Forget Black Beauty

Another thing I brought up with Clancy last week was that deep down I am a nice soft person. A bit of a girly girl. So, by nature, am I too soft around horses?

Clancy thought a bit about my question, then asked "Have you read Black Beauty and other similar books?"

"Well ... yes".

"Well, forget Black Beauty and all those books. It's not like that. A horse, is a horse", he said calmly, but firmly. Didn't Anna say the same thing recently?

(What does "a horse is a horse" mean? It means that horses live in a herd, which has a pecking order. If you want to be respected, you need to be higher in the pecking order than the horse. The minute you are lower in the pecking order, the horse will not respect you and may stand on you, bite you, kick you, and act like he is the boss.)

When you go to war

Another thing I asked Clancy last week was "Sometimes he goes well without spurs. Should I always be wearing spurs, and carrying a whip?"

Clancy gazed at me in response, then said "Apparently Franz Mairinger once said, when you go to war, take all your necessary equipment with you."

There's not much point in leaving your dressage whip at A, and running into a problem at C, thinking "my whip would be really handy right now". You need to learn to ride selectively - use your calf when you need to, use the spur when you need to, and use the whip when you need to. And don't let your spur or your whip interfere when you're using your calf.

Needless to say, I mount up with spurs and whip today. I use my spurs a fair bit, and my whip only twice. But I am really glad both are there when I need them.

Be tough ... once

When I talked with Clancy last week I asked him "How tough do I need to be with my horse?"

The answer was "If your horse is being naughty, then do anything you need to do, to get them out of your space. The instant they have backed off, stop."

This is pretty much what Pat Parelli, and other horsemen and women, say. Except that Pat Parelli applies the 10 point scale. Start soft, and build it up. That might be fine when your horse is standing still, pretty much asleep. It's a bit different when you are trying to saddle the horse, and he is lashing out with his teeth at you.

So today when I bring Gally to the hitching rail, I don't tie him to it. I just let the rope wrap around the rail once. I put the saddle blanket on, and the teeth lash out. I retaliate with the back of my hand at break neck speed, with all the force I can muster. Gally, astounded, takes a step back. The rope slips with him. I put the saddle on. The ears go back, but no more teeth. Then I do the girth up. The teeth come at me again, and again I retaliate and Gally is forced to retreat a step.

Today, when I mount up, he doesn't try to bite me.

Response versus Reaction

The farrier arrives, and I bring Gally in for shoeing.

"Clancy, I need your help", I announce.

We talk about my problems with Gally, and Clancy (who is well versed in Monty Roberts and Pat Parelli and other horsemen) has a bit of a play with Gally. He holds the head stall with one hand, and tries to get the horse to step away from him by poking him in the ribs with the other hand (the pressure increases as the horse doesn't respond). In the end Gally cow kicks, and then moves away from the pressure.

"Did you see that?", says Clancy, seeming very pleased. I gaze somewhat bored. Of course I saw it.
"Yes", I respond politely.
"The cow kick, was a reaction", says Clancy. "The moving away was response." Pause. "I wouldn't worry about the kick. As he learns to respond, that cow kick will just go away", he concludes.

I wake up from my bored gaze. Eureka! This is it! This is that bit of information I was missing, and I didn't know how to ask about it, or what it was that I was asking about. Reaction versus response.

Most horses will react in some way. Most horses react by running away. And this makes them look like they are easy to train. They are never perfect, but kind of close enough to good enough.

A response is when a horse actually understands the command. This is what most people are searching for.