was feeling pretty extraverted. We started with some changing eyes, consistency of movement on circle game and he started to come down really nicely. From there we went on to some of the slower stuff I really want him to understand like porcupine in his legs (lead by the leg), and such.

After this I decided to go back to our friendly game in motion at walk and trot to see what he remembered from the week before; it started out pretty well at the walk, but sort of disentegrated as he began to really LEAN on the halter in an effort to escape me, and not be consistent in his gait. The horse developer in me (it is a VERY small part, haha, as I tend to be good at helping PEOPLE find success, but not great at helping horses through challenges in an efficient way... This is a constant effort for me in SELF -development, because I want to be a phenomenal horsewoman as well as instructor)... Anyway, The horse-developer in me knew that I needed to help Finn to calm down, focus, and stop trying to run through the pressure on his halter, he needed to understand that that door was closed, respect that boundary. Especially before anyone got up on his back.

SO, I played wiht an excercise I had seen Kalley do quite a bit with the horses we had assigned to us in Florida, and also one I had played with with the yearlings at Atwood. I sent Finn out on the circle and when I felt him start to lean and want to leave, I took a hold of the lead, didn't pull, just HELD, and asked him to yield his hind end. Essentially, if the horse is circling to the right, this is closing the outside and left door of the halter, asking them to face you; or taking a hold of their inside hind leg is another way to look at it. Fin knows this game, but he was blasting through the pressure, and running and reacting, instead of responding, in essence he was not acting like a partner.

For a few times around I was reaching down the rope, holding asking him to yield, and then changing direction and repeating the same process on the other side. He was reactive; running through the pressure and pulling back, and running off the other way. This was a perfect example of where a horse-development specialist would be able to take this horse THROUGH this challenge, to help him (especially a two year old) to understand that no matter what, as Kalley would say "1+1=2;" when I hold here, and put pressure here, it means yield. I knew this! And I began to try and play through it in that way... But then I lost my confidence :( Finn gave a rather large reaction (again... remember he is not responding, he is reacting. You can think of this as lack of respect because respect is "an appropriate response to pressure applied appropriately" I was applying pressure appropriately, and Finn was reacting, in essence not holding up number 1 of his 4 responsibilities, Don't act like a prey animal, act like a partner.) Anyway, I decided that maybe I was pushing him too far, and I didn't believe I had the ability to bring him back from that edge.

That is what horse development is all about, according to Ray Hunt, its taking a horse to the edge of their ability, their threshold, their emotions, and then confidently bring them back; this way they gain more and more faith in human leadership. I found I was right at that threshold and I backed off because of lack of faith in my own abilities.

I then took my classic instructor stand point, and began to play with Finn softly in Backwards S's and changes of eye until he was down and participating more, just like I would show a student how to do. So, whats wrong with this? Where are the holes?

Well- firstly, Finn wasn't safe to ride. He had pushed into that Halter pressure, and never truly softened to it. As a colt-start, that button needs to be full proof, no matter what, when I reach down this lead, it means yield your hind end, and soften your nose. Secondly- He hadn't learned to have faith in human leadership. Pat says Isolate, Seperate, and recombine. I had isolated the issue, seperated out how to help him. But I hadn't been able to succesfully recombine it all together into a picture that made sense to him. Instead I had played around the challenge. He hadn't really learned that 1+1 is ALWAYS 2, even when Im high or excited.

At this point since I had lost my confidence I turned him over to Kerryn. She was able to address the challenge and help Finn through it. Mostly to see how strong Finn's understanding of pressure grew to be in just 15 minutes, but on a selfish level also to see how CLOSE I had been to the right answer. I had taken him right to the edge, and after only a little bit more he was able to turn over to Kerryn and really understand that the answer is to think and respond, instead of reacting, no matter what. So even though I lost my confidence in my horsemanship, it was a bit of a surprise to see how close I had been :)

On the drive home Kerryn said it was ALL but painful watching me as I was SO close to the right answer and then backed off because I lost confidence in my own abilities. As always, just like with horses though, you can't push someone over that edge, they have to find that faith in themselves ALL ON THEIR OWN :) Here's to trying again next time!