This written in response to a forum at NHE:
If one comes from many years as a horseman I think that NHE and its philosophies are a journey into another thought realm and lifestyle. Just as we help the horse to change his or her perceptions of the world around humans we humans must change our perceptions as well. Both species being those that are comfortable with the familiar and both species those that dislike disharmony. Trying to blend two different species together into a singular realm of presence is nothing less than a stupendous effort on both sides. Probably more so for the human than for the horse. But, it is that singular realm of presence that is that which we strive. It is wrought with frustrations and tears and many questions; most of which the horse, if listened to very carefully, can answer for us. We only need to get into the mind existance of the horse, himself, to understand that reality in which our horses live. To do that we must become small in thought ... singular, momentary, that "now" thought and leave the anticipations of what might become or what has past behind. It is a difficult journey at times and filled with what may seem impossible tasks at times but the spirit of the horse, if we seek that, will lead us along the way with the guidance of Our Creator.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Saturday, March 17, 2007
St. Patty's Day Nor'Easter
Well, Mother Nature gave us a doozey. The gates to the paddocks are all frozen; tack & feed shed doors are frozen; there's two inches of ice on top of soft snow on top of more ice. These are the times when I wish I had a "traditional" barn where all the horses are in nice, warm, stalls and I could just go down the rows and dump grain and throw hay then sit in a nice, cozy stall or indoor to play. Barns really ARE for humans ... the horses are having a blast running around in the ice and snow right now. I guess they decided one more day or two of the white stuff is gonna be OK. It's not particularly cold out right now, either. Close to mid-30's so the stuff is going to melt rather rapidly. Spring birds are out there in there icecaves in the trees singing in the praises of the season. I think I'll wait a bit longer, though, to where I can get the gates opened, to go out and play with the horses. Today will be a good day for that.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Musings on a Snowy Day
Well, New England has done it again ... bamboozled us all. Last week was gorgeous with sunshine, warm temps and dreams of blooming perennials and prolifate organic vegetables in between blissful games and rides; today it is freezing and we're in the midst of a blizzard. Even the horses have had enough. Don't want to stay out in it; don't want to be inside. They're vascillating between their sheds and the wind with tossing heads, short gallops around with hooves in the air. My 3 year old just displayed the most awesome "airs above the ground"! My thought at that moment was, "Gee, how the heck can I put that to a liberty cue?" *grin* But, we'll work on it AFTER her manners are absolutely impeccable and she's not so young and silly. And, after the weather has warmed back up again!
This time indoors this weekend will allow me to do some more musing on things. Since I've left the indoor where I was working (sort of) I've again become more acutely aware of my goals for Penzance Horses. In as much as the trainer at "the other barn" proclaimed to be more "natural" I realized even more so that "natural horsemanship" isn't about the "method" or the "tool", the carrot stick, the halter, the tack and equipment used or not ... Horsemanship really IS just what Penzance's motto speaks ... "It's all about what's in your heart and how you use it." One can "speak" with his or her tongue about 'natural horsemanship' but if that person isn't harboring that thought in his or her heart then the words are empty. The humans who are led to Penzance come with either a slate that needs to be entirely erased and they're more than willing to do the erasing or people who are clean slates, just starting out. Our horsemanship isn't something that humans *do*; it's something that humans LIVE, in their hearts, in their minds, in their very souls and spirits.
People who "dabble" in 'natural horsemanship' tend to "dabble" in life. Focus always changing, beliefs always changing, hearts that are not cemented in the foundation of certainty. Unless their hearts are securely founded in the 'way of life' such as is found at Penzance one cannot know WHO one is! Discovering one's self, though, is a journey but when people lose track of the path and refuse to go one way or the other they're stuck in that fork ... vascillating between left or right or middle road or another path altogether. Someone's voice, maybe even his own inner voice, may lead them down one path where the light becomes dimmer the deeper along the road one travels; then another voice may lead them back to take the other fork in the road where the dimness is not so apparent but neither is the clarity of light. Either way, unless one finds THE path that is right for them, for their horses, then the heart remains stuck in one place. Life becomes robotic and stagnant.
The one TRUE voice and path belongs to the horse, himself. When we open our hearts and minds and spirits to the horse's way then we journey on paths that illuminate our entire lives. One cannot meld into the horse's heart and being without melding completely into God's heart and being. Anything else, anything less than a complete melding, is just a tease of hope.
It is my hope that anyone who is led to Penzance will learn to follow the path that God and His horses introduce to him. It is my prayer that one who comes and stays will learn how to hear the voice of the horse ... and of God. Their voices are mighty! Their voices are whispers of the lighted journey that each one of us must choose to complete our hopes. Anything less, any other voices, are shouts of muted noise and only cause confusion. Confusion is not of God. Confusion is not of Horse. Confusion is not of Life. Life lived fully, completely, with whole heart is all encompassing and unshakeable. This I've learned from the Horse. It is my goal that the Penzance Horse will lead many to Truth this season. It is my goal that my own heart will continue to follow the path that God and Horse have shown me, and continue to patiently show me, and I will not listen to others. It is my hope, my desire and my goal that Penzance will live up to its name of definition - God's Holy Headland; A place for spiritual growth.
And now, back to the white stuff. Reality ... shoveling driveways, breaking ice in water buckets and ensuring that the horses are warm and dry with plenty of fresh, sweet hay.
This time indoors this weekend will allow me to do some more musing on things. Since I've left the indoor where I was working (sort of) I've again become more acutely aware of my goals for Penzance Horses. In as much as the trainer at "the other barn" proclaimed to be more "natural" I realized even more so that "natural horsemanship" isn't about the "method" or the "tool", the carrot stick, the halter, the tack and equipment used or not ... Horsemanship really IS just what Penzance's motto speaks ... "It's all about what's in your heart and how you use it." One can "speak" with his or her tongue about 'natural horsemanship' but if that person isn't harboring that thought in his or her heart then the words are empty. The humans who are led to Penzance come with either a slate that needs to be entirely erased and they're more than willing to do the erasing or people who are clean slates, just starting out. Our horsemanship isn't something that humans *do*; it's something that humans LIVE, in their hearts, in their minds, in their very souls and spirits.
People who "dabble" in 'natural horsemanship' tend to "dabble" in life. Focus always changing, beliefs always changing, hearts that are not cemented in the foundation of certainty. Unless their hearts are securely founded in the 'way of life' such as is found at Penzance one cannot know WHO one is! Discovering one's self, though, is a journey but when people lose track of the path and refuse to go one way or the other they're stuck in that fork ... vascillating between left or right or middle road or another path altogether. Someone's voice, maybe even his own inner voice, may lead them down one path where the light becomes dimmer the deeper along the road one travels; then another voice may lead them back to take the other fork in the road where the dimness is not so apparent but neither is the clarity of light. Either way, unless one finds THE path that is right for them, for their horses, then the heart remains stuck in one place. Life becomes robotic and stagnant.
The one TRUE voice and path belongs to the horse, himself. When we open our hearts and minds and spirits to the horse's way then we journey on paths that illuminate our entire lives. One cannot meld into the horse's heart and being without melding completely into God's heart and being. Anything else, anything less than a complete melding, is just a tease of hope.
It is my hope that anyone who is led to Penzance will learn to follow the path that God and His horses introduce to him. It is my prayer that one who comes and stays will learn how to hear the voice of the horse ... and of God. Their voices are mighty! Their voices are whispers of the lighted journey that each one of us must choose to complete our hopes. Anything less, any other voices, are shouts of muted noise and only cause confusion. Confusion is not of God. Confusion is not of Horse. Confusion is not of Life. Life lived fully, completely, with whole heart is all encompassing and unshakeable. This I've learned from the Horse. It is my goal that the Penzance Horse will lead many to Truth this season. It is my goal that my own heart will continue to follow the path that God and Horse have shown me, and continue to patiently show me, and I will not listen to others. It is my hope, my desire and my goal that Penzance will live up to its name of definition - God's Holy Headland; A place for spiritual growth.
And now, back to the white stuff. Reality ... shoveling driveways, breaking ice in water buckets and ensuring that the horses are warm and dry with plenty of fresh, sweet hay.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Control that Animal!
Control? OK, here's a question ... do we REALLY HAVE CONTROL of a 1200# animal? Ever?:) -- Gwen"
Hi Gwen,
I gonna stick my neck out and answer this one, ...and the answer is a short and simple "No!"
We can attain a simple, very primitive form of 'control' through the use of pain, ...for a while, ...until the fear and the adrenaline kick-in to over-ride the pain, ...and then we've got B-I-G problems 'cos sometime, and somewhere, it *is* going to happen! -The horse *is* going to be pushed over the edge and is going to do whatever it takes to get out of the situation it's in ...-and I certainly never even want to be around when that happens!!!
The only way that I can see of "controlling" a horse is through its mind, -through contact, -through working together, -through learning from each other and through creating a partnership, as pain and force will only work for a limited time at best and will never bring out the best in the horse!
Say that I own an island. I have food, equipment, supplies, ..everything I need, not only to survive and defend myself, but to live very comfortably, ...-and then, one day, another person is washed up on the beach and I take them prisoner and tie them up in a way that limits their movements.
Allow also for this scenario that I am equipped with guns and Tazers and cattle prods and whips, etc., so I can force them to work for me and to do whatever I want, quite literally "on pain of death".
I can stick metal bars or other gags in their mouth, bind their mouth shut with straps, I can force them to carry heavy loads, I can prod them with sharp artefacts or whip them when they don't move fast enough, I can force them to run, I can force them to stand still while I set various straps on them to control the position of their heads, adjust the length of their stride and then force them to run in un-natural ways; I can blind-fold them and make them jump obstacles that they can't see, ....I can, in fact, do whatever I like, both to them and with them, ...but one day they *are* going to snap, they *are* going to rebel, they *are* going to "have a go at me" ...-and what do I do then, -especially if they are bigger than I am??? ("Ahhhh!!!", my pistol is still in my holster and I've let them get too close!)
Now, as this mythical prisoner is a human, the chances are that they would have been able to find out where I slept and would have killed me in my sleep,
Of course, there is something else that I could have done with the person who was washed up on the beach.... -I think! ...Isn't there????
Gordon.
Monday, February 26, 2007
The Growth of Horses
Written by Gordon Sulley
I'm taking up an old subject concerning the horse's growth here as a way of sharing a minor "celebration" over a surprise event!
We went down to take the horses in last night and, as Kia had gone up to the field while I filled the water-buckets, I went out to do a quick visual check on whoever had decided to be the first to come in. (We can, and often do, decide the order in which they come in, but as they have some sort of a 'system' that they work out between themselves (most often "reverse age order", -but not always!) we usually leave them to decide, ...-unless Schatty suddenly tries to change what the rest have previously decided!)
In the dark I could see very little, ..and then heard Kia's footsteps crunching on the light covering of snow, then saw Kia's yellow jacket reflecting the light ...-and a few seconds later a dark, silent, shadow at the side of her, but I could still hear no footsteps from the horse -and therefore knew that it must be one of the draughts, ..and a couple of seconds later the shadow resolved itself into Hugin who Kia was leading in a complicated pattern of circles and turns down from the field.
I moved so that I could do a visual check of his movement patterns in the light of the lamp outside the stable door, and suddenly noticed that Kia appeared to have shrunk in size!
A rapid visual check of her revealed that she had her normal winter boots on, ...so, hey, wait a bit, -double-take on Hugin, ...-his proportions are wrong!!!!!!
"KIAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop when you get him in, I want to measure him!!!!!!!"
Get into stable and take a g-o-o-d look!
A) Kia STILL looks incredibly small!
B) Hugin's rump looks f-a-r too high!!!
....-Out with measuring stick! Check for 'snow-stilts' in hooves, none!
Now, to all intents and purposes, Hugin has not grown since he had a big growth-spurt, between December 2003 and February 2004 when he was 3½+ years old!
Every time we have checked him since then he has been 148 to 149 centimeters to his withers ("about" 14.2 hh), and 4 to 5 cm (an inch) lower at the back, ...and now, suddenly, despite the fact that Kia has done his feet, ..-and that it is only about 25F with a good wind-chill factor, which normally seems to make most horses "become smaller" by up to about an inch (No, I can't "prove" that, but we, and everybody else we know, find it to be true! -Do they "draw themselves together" to conserve heat? -I've never seen any studies on it!) Hugin is now measuring 151 cm at the withers (if that area on Hugin can really be dignified by the use of that title!)and 149½ cm at the back!
Total shock and surprise!
We moved him to different parts of the floor as it isn't too level, ..and we re-measured and re-measured -just to be sure, ..and, yes!, our "Hugi-titch" is *suddenly* at least 14h 3 3/4+ inches tall!!!
He is having a 'growth spurt' at 6½ years of age and *may* even actually make a *full* 15 hh!!!!.
...Now, WE don't care at all about how tall Hugin is, and he is beautifully proportioned (normally!), but at 148 to 149 cm. he is considered to be 'a bit small' by the modern, though not by older, standards for his breed!
"Right, it's only 1.30 am and we're both off-work tomorrow, so lets measure the rest of 'em!" I said, cheerfully! (Now you understand why Kia often feels like hitting me with something ...like a brick, ..or a car!)
Vitty, oldest and Arab, and 7 in March, is now 159 cm at the front and 155 cm at the back, a very recent increase in size which has also occured since we measured him at Christmas, and an increase of over half an inch over the 157-158 cm he had attained by about 2 years ago!
...Schatal, (our younger Arab) who we still tend to think of as something of "a skinny little runt" compared with the others, is also growing, at 4½ yo, and is now measuring 153½ cm at the withers and ...152 at the rump, ..-and that explains why we said to each other that we thought he looked "odd" when we were looking at him in the field the other day!
He has grown well over half an inch since our Christmas measuring, ...and Oremus, "The Baby" (NSD) at 3½, who is the only one of our four who seems to have grown evenly, rather than in spurts, has now got up to 152 cm at the front and 146 at the back, ..and despite that, looks very high rumped just now, so "things are happening" there as well!
I've come to quite a few conclusions over all this!
The first is that we need to buy a much better quality measuring device with both 'hands and inches' and 'centimeters' on it!
-I'm a middle-aged Brit, dash it, and whatever I may be used to using in the lab, I STILL measure a horse in "hands" and the pull of a bow in "pounds"!!!! ...-In terms of a horse's height I still can't grasp the concept of "centimeters" in my soul!
Secondly, and far more importantly, well, we now have good evidence from four out of four of our horses that the suggestion that "all" horses have finished growing by the time they are 3½ years, or 42 months of age, is not correct!
If I'd realised that this was going to happen I think I would have paid the vet to actually come out and measure them once a year so that I had a "documented and attested proof" of their growth rate, rather than just our own figures, measured without witnesses, on a relatively un-even and old concrete stable floor!
As a horse owner, ...and as an equine masseur and electro-therapist, I feel that this is VERY important stuff!
-This is 'in-admissable' (because of the way we've measured it!) evidence against the "horse-industry's" accepted normer!!!
"De Gamla", "the old ones", ...past generations here in Sweden, ALWAYS taught that a horse should never be asked to pull a "full load" (several tons!) until it was at least 7 years of age! ...-It was okay to start a young horse with a light hay wagon when it was about "2-ish", but it was to be a very LIGHT load!
"Light" riding training does not seem to have been begun until the horse was about 4, (6-ish for more serious riding in the military)...so, ..what are we doing, to whom are we looking for leadership in these matters? Can they be trusted to give us the correct answers, ...-and why are the "official figures" for growth not fitting the reality of our situation with our boys?
Is it that we have fed them mainly on grass and grass-hay and let them grow "naturally", instead of trying to 'feed them up' as though we were producing something for the food industry?
I can't answer any of these questions but ,I'm very, very glad that we have not gone "the normal way" with our lads!
I'm glad that we did get "distracted" from what we originally *thought* we wanted to do, and that we got into so many other things, and have had the fun of all our trick-training and experiments, without putting any up any goals other than that we and the boys should learn together and have fun!
I'm glad we've totally ignored the pressures to 'ride them in' and 'drive them in' by "conventional means" and have played and experimented as we have!
Light riding would certainly have been quite alright for a while now, but we've been too busy to get things started, -and with Schatz (who had lime disease as a 1 yo), it's only now that he's beginning to look as though his body is filling out properly!
He's really only just beginning to lose that "unfinished young horse look", so we're glad we've not put any weights on his back yet. -We don't know "why", but it is a feeling we share and have followed, even though he has been saddled quite a few times!
I am not the same person, ..-we are not the same people, ...that we were 6 years ago, Thank God! ...-We've studied, and we've observed, and we've grown, ..-and the more we see and learn, then the more certain we become that what we both learnt, at different riding schools in different countries, is so small a part of the the whole picture of "what horses and horsemanship are about" as to be totally worthless!
Certainly, the more I look, the more I am finding that the actual real evidence for just about everything contradicts "the accepted view" of nearly everything that is taught!
How did it get this way? Why did it get this way? When did it get this way?
In Europe, I can see that "riding" was for the rich and the military, while draught horses and cobs were for farmers and "teamsters / draymen / wagoners / carters / etc", and that these latter groups' knowledge (along with that of the Gypsies!) would easily be lost, or would only be passed-on inside families, as both farmers and 'transport workers' (and most definitely, Gypsies!) were, to say the least, 'rather looked down on' by "their social superiors", so their knowledge, deep and valuable to them for their very survival, would be highly unlikely to interest the "higher classes" who 'rode' and who were not, in general, too interested in learning from their social inferiors!
The military, generally officered by people from the higher social classes, have had different needs at different time periods and, generalizing to a very large degree in this statement, I would suspect that the typical 'military-aristocratic' riding of the past thousand years or so has been more centered on the concepts of 'forced training' for the winning a war than it has been concerned with the concepts of working with another en-souled and intelligent being, not only for practical, but also for, first "religious", and then later, for "scientific" reasons! (the human being is the 'pinnacle of creation' in both systems of thought, though during the earlier period we must not forget that humans, as well as horses, were often de facto slaves, or very nearly so!)
The highest social classes made riding into an "art form", taking many of the once practical military excercises to new heights for the sake of appearance, and, if I have understood correctly, some of the training methods applied to horses while teaching them these excercises, even during the sixteen, seventeen and eighteen hundreds, were none to gentle and kind.
What happened in the USA?
From the little I have been able to glean, the "civilized" East, with it's roots firmly in Britain, France, Germany and other northerly European states, adopted a so-called "English" riding style, -partly, at least, to show their "social superiority" over the Spanish inspired and influenced "Western" or "cowboy" type of practical riding, ..-and, as 'practial people' are often too busy, both doing their things and generally surviving, to have the time to write about them, it seems to me that this situation has also led to a great loss of knowledge, -especially as the Spanish-Moorish influences, which lie behind the true "western" concepts and ideas are identical with the ideals of Classical Dressage and, like them, go back to Constantinople (which fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 - 1458) and, in fact, have their origins in Roman Classical times!
Hmm, it really IS an interesting situation is it not?
Can we trust our "experts"?
Why is the "research" that is being done not giving results that appear to fit with reality?
And lastly, who are the best teachers for us?
We can learn from all, I think, but it seems to me to be becoming even clearer that both for information on the horse's physical development, and on its mental condition and needs, and perhaps even more importantly, (if we really want to learn to do it well!), for *how* we ride, we have, in the end, only one single teacher on whom we can totally rely, ..-and that teacher is the horse himself, who doesn't need research grants, can't read very well, but actually has the advantage of being born as a horse, -and I feel that we should accept that all other teachers besides the horse himself must be regarded as being at least slightly suspect!
Gordon.
I'm taking up an old subject concerning the horse's growth here as a way of sharing a minor "celebration" over a surprise event!
We went down to take the horses in last night and, as Kia had gone up to the field while I filled the water-buckets, I went out to do a quick visual check on whoever had decided to be the first to come in. (We can, and often do, decide the order in which they come in, but as they have some sort of a 'system' that they work out between themselves (most often "reverse age order", -but not always!) we usually leave them to decide, ...-unless Schatty suddenly tries to change what the rest have previously decided!
In the dark I could see very little, ..and then heard Kia's footsteps crunching on the light covering of snow, then saw Kia's yellow jacket reflecting the light ...-and a few seconds later a dark, silent, shadow at the side of her, but I could still hear no footsteps from the horse -and therefore knew that it must be one of the draughts, ..and a couple of seconds later the shadow resolved itself into Hugin who Kia was leading in a complicated pattern of circles and turns down from the field.
I moved so that I could do a visual check of his movement patterns in the light of the lamp outside the stable door, and suddenly noticed that Kia appeared to have shrunk in size!
A rapid visual check of her revealed that she had her normal winter boots on, ...so, hey, wait a bit, -double-take on Hugin, ...-his proportions are wrong!!!!!!
"KIAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop when you get him in, I want to measure him!!!!!!!"
Get into stable and take a g-o-o-d look!
A) Kia STILL looks incredibly small!
B) Hugin's rump looks f-a-r too high!!!
....-Out with measuring stick! Check for 'snow-stilts' in hooves, none!
Now, to all intents and purposes, Hugin has not grown since he had a big growth-spurt, between December 2003 and February 2004 when he was 3½+ years old!
Every time we have checked him since then he has been 148 to 149 centimeters to his withers ("about" 14.2 hh), and 4 to 5 cm (an inch) lower at the back, ...and now, suddenly, despite the fact that Kia has done his feet, ..-and that it is only about 25F with a good wind-chill factor, which normally seems to make most horses "become smaller" by up to about an inch (No, I can't "prove" that, but we, and everybody else we know, find it to be true! -Do they "draw themselves together" to conserve heat? -I've never seen any studies on it!) Hugin is now measuring 151 cm at the withers (if that area on Hugin can really be dignified by the use of that title!
Total shock and surprise!
We moved him to different parts of the floor as it isn't too level, ..and we re-measured and re-measured -just to be sure, ..and, yes!, our "Hugi-titch" is *suddenly* at least 14h 3 3/4+ inches tall!!!
He is having a 'growth spurt' at 6½ years of age and *may* even actually make a *full* 15 hh!!!!
...Now, WE don't care at all about how tall Hugin is, and he is beautifully proportioned (normally
"Right, it's only 1.30 am and we're both off-work tomorrow, so lets measure the rest of 'em!" I said, cheerfully! (Now you understand why Kia often feels like hitting me with something ...like a brick, ..or a car!
Vitty, oldest and Arab, and 7 in March, is now 159 cm at the front and 155 cm at the back, a very recent increase in size which has also occured since we measured him at Christmas, and an increase of over half an inch over the 157-158 cm he had attained by about 2 years ago!
...Schatal, (our younger Arab) who we still tend to think of as something of "a skinny little runt" compared with the others, is also growing, at 4½ yo, and is now measuring 153½ cm at the withers and ...152 at the rump, ..-and that explains why we said to each other that we thought he looked "odd" when we were looking at him in the field the other day!
He has grown well over half an inch since our Christmas measuring, ...and Oremus, "The Baby" (NSD) at 3½, who is the only one of our four who seems to have grown evenly, rather than in spurts, has now got up to 152 cm at the front and 146 at the back, ..and despite that, looks very high rumped just now, so "things are happening" there as well!
I've come to quite a few conclusions over all this!
-I'm a middle-aged Brit, dash it, and whatever I may be used to using in the lab, I STILL measure a horse in "hands" and the pull of a bow in "pounds"!!!! ...-In terms of a horse's height I still can't grasp the concept of "centimeters" in my soul!
Secondly, and far more importantly, well, we now have good evidence from four out of four of our horses that the suggestion that "all" horses have finished growing by the time they are 3½ years, or 42 months of age, is not correct!
If I'd realised that this was going to happen I think I would have paid the vet to actually come out and measure them once a year so that I had a "documented and attested proof" of their growth rate, rather than just our own figures, measured without witnesses, on a relatively un-even and old concrete stable floor!
As a horse owner, ...and as an equine masseur and electro-therapist, I feel that this is VERY important stuff!
-This is 'in-admissable' (because of the way we've measured it!) evidence against the "horse-industry's" accepted normer!!!
"De Gamla", "the old ones", ...past generations here in Sweden, ALWAYS taught that a horse should never be asked to pull a "full load" (several tons!) until it was at least 7 years of age! ...-It was okay to start a young horse with a light hay wagon when it was about "2-ish", but it was to be a very LIGHT load!
"Light" riding training does not seem to have been begun until the horse was about 4, (6-ish for more serious riding in the military)...so, ..what are we doing, to whom are we looking for leadership in these matters? Can they be trusted to give us the correct answers, ...-and why are the "official figures" for growth not fitting the reality of our situation with our boys?
Is it that we have fed them mainly on grass and grass-hay and let them grow "naturally", instead of trying to 'feed them up' as though we were producing something for the food industry?
I can't answer any of these questions but ,I'm very, very glad that we have not gone "the normal way" with our lads!
I'm glad that we did get "distracted" from what we originally *thought* we wanted to do, and that we got into so many other things, and have had the fun of all our trick-training and experiments, without putting any up any goals other than that we and the boys should learn together and have fun!
I'm glad we've totally ignored the pressures to 'ride them in' and 'drive them in' by "conventional means" and have played and experimented as we have!
Light riding would certainly have been quite alright for a while now, but we've been too busy to get things started, -and with Schatz (who had lime disease as a 1 yo), it's only now that he's beginning to look as though his body is filling out properly!
He's really only just beginning to lose that "unfinished young horse look", so we're glad we've not put any weights on his back yet. -We don't know "why", but it is a feeling we share and have followed, even though he has been saddled quite a few times!
I am not the same person, ..-we are not the same people, ...that we were 6 years ago, Thank God! ...-We've studied, and we've observed, and we've grown, ..-and the more we see and learn, then the more certain we become that what we both learnt, at different riding schools in different countries, is so small a part of the the whole picture of "what horses and horsemanship are about" as to be totally worthless!
Certainly, the more I look, the more I am finding that the actual real evidence for just about everything contradicts "the accepted view" of nearly everything that is taught!
How did it get this way? Why did it get this way? When did it get this way?
In Europe, I can see that "riding" was for the rich and the military, while draught horses and cobs were for farmers and "teamsters / draymen / wagoners / carters / etc", and that these latter groups' knowledge (along with that of the Gypsies!) would easily be lost, or would only be passed-on inside families, as both farmers and 'transport workers' (and most definitely, Gypsies!) were, to say the least, 'rather looked down on' by "their social superiors", so their knowledge, deep and valuable to them for their very survival, would be highly unlikely to interest the "higher classes" who 'rode' and who were not, in general, too interested in learning from their social inferiors!
The military, generally officered by people from the higher social classes, have had different needs at different time periods and, generalizing to a very large degree in this statement, I would suspect that the typical 'military-aristocratic' riding of the past thousand years or so has been more centered on the concepts of 'forced training' for the winning a war than it has been concerned with the concepts of working with another en-souled and intelligent being, not only for practical, but also for, first "religious", and then later, for "scientific" reasons! (the human being is the 'pinnacle of creation' in both systems of thought, though during the earlier period we must not forget that humans, as well as horses, were often de facto slaves, or very nearly so!)
The highest social classes made riding into an "art form", taking many of the once practical military excercises to new heights for the sake of appearance, and, if I have understood correctly, some of the training methods applied to horses while teaching them these excercises, even during the sixteen, seventeen and eighteen hundreds, were none to gentle and kind.
What happened in the USA?
From the little I have been able to glean, the "civilized" East, with it's roots firmly in Britain, France, Germany and other northerly European states, adopted a so-called "English" riding style, -partly, at least, to show their "social superiority" over the Spanish inspired and influenced "Western" or "cowboy" type of practical riding, ..-and, as 'practial people' are often too busy, both doing their things and generally surviving, to have the time to write about them, it seems to me that this situation has also led to a great loss of knowledge, -especially as the Spanish-Moorish influences, which lie behind the true "western" concepts and ideas are identical with the ideals of Classical Dressage and, like them, go back to Constantinople (which fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 - 1458) and, in fact, have their origins in Roman Classical times!
Hmm, it really IS an interesting situation is it not?
Can we trust our "experts"?
Why is the "research" that is being done not giving results that appear to fit with reality?
And lastly, who are the best teachers for us?
We can learn from all, I think, but it seems to me to be becoming even clearer that both for information on the horse's physical development, and on its mental condition and needs, and perhaps even more importantly, (if we really want to learn to do it well!), for *how* we ride, we have, in the end, only one single teacher on whom we can totally rely, ..-and that teacher is the horse himself, who doesn't need research grants, can't read very well, but actually has the advantage of being born as a horse, -and I feel that we should accept that all other teachers besides the horse himself must be regarded as being at least slightly suspect!
Gordon.
Foals, Weanlings, Yearlings and MORE!
I just responded on an equine bulletin board to someone who has raised a foal to a 3 year old. The 3 year old is now dangerous ... kicking and attacking horses AND humans. My response was, brutely, she should find a person well versed in Equine Perception Modification through Positive Reinforcement, GIVE the horse to that person and get an older, been-there-done-that horse with whom she can work and play safely. It is, sadly, a case that is all too common: a horse owner decides to either breed his or her mare for the "cute baby" or obtain a foal/weanling/yearling to raise without the knowledge and wisdom of teaching that foal proper, foundational manners and groundwork. Unfortunately, that person has NO idea that its NOT ABOUT THE HORSE! A horse always knows how to be a horse. One of the greatest learning experiences for 2 year olds is within an established herd of older horses. The youngster will learn more in a year from those horses than any human could ever teach him. However, that being said, I know that its not always possible to turn a 2 year old back out to a herd or, raise a foal within a herd setting. Given that, its up to the HUMAN to TEACH that youngster proper equine etiquette ... ESPECIALLY when around humans. That youngster should learn that every human with whom it comes in contact is higher ranking than he is and deserves r-e-s-p-e-c-t. (Kind of like raising human kids and teaching them respect for their elders!) Unfortunately, in my 40+ some odd years of working and playing with all breeds, disciplines, ages, colors and from all backgrounds, including Mustangs and PMU rescues, I've not found too many humans who know how to TEACH horses - of any age. There are plenty of "trainers" - those who drill behaviors over and over and over again using punishment as a prime motivator for the horse. The horses ultimately end up being those who "check out" mentally and then, sometimes, when put into a situation with a human who exhibits behaviors that are lower ranking than the horse, the horse then comes back into its mind with a vegeance. Not a good, safe, situation at all. Not fair to the horse; not fair to the human.
Please, if you have thoughts of raising a foal or breeding your mare to get a cute, little, fluffy, dahling foal ... search YOURSELF first and see if YOU'RE willing to learn and change *your* thinking. Learn how horses behave, why they behave the way they do and RESPECT the horses' ways. One can't change the horse to thinking like a human but one CAN change ones self to think like a horse! Something to start thinking on ... "You get what you reward."
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Determining Aggression
Whew ... that's a scary mouthful for a title when talking about horses! Rarely does one find a truly aggressive horse. 99 3/4% of them are true to their design of gentleness, curious, gregarious animals. Determining organic reasoning behind aggression is rarely thought of with horses.
I find it most rewarding to work with horses, though especially ones with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). There are far too many horses out there with this condition; some severely impacted and others not so affected.
One horse comes to mind with whom I was not able to continue as the owners became intense "roadblocks" ... they wanted the final results NOW! In other words, they wanted to take a horse that was extremely aggressive (read that fearful and would attack at the INSTANT of feeling fear) and get her undersaddle instantly. Wife was intimidated by the horse and would react with backing away and running; husband was intimidated and reacted with counter-aggression; teenaged boy was intimitadated and took 'control' over the horse with repeated acts of fear/aggression instigation that would cause the horse to rake its teeth over the bars trying to get at the boy, rear and subsequently attack anyone who opened the stall door. Nice, huh? Not.
The photo above shows the 2nd session I had with this horse. The first session was spent trying to dodge its hooves in the paddock for an indeterminant time. Second session I started with positive reinforcement and targeting while standing in the stall door then incremently made my way into the stall then outdoors in the paddock. The second session involved showing all sorts of scary objects to the horse and having her target them. In the photo I'm using a tambourine. What I DIDN'T do with this horse was first teach it to calm down on cue. Now, I know better! *grin* her rapid fire response to rear up then come down and trample whatever the scary object was, had diminished somewhat through a couple of exercises but I know, now, that teaching her a 'calm down cue' would have exponentially reinforced the positive behaviors that were brewing underneath all the turmoil of PTSD. Unfortunately, my sessions with this beautious black gal were only once weekly and in the time between visits all sorts of incongruent and inconsistent attitudinal humans were working with her.
We progressed tremendously in each session but I could, literally, tell who handled her in between session simply by her attitude each week when I arrived. One person would "desensitize" her to whatever it was that was scaring her - "flooding" her with the object over and over and over again with no retained results except further ingrained aggression. Finally, after she very deliberately kicked the husband in the chest (he's lucky he's alive) I suggested that perhaps the horse have a full veterinary exam to rule out any organic "misfiring" in the brain. I was replaced after that. *grin* The horse, from brief account, attacked the subsequent trainer and although she had some positive results with this horse she, too, was dismissed. I feel confident and good about the progression I made with her but am very dismayed at the results due to faulty human decisions. Where this horse is now I have no idea. But I always will remember the little triumphs with this gal that we reached each week.
Rule of thumb for aggressive animals: Is the aggression predictable? If so, continue on with the perception modification through positive reinforcement teaching. If not, get the animal to the vet asap for a thorough, in-depth exam.
The mare I was working on was both predictable and unpredictable ... she was predictably unpredictable! She needed to be examined. However, whether that did or did not happen I don't know. I learned from her; she learned from me and what is, is. *grin*
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