ok, if you want a preview of what this book contains........... read this:
www.goodhorsemanship.com.au/story.htmlDon't Use the Round Yard For Chasing a Horsebetter put some time into her before she was no longer a cheap horse. He asked me if I would like to help with training Stella and I could not have been keener.
Walt told me to get Stella and take her into the round yard and we would start with seeing what was going on inside her. I haltered Stella and led her out of her yard. She was a bit pushy to lead and was trying to take me for a walk rather than the other way around. I finally got her into the round yard and waited for Walt to show up. Stella kept walking around me and was not in the least interested in my presence. Eventually Walt showed up and saw me holding a very fidgety horse.
"Well matey, what are ya goin to do with her now," he asked?
"What do you want me to do, Walt?"
"Ya might start with gettin her feelin betta so she can pay attention to ya," he said. "Why don't ya take off that head collar and let her go for a bit?"
I removed the halter and Stella trotted to the opposite side of the yard closer to where she could see other horses. I looked at Walt as if to ask "now what".
"Now matey, take about three feet from the end of ya lead rope and whack the ground as hard as ya can. But don't try to drive her anywhere, just whack the ground. Maybe whack it behind ya so she don't think ya tryin to hit her."
I did as Walt told me, but nothing happened. Stella was too focussed on the other horses to notice.
"No matey, I mean whack it hard on the ground. Cause an earthquake if ya can."
I tried again. This time I gave it everything I had. Stella jumped and took off running around the track.
"Now stand there matey. Don't do anything - just let her work this out," Walt ordered.
I stood there passively and watched Stella run several lapse around the pen. After about the fifth lap she suddenly stopped where she could see the other horses and then ran the other way. Another lap and she stopped again close to where the horses were. This time she stood looking out of the yard at the horses.
"Time to whack again, matey - but not so hard," Walt told me.
I whacked the ground behind me just enough to cause a tremor rather than a fully blown quake. Stella took off again in the pen. But this time after about the first lap she slowed down and finally stopped and looked at me.
"Now matey, don't do anythin just yet - just wait."
A minute or so went by. Stella looked back towards her horsey friends.
"Let her look for a bit, but if ya think she ain't goin to look back at ya, whack the ground again. But only half as much as last time," Walt suggested.
Stella did not check back with me after about half a minute. This time I gently whacked the side of my leg with the lead rope. Stella walked off about half a lap of the yard, stopped and looked at me. She only looked at me for a couple of seconds, but then sniffed the ground for a few seconds, then looked at me again. Then the little paint mare turned and walked the other way and stopped nearest to her friends. I just lifted the lead rope against my side and Stella walked around the yard until she was behind me. Then she stopped and squared up to me, looking at me with both eyes. One of the horses called and Stella looked that way for a second or two, then looked at me again and walked a step towards me.
"Ya doin great, matey. Now ya could go and pat her if ya wanted, but let's wait and see what she does next," I heard Walts suggest.
I must have stood there three minutes thinking nothing was going to change before I saw Stella shift her weight onto her rear end and take another two steps towards me. I waited some more to see how far I could take this. Eventually after another few minutes Stella tentatively walked towards me and stopped within patting distance. I raised my hand to pat her.
"Don't touch her, matey. Just stand there for a bit. I'll let ya know when to pat her."
I waited and I waited until eventually Walt gave me the ok to touch her.
The session went on for a little while longer and we built on liberty work to get it a little stronger and make a change in how Stella felt. After Stella was back in her own yard I set about picking Walt's brains about what we just did.
"Ya ask hard questions, matey. So much went on in that short time that ya could fill a book," Walt said.
"When Stella came into the yard she was all prancy and fussy. Then ya let her go and she went to the other side of the yard closer to them other horses. Why did she do that?"
"I guess she was nervous, Walt," I said.
"She did it matey, 'cause bein with you in that yard felt bad to her and bein nearer them other horses was a better choice to her. We needed to change that. We could 'ave put her back on the halter and made her do what we wanted, but they ain't goin to change how she feels inside so it was always goin to be a battle between her needs and our wants. The best result would be to change how she felt about our wants. Let her make the choice that bein with ya is better deal than with them other horses. Let it be her choice, but let it be the choice we want too.
When that mare got her attention fixed on them horses and not you, ya whacked the ground and gave her something else to think about. She ran, but ya didn't make her run 'cause ya did nothing more than if a tractor went by. Ya didn't chase her around to run. She ran until runnin no longer felt good to her. Then she stopped runnin and went back to paying attention to them horses. Ya whacked again and she thought that was not too good and left them horses again. This kept up until she worked out that when she was lookin at them horses, there was energy in the pen and when she slowed and checked in with ya it was all pretty quiet. Soon enough she thought she might try to stick near ya and see if it was a better choice. But ya never made anythin happen. Ya never ran her around and around until she was desperate to try anything else - even being with ya. She made all the choices. Ya just weighted them choices a little in favour of what ya wanted. Ya never once directed her to run or come to you or look at the horses. All ya did was give her a reason to keep searchin for somethin that was better than she was already offerin.
It's the difference between makin a horse choose between somethin that is hard and somethin that is harder or choosin between somethin is easy and something that is just a little less easy. If you make what ya want the easy choice - so easy that he would even choose it with no help from you - then he will feel good about workin with ya. But if ya just make his choices between hard and harder nothing will feel ok to him - everythin he does is troublin in one way or another - and he gives you everythin you ask for with reluctance and resistance."
"But why did you tell me to wait before patting her, Walt? Shouldn't I have gone in and rewarded her with a pat as soon as possible," I asked"
"Well matey, that mare made the choice to take a few steps towards you. She weren't sure, but she figured that nothin else was workin too good so she would try checkin in with ya and see if that worked for her. When a horse is teeterin on the edge of what she should or should not do, don't rush in and do somethin that might get her thinkin she made the wrong decision. The mare weren't totally sure that bein with ya was a good idea. She needed time to get sure. Let her get secure with her idea. Don't invade her space. Wait until she is feelin better. If she had wanted ya in her face she would have come right up to ya instead of standin three feet away. But then somethin changed and she got sure. She looked at you with both eyes, her breathing slowed, her ears stopped twitchin back and forth to them other horses and her weight got planted on her front. That's when I knew she was ready to accept ya in closer to pat her with a good feelin."
I got to spend more time with Walt and Stella and I learned a lot about allowing a horse to make the choices I would like them to choose rather than making them choose what I want. It's hard to keep clear and sometimes the constraints of training for the public limits how much time you can allow a horse to work things out without some stronger prompting. But Walt understood better than anybody I have known how a horse's feelings are connected to everything they do.
