#equinetraining

I started taking a few lesson from a coach at the barn where I board. I started with her because she had been learning and teaching natural horsemanship. She mentored under Adiva Murphy and had some Parelli training as well. We didnt talk too much about theory, just seemed to get right to work.

We started the lesson by her clipping a rope around Twisters front foot. I guess she decided from watching me around the barn, Twister wasn’t picking her feet up to her liking. Twister automatically tried to take her foot back, and so a tug-o-war began. The point was that Twister accept the fact that her foot no longer belonged to her. Which she eventually did, and relaxed, in return her foot was dropped back to the floor. This technique came across to me as a bit abrupt, but did work well.

We happen to touch on the subject about tying a horses foot up, we didn't discuss it in detail but it got my head spinning. Tying a horses foot up is a concept I haven’t quite wrapped my head around. The way I understand natural horsemanship to be, is about communication and training without force. Why would you immobilize an animal whose entire psychology is focused around flight? Taking away a horses ability to move, to them and especially when panicked, is like submitting their lives to a predator. Is this not force? I am sure that there are certain situations where this is the least intrusive way of dealing with a problem behaviour, I would think it is not a technique to take lightly.

My issue with Twister that I had wanted to address, was my send off when lunging. I couldn’t for the life of me clearly, consistently get her to respect my space while attempting a send off. The coach started with a back up; “With your stick, tap the ground rhythmically, then slowly pick up the hardness until you are giving her a little smack on the chest.” -Pardon??!! You want me to smack my horse??!! - This was my first reaction, and I think Twister felt the same as I did. It definitely got both of our attention. At the snap of the stick, she immediately jumped back. After using this pattern a couple of times she knew exactly what I was asking of her. Before I knew it, all I had to do was tap the ground or brush her shoulder with my stick and Twister understood, with little hesitation, to respect my space and step out. She picked up a beautiful trot and didn’t slow down until I invited her in for a rest and a huge amount of praise and love.

I did feel great with what we had a accomplished in such a short amount of time. Though I had this lingering feeling swimming around me that I was missing something in my teachings to truly accept the idea of physically touching my horse, in a forceful way, is the right thing to do.

 Over the next week, I remembered Allan Hamilton's book, "Zen Mind Zen Horse".

“Ask. Request. Demand. Promise.

We apply this four-step method to every task we teach our horse. Implicit in this algorithm is accepting that our goals cannot be grasped in one fell swoop, one quick, desperate grab. Instead, approach your aims deliberately, patiently, and with a careful, measured, timely application of energy.”

The first step is to ASK; This is a peaceful process, elegant and graceful. “Would you mind doing this?” And the pupils response would be framed the same way.

Second, is Request; more like a boss to an employee. ‘Will you please?’ Prodding you to action, like a poke.

Third, Demand; ‘You are going to do this.’ You take the role of an authority figure and up the pressure.

Last is a Promise; ‘I promise you will do this, or you will face the consequence!’ The pressure should be overwhelming and irresistible. This is where a quick snap comes in. Not meant to be painful or aggressive, but a sure thing to get your horse to move its feet.

This is a sensitive process, it is important to pause between steps to give the horse a chance to think and react to your intention and respond on thier own free will, with minimal pressure. If you find yourself at step four more than a few times, may need to re-analyze your approach at step one and two.”

(This is not an exact copy of what is written in the book, but pretty close)

What I had been taught started to come together, and I’m pretty sure our coach was on the same track with this theory.