AllHorseStuff

Learn, Share, and Shop

20 Feb 2012
6 Comments

Riding the Unpredictable Horse

By Juliane Dykiel

Working in the horse training business, I’ve seen a number of good riders lose confidence because their horse has reacted unpredictably. Whether the horse has spooked, run away with their rider, bucked, bolted, or reared, these 1000 lb animals can intimidate us in a heartbeat.

There are three main ways to prevent unpredictable behavior: 1) Desensitizing, which means exposing your horse to a scary object such as a tarp, plastic bag, umbrella, or scary noise early on 2) Establishing your role of herd leader and gaining your horse’s respect, which prevents rude and rebellious behavior such as bucking and rearing, and 3) Knowing what to do, and being prepared for, when your horse becomes unpredictable.

Horse Desensitizing

Juliane and Zip

Desensitizing is about teaching your horse to become accustomed to scary things. The goal is to teach our horses to think instead of react when confronted with new and unfamiliar objects and noises. My horse would bolt every time someone opened an umbrella, so I took the time to desensitize her to umbrellas. Now, I don’t need to worry when it rains!

As for establishing your role as herd leader, start on the ground by getting control of your horse’s feet. This will gain you their respect. A good way to start is by teaching your horse to back up. Getting a horse to respect your personal space is one of the best ways to gain respect.

The one-rein stop is a great way to stop your horse if it begins to run off with you and doesn’t listen to stop aids, or if it just stops listening to you over-all. It is important to prepare the one-rein stop at home from the stand still, then walk, then trot, and then canter, so that the horse understands what it’s supposed to do when you pick up the rein.

To learn more about how to desensitize safely and effectively, gain respect with groundwork exercises, and learn tricks like the one rein stop in case of emergencies, I would recommend the help of a good trainer. You can also sign up for our blog or “Like” us on Facebook to stay up to date with our free training videos.

No matter how much preparation you do, however, there will always be a risk of unpredictability in horses. So, in addition to the one rein stop, what else can you do when a horse becomes unpredictable?

Well, I was riding a green horse the other day, a quarter horse who was rescued from slaughter by Ainslie Sheridan, and has been through a lot of misery. Perhaps these experiences have taught her to be unpredictable in incredibly specific situations, as well as how to use her head – she is one of the smartest horses that I have worked with. In many ways, however, she is also one of the easiest. She is a quick learner, and she will go days without any resentment, leading to us being able to do things beyond her training level, such as leading trail rides with students and going to the beach.

Because of the fact that she had been so easygoing, I let my guard down with this green girl and she bucked me off in a single time at the beach, with what seemed like no warning. We had barely any problem in rides prior to this one, and the beginning of the ride, in which she got introduced to the ocean, went flawlessly. After being bucked off, I got back on. Several weeks passed with no sign of rebellion or disrespect from this horse, and it seemed like our problems were over.

I’d learned my lesson at the beach, however. From now on, I was sure to not let my guard down. The other day, I was riding her on the trails behind the barn with Ainslie and she said to me, “Wow, Dolly hasn’t bucked in a while, has she?” I acknowledged that she hadn’t, but this reminded me to be on my guard.

Horse at the Beach

Dolly at the Beach

So what does “being on your guard” mean? Well, I started listening to and paying attention to what she was telling me. When she was happy, her ears would face forward, and her stride energetic. However, I saw that she was irritated when I felt her sucking back, her back tightened, tail flicked, and she started tossing her head slightly. This led to a shortening of my reins. After all, horses have to have their heads down to buck, and keeping her head up at the stage was sure to help. Also, I sat deeply in the saddle and looked up, so that a single disturbance wouldn’t get me off (Working on your seat via lunge lessons and sit-ups is also a great way to prevent falling off…), yet tried to remain relaxed and confident.

Sure enough, Ainslie had saved me by mentioning the bucking. Two minutes later, I noticed the now-familiar warning signs. Dolly was annoyed about something. I wasn’t sure what, but I knew what was to come from it: she began sunfishing: huge, uncontrollable bucks designed to get the source of annoyance, me, out of the saddle.

So if once you’ve done everything that you can to prevent it, and done everything that you can to ensure that the horse doesn’t succeed in getting you off, how do you actually deal with the bucks when they happen?

Well, the first thing to do to prevent bucking is to get the horse’s head up, which is easier to do with shorter reins. Then, what most people don’t realize is that it’s very important to drive the horse forward. It might be scary for people to ask a horse to move faster when all they want to do is stop their horse and have it calm down, but horses absolutely can’t buck when running in a straight line. Then, once the horse is going normally forward again, a one-rein stop is possible, then you have the option of getting off and doing some ground work with the horse to establish respect.

However, I was on terrible terrain and had another horse in front of me when this happened. This proves that driving a horse forward is not always a safe option. Also, if I had been taking a student out on a trail ride, running off with the lead horse would have been sure to scare them. Therefore, I chose the second option: to do a one-rein stop directly. This helped me re-gain control of Dolly’s hindquarters and I put my leg back and made her spin around in a circle, pivoting on her inside front foot. Dolly soon learned that going around and around in a circle was much more difficult than trying to buck and that standing quietly was the better option. Here is a video that trainer Hadrien Dykiel made that shows this exercise.

Preparing for these exercises ahead of time is key. I had prepared for this at home by teaching Dolly to yield her hindquarters in response to my leg moving back, which helped quite a bit. Asking your horse to spin around will help stop most negative reactions. Since it is such a helpful safety net, however, it sometimes encourages one to skip steps. I once hopped on a horse I had never prepared with groundwork before, and since he did not know to “give” like the one-rein stop requires, or yield around my inside leg, I was unable to stop him from bucking and crow hopping and had to do an emergency dismount. Therefore, despite this safety net, please learn from my mistakes and do your homework: prepare the horse for a safe ride by desensitizing, teaching him the one-rein stop, and doing the proper ground work.

However, what happens if the horse ends up getting you off, despite all of this? No one has the perfect reaction time or seat, so there is no guarantee that a horse won’t succeed in bucking you off. If this happens, and if your state allows you to, make sure that you, or someone, has the horse work after the accident, so that the horse does not learn that bucking off his rider results in the end of a work session. You do not want to reward your horse for his behavior. This happens all the time when a horse bucks a rider off, and the rider is too scared to get back on. In that case, ground work or round penning is a great alternative to getting back on that lets the horse know that he is not the winner.

I hope that this “yielding-the-hindquarters” method will help some of your problems and make you a more confident rider! Remember that even if you do all of your homework, a horse is an animal, not a machine, and can always be unpredictable. My experience with Dolly left me nervous – I found it scarier with her than with a horse who does this all the time, because of the sheer unpredictability. Remember to always be on your guard, do your homework, and stay tuned for more training videos!

www.AllHorseStuff.com

Posted in Horses, Natural Horsemanship and tagged , , ,
01 Feb 2012

The Key To Stopping Undesirable Behavior

By Natural Horsemanship Trainer Katie Weagley

One of the first requests that I come across as a horse trainer is to ‘get my horse to stop doing _________’ fill in the blank with what you will; be that bucking, spooking, rearing, biting, getting heavy in the bridle, and so on and so forth. The problem is that no one can tell a horse to simply stop what he is doing to protect himself. Take a buck for example, a horse may go off bucking because his saddle hurts his back, his rider is out of rhythm and bouncing on his back, he’s scared of the dead animal hide strapped on him, or he’s feeling spunky. In any case simply telling him to ‘quit it’ is telling him not be himself. This is the difference between good horsemanship and not. The first step in trying to get a horse to ‘stop’ undesirable behavior is to realize horses always have a reason for their behavior and usually they are darn good ones! If I felt like someone was climbing on my back to attack me, well, I guess I’d have to kick him off too! This doesn’t mean that we are going to go along with the undesirable behavior and simply accept that’s the way it is and will always be. Contrary it also doesn’t mean that it’s time to start spurring the horse as hard as you can.

Standing Up On A Horse

Katie Weagley


I meet both cases. Sometimes horses get their people so well trained that the owner will never ask the horse for anything that might set him off. It gets to the point that the owner shows up at feed time, the horse gives him a sideways glance, and the owner quickly drops the food and backs away. Other times I’ll see a horse who bends his nose to sniff at his saddle and gets whacked in the face because he was ‘thinking about biting.’ Either way, an injustice has happened. Horses are herd animals looking for leaders, GOOD leaders, to keep them alive. For all they know, a mountain lion could jump on their back at any second.

The key to ‘stopping’ a undesirable behavior is to be a leader your horse can respect. This means getting an education on why undesirable behaviors happen. Let’s go back to the buck. Let’s say a horse starts bucking every time other horses canter away from him. Well, horses are herd animals and if everyone else is running away from something why wouldn’t he? They canter, he canters faster to catch up, and his rider pulls on his bit to make him slow down. This in turn makes him uncomfortable and nervous because now he’s the slowest horse and going to get attacked by whatever everyone else is getting away from, so he bucks. He’s in pain and scared…it makes sense. So instead of simply pulling back on his mouth, what if, when the horse cantered off after the others’ his rider let him canter but instead of letting him just run away at break neck speed, the rider started to weave the horse as he went. This would be one way of allowing the horse to go forward as his instincts told him he needed but give the rider a chance to control the horse’s feet so as not to have the horse take off at a dangerous speed. This may not be the only way of solving this particular example but the point is that it’s not creating an argument with the horse nor is it allowing him to blindly follow his instincts without leadership.

The truth is that I’ve never respected anyone who has scared me to death or tried to bribe me into doing what he/she wanted. Respect is gained by showing a mastery of skills, quality leadership, control of emotions, patience, and the wisdom to know when to correct behavior and when to reward behavior. Horses respect riders who deserve it. Never stop learning, never stop trying to be a person deserving of your horse’s respect. That’s what Connection Horse Training is about, gaining an understanding of horses, gaining their respect, and continually trying to deserve the opportunities they give us.

Katie Weagley is from Ephrata Pennsylvania. She offers training and holds regular clinics. Visit her website Connection Horse Training to learn more. Her next clinic is in York Haven PA on February 11th. Come watch her for a chance to win a Training Stick from AllHorseStuff!

www.AllHorseStuff.com

Posted in Horses, Natural Horsemanship and tagged , | Leave a Comment
25 Jan 2012

Why Should a Horse Always Have a Companion?

By guest blogger Juliane Dykiel

When most of us think about why our horses need companions, we think of the obvious…horses are herd animals, right? It seems like isolating one would be similar to isolating a human. As attached as we feel to our horses, most of us understand that our company is not enough for them (and, as often as I insist that I love horses more than people, I understand that it works vice versa as well).

However, when I dug into Margit Zeitler-Feicht’s Horse Behavior Explained once again, I found some facts about horse companionship that I would never have guessed simply from observing their behavior.

Who would have guessed that isolation actually impairs a horse’s ability to rest? In Zeitler-Feicht’s words, “In domestic horses, individual animals staying awake while others sleep” is very common. Horses actually feel more secure sleeping while others keep watch. Can you imagine the life of a solitary prey animal, such as the horse, lacking sleep because it always feels like it has to be on its guard? This seems so unpleasant. Zeitler-Feicht goes on to say that “It can therefore be concluded that management of horses without sufficient visual, olfactory, and auditory contact with other companions will impair their ability to relax and reinvigorate”(72).

Horses Mutual Grooming

Photo by Anna Spach

Another surprise is that in Germany, it is actually a violation of the Animal Welfare Act to keep “a horse without companions of the same species”( 42).

Who knew that some horses can also bond to goats and dogs when they lack a partner of the same species? To me, this is proof of how dependent they are on having a companion other than a human, with whom “the daily contact is typically very short” as opposed to “full members of a horse group” who spend “day and night united with their band”(43). Zeitler-Feicht believes that “keeping a horse with animals of a different species,” while helpful, “must only be considered as a temporary solution”(42).

How about the common excuse, “I’m afraid that a companion horse might hurt mine”? Well, it’s a fairly valid one: I ride a horse that was, at her old barn, turned out with another horse that beat her up, causing two breaks in her hind leg. While we were lucky and she’s doing well now, it’s definitely a risk. However, all herds have a set rank order, and this must be established when a horse is first turned out with others. Scuffles are usually short and limited to first exposure to a new horse. After all, “as soon as a hierarchy is established, it remains relatively stable”(32). If this is performed under supervision, further risk is low. This behavior is also extremely natural.

While some risk remains, I suppose that we have to pick our battles, and at least the horse is happier. The longer a horse has been turned out with another, the more solid the hierarchy and the less likely it is that one will hurt the other, so if you can find one horse that yours gets along with, you could create a long-lasting bond!

www.AllHorseStuff.com

Posted in Horses, Natural Horsemanship and tagged , | Leave a Comment
19 Jan 2012
3 Comments

Natural Horsemanship Trainer Spotlight: Tim Hayes

What’s the most important thing to your horse? Tim Hayes, a renowned horse trainer, explains that safety is the single most important thing to horses. Being prey animals, horses constantly worry about what can eat them or hurt them. The list is long, including predators and falling trees. Once a horse feels safe, a horse wants to feel comfortable, says Tim. Once safety and being comfortable are achieved, a horse wants to know where he or she stands in the herd hierarchy.

It is important for us to take the position of leadership with our horses. Afterall, having a 1000 pound plus animal calling the shots is not very safe. Tim Hayes establishes his role as a leader with his horses, and he also teaches people how to do the same with their own horses. Tim teaches his students various groundwork exercises to establish trust and respect, defining their place as the leader with their horse.

Tim Hayes is a full time teacher and clinician. His method was developed through years of experience and a strong desire to learn with an open mind. Tim tells us “ My journey in Natural Horsemanship has blessed me with learning directly from some of the greatest teachers in the world. My goal is to pass on what I was taught and encourage everyone to keep an open mind, investigate and discover for themselves the phenomenal things you can do with horses using the methods of Natural Horsemanship.”

Horse Whisperer Tim Hayes
Tim is holding a Natural Horsemanship Demo with free admission on Sunday, January 29th, in Old Lyme Connecticut. I am planning on going myself, I encourage anyone who is interested to come hang out.

To learn more about Tim Hayes, including his clinics, visit his website www.hayesisforhorses.com.

-Hadrien
www.AllHorseStuff.com

Posted in Horses, Natural Horsemanship and tagged ,
12 Jan 2012
4 Comments

To Stall or Not to Stall a Horse?

By guest blogger Juliane Dykiel

Upon reading Margit H. Zeitler-Feicht’s Horse Behavior Explained, I came across some important information that I believe every horse person should know, yet not many seem to.

While I already knew how important it was both psychologically and physically for a horse to get out of its stall or turn out, I was not aware of the specific facts that prove that keeping a horse stalled all day is detrimental.

A 1998 survey “confirm[s] that more than 95% of horses are ridden or driven for less than 1 hour a day.” It may now be 2012, but can’t we all think of many horses that don’t get out enough?

So I decided to attempt to share this important information with the rest of the horse world. Horse Behavior Explained is a fairly dense book but its importance can’t be missed, so I’ll summarize some of it here.

In the wild, horses walk between 3.7 – 10.6 miles a day. A horse that remains stalled all day travels 0.1 miles per day. In Margit’s words, “the ‘day off,’ a day on which the horse never leaves the stall, is designed exclusively for human benefit. It offers nothing but disadvantages for the horse’s health and psyche…days off should rather include a quieter form of exercise such as pasture turnout or a trail ride at walking speed”(77).

Margit also explains that in the wild, the walk is the primary gait used by horses. They walk long distances with rare occurrences of trot and canter. However, stalled horses “spend most of their time standing and exercise is often limited to 1 hour but proportionally faster…highly concentrated exercise in this manner cannot compensate for a lack of slow movement spread out over a long period of time”(77). This clarifies the importance of trail rides, especially walks: after all, horses are nomadic creatures, and moving through woods is a psychological necessity.

A way to help satisfy the exercise requirement for horses that are not ridden enough, Margit explains on page 74, is to turn out horses at least several hours a day.

Another way to help is to “motivate horses to walk” by spreading out the “areas designed to meet the horse’s varying needs”(74) – for example, putting the water bucket on one side of the pasture or paddock, shelter on the opposite, and feeding them in a completely different corner. This will bring the amount of ground the horse covers a day when turned out for 12 hours from 1.8 miles to 3 miles, almost double.

Once the exercise requirement has been satisfied, and I have found this to be true from first-hand experience, a horse will usually be less prone to behavioral problems. After all, “Lack of exercise is a well-known cause of problems arising during handling”(77). Other physical aspects of the horse such as its musculoskeletal, digestive, cardiac, and circulatory systems will be healthier, and your horse, like any human who takes care of their body and exercises enough, will last longer.

Reading all of this, I found that I’m guilty myself – many of my projects don’t get out as much as they should. I feel like I’ve been subconsciously aware of this, yet always justified it by the fact that “I don’t have enough time” to ride all of the horses I’m charged with adequately. Well, today, instead of just riding my client’s horse hard for a half hour, I also squeezed in a half hour walk. Tomorrow, I’m going on a trail ride, and I’m going to pony one of the other horses along, since she’s been trained to pony students for years. Consider leasing a horse out to a quiet or experienced rider. Take your horses on trail rides; it’ll be therapeutic for the both of you. But most of all, pick up Margit Zeitler-Feicht’s Horse Behavior Explained for even more mind-blowing horse truths that most people need to be, yet are not aware of…or just wait for my next summary to come out: “Why A Horse Should Always Have A Companion.”

Running Horses

Photo by Anne Dykiel

www.AllHorseStuff.com

Posted in Horses, Natural Horsemanship and tagged ,
06 Jan 2012

How to Bathe a Horse in the Winter

I’ve always wondered if there was a quick and easy way to wash my horse in the winter. I was told about a waterless shampoo that worked really well, so I decided to buy a bottle and try it out myself. Here’s how it went:

It does a nice job removing stains and dirt from horses’ coats, so it’s a good replacement to bathing when it’s cold out. It’s also convenient before a horse show or anytime you need to get your horse clean, quickly. I was very pleased with the results, so we’ve decided to carry this shampoo in our store. You can check it out here: BestShot Waterless Shampoo

How do you keep your horses clean in the winter?
-Hadrien

www.AllHorseStuff.com

Posted in Horses and tagged , , | Leave a Comment
03 Jan 2012
1 Comment

How to Groom a Horse

The girls from my barn explained to me yesterday how to use different brushes while grooming a horse. Watch the video to hear from them the differences between a curry comb, hard brush, soft brush, and hair brush.

-Hadrien
www.AllHorseStuff.com

Posted in Horses and tagged ,
21 Dec 2011

How to Tie a Quick Release Knot

For all you bank robbers out there, here’s how to make a bank robber’s knot. I found this video explaining how to tie your horses to a post for quick getaways!

Here is another way of making a quick release knot:
(That’s me in the video)

The best way to learn these knots is to grab a piece of rope right now and give them a try. I was just practicing myself actually, my only problem was my kitten who kept trying to catch the rope.

-Hadrien
www.AllHorseStuff.com

Posted in Horses, Knots and tagged , | Leave a Comment
12 Dec 2011
2 Comments

A Rescue Horse’s Story

Mojito is a friendly Quarab gelding who was rescued by the Animal Rescue League of Boston. The rescue took him away from a field where he and several other horses were left there, neglected.

We adopted him from the rescue to start him under saddle and find a good home for him. We’ve put together a little video of him:

E-mail us at info@AllHorseStuff.com or call us at 1-888-413-5985 if you would like to learn more about Mojito. Also please feel free to forward this to anybody who might be interested in him!

-Hadrien

www.AllHorseStuff.com

Posted in Horses, Natural Horsemanship and tagged ,
09 Dec 2011
1 Comment

Mythbusters: Natural Horsemanship vs. Conventional Training

By guest blogger, Laurene Hummer

In the horsemanship world, it often seems as though riders and trainers have an all-or-nothing, can’t turn back choice to make: you’re either doing natural horsemanship, or you’re a conventional rider. But is this divide really warranted? Are “conventional” riders, such as dressage riders, jumpers, hunters and the like really all that different from those that practice “natural” training, aka “Natural Horsemanship”?

My answer is, absolutely not. To me, those “conventional riders” are integrating Natural Horsemanship into their training methods, no matter the discipline. They don’t need a cowboy hat or an orange stick, although I do like the look!

“Natural Horsemanship” can be boiled down to a way of training horses that makes sense to them naturally. Instead of trying to teach a horse to comprehend human language and cues, Natural Horsemanship uses the language horses employ to communicate amongst themselves as its main training tool. It is the basis for groundwork as well as mounted natural horsemanship training. Many English riders utilize the same concepts at all levels of conventional training, from starting a horse under saddle and teaching it the basics to Olympic level performance. They just may not realize that they are doing it.

To give a quick example of what I mean, let’s take the most basic and elementary principles one can teach a horse: squeeze means go, and pull means stop. When an English rider wants their horse to move forward, they will squeeze their legs, putting pressure on the horse’s sides. If the horse doesn’t react, the rider may click his tongue, squeeze harder, and finally use spurs or a crop. In doing so, the rider gradually increases the pressure until a reaction is obtained from the horse. Once the horse moves forward, the rider releases the pressure, teaching the horse that moving forward was the right response. Similarly, once a rider is ready to stop his horse, he will still his seat, and apply more and more pressure on the reins until he obtains the desired response. Once the horse has halted, the rider will (or should!) release the pressure on the reins to reward the horse for stopping.

Applying pressure and releasing as a reward for good behavior is also a fundamental tool of natural horsemanship and is the foundation for pretty much any training exercise. A simple example is asking the horse to back up. In natural horsemanship, backing up a horse accomplishes several things: it establishes dominance over the horse (if you’re not the boss, good luck getting your horse to respect you out of the goodness of his heart), pushes the horse outside of your personal space (which he should not have invaded in the first place), and establishes control over the horse’s feet. The natural horsemanship trainer will stand facing the horse and ask him to back up, increasing the pressure just like the English rider did in the example above. First, he will wiggle the lead line, putting a slight pressure on the horse. Then, he will move forward towards the horse’s chest. If that doesn’t work, the trainer will then start swinging his orange stick methodically side to side in front of him in the space between him and the horse, or tap the horse’s chest to kindly suggest that the horse move. As soon as the horse backs up, the trainer releases all pressure.

Now you see how both “Conventional,” English practitioners and natural horsemanship aficionados utilize pressure and release to obtain desired results – they work with the same concept in different ways. So how is this a natural horsemanship technique? Or, more precisely, how is that “horse language”?

In a herd, horses always establish a hierarchy of dominance. It is a fluid hierarchy as horses are always testing each other, but it is established thanks to putting pressure on others and releasing. A lead horse will dominate a rookie if he succeeds to make him yield under pressure. He will face the other horse squarely, pin his ears, bare his teeth, and even turn around and kick. He will release the pressure once the other horse has moved – thus accepted dominance. Horses understand this basic concept of pressure and release and use it to communicate amongst themselves. It makes sense to them and is a simple but very powerful tool to obtain results.

I believe Natural Horsemanship principles can be used in any discipline to offer horses less stressful and quicker training. What do you think?

www.AllHorseStuff.com

Posted in Horses, Natural Horsemanship

Post Navigation

← Older Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 40 other followers