It's a horse!

I've been sick which means I've spent little time with my horses. When I have had time to spend with Gally, things haven't been going smoothly to say the least. I know what's going on. Gally is the boss of the paddock, so he has a dominant nature. So of course, he also gets dominant with me. You don't need to be a genius to work it out. I know I need to fix it, and soon. But how? How much do I smack him? How hard? How do I know when to stop? Do I always need to smack him?

For example. I put him out in the round yard and decided that I wouldn't smack him at all. Instead, every time he would do something I didn't approve of I would send him out and wait for him to submit. (This is based on Monty Roberts' training methods.) This worked a treat. Gally is really keen to work with people so he submits very quickly. But I can't use this method all the time and everywhere. It's one tool that works, but I need a whole suitcase of tools.

Smacking him on the backside stops him from kicking out. That's another tool I have. But what about when he puts his ears back when I put the saddle on? Or do the girth up? I need more tools. And so I arrive at Anna's loaded with questions.

Anna is superb. She has a good quick easy solution for most things I ask about. I open up my virtual suit case and start loading in the tools. It would take me weeks to describe them all here. But one thing is worth mentioning.

Anna has put Gally on the lounge with side reins on. She is encouraging him to step through and underneath. Gally is finding this a bit challenging, and at one point he just stops in protest. "Get on!" Anna calls out. He stands still. "Get on!" Anna repeats, and this time the whip flies. He trots on then settles down into an engaged walk. "He won't do that again." Anna speaks to me, while still fully focused on the horse. "You'll see, next time, he will respect the voice command. You have to just get on with it", she continues. "Ask for what you want and don't stop until you get it. And be quick about it. It's a horse. And he's a dominant horse." And if you give him time to think about things, he will find a way to dominate you.

Basically the message is this. If you want a horse to do something, keep demanding it until you get it. The minute you ease off, you teach the horse that whatever he did just before you eased off was the correct behaviour.

The second part is - you have to be quick. Horses are quick thinkers. Keep up!

The third part is - if it didn't work, then try something different. When Anna called out "Get on!" it didn't work. So she didn't follow it up with a louder, longer monologue. She followed it up with a flick of the whip. She tried something different. But, next time, she will still start with the voice. And eventually this will be enough.