Alternative Horsemanship™ with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach teaches horse behavior, horse training, and coaches horseback riders of all experience levels. Offering horsemanship clinics worldwide, distance horse coaching instruction, horse video learning catalog, equine consultations, equine re-education and rehabilitation, colt starting, and lessons. Follow her #alternativehorsemanship on all social media platforms.
For those following Cinder's Journey... or those curious about what "it" could look like, when we start by considering the once defensive, fearful, reactive, abused horse... You can subscribe to the Alternative Horsemanship YouTube Channel for weekly videos and teachings. #alternativehorsemanship#remotehorsecoach#horses#horsemanship#rescuehorse
Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series
*Chaos, Horses & Help
Alternative Horsemanship with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach shares about recognizing the horse's chaos and common approaches used that often make things worse for the overwhelmed equine and add to the human's insecurity.
Meet Moose I did a lesson recently with Nora and Moose and thought it would be good to share. Much of what comes up in his "coping mechanisms" is very common with horses that are bigger in size.
This is Cinder a two-year-old horse that was rescued from a life of abuse. When she arrived she was fearful and defensive, wanted nothing to do with humans, and would try and climb over anything to get away from the human.
The journey of reawakening her Curiosity, which will replace her fear, allows her to physically offer reasonable behavior.
It is not one that you can make happen. It is about creating 2-way Communication, believing the horse's feet back, addressing their concern, and then allowing them the time to mentally process their new human experiences.
This isn't about getting a halter on a horse, it is about setting the horse up for success for the rest of her life in the human world.
Far too many people are rushing trying to accomplish a goal, rather than seeking the quality. Certainly, in the case of horses who have a history of abuse, there is nothing you will sneak past them. So the mental shift we need them to make must be 100%, otherwise, their old survival and behaviors re-emerge if humans attempt to contain them or make them comply, which will trigger the dangerous behavior.
This is a two-year-old Andalusian who I just started working with recently. He reflects so many horses that I meet that are often deemed "bad, aggressive, stubborn, resistant," and all these other human-based emotional judgments, which have nothing to do with what the horse is experiencing or why his behavior is as it is.
Observing the Horse: Starting with the fearful and abused horse... by Alternative Horsemanship the Remote Horse Coach
She's 2 years old and came out of a very bad situation. She's had about 6 months off to just be a horse and gain weight. Her current owner has been unsuccessful in perking the mare's curiosity to participate to any degree with the human.
I see far too many scenarios where a horse already is fearful and reactive, and people are continuously adding pressure in a manner that is challenging to the horse.
These are the type of horses who will climb the fence and are seemingly unable to literally see what is in front of them when extreme flight emotions are triggered. If I approach working with her in a "have to" or "make her" manner, there will be no success and I will reinforce what she's already experienced about the human.
The goal is not about getting her close to me but rather reawakening her curiosity which will replace her fear, which then diminishes the flee and instead she can offer thoughtful, reasonable behavior.
I will be filming much of our sessions together and creating a course on my Remote Horse Coach video catalog site for those interested in this aspect of horsemanship.
A Glimpse into helping the Horse by Alternative Horsemanship
Someone recently said, "Sam I love the word you use but I don't understand them. You mention things like Conversation, being mentally available, and searching. What does that mean when you're interacting with the horse?"
Then I came across this video footage of a severe case from a horse that arrived for help last year. You couldn't get near her, touch her, she was incredibly head shy, and had a lot of PTSD from her previous human experiences. Her bad had massive scarring from a violent past. She'd been sold via video as a Beginner Safe Horse.
This video shares a glimpse into one of the first few sessions with her. It is an example of what a Conversation with the horse can look like, the shift of when they start to become mentally available to acknowledge the human, and what searching can look like.
Despite a horse going through the motions of exposure and learning, does not mean that his confidence is increasing, irrelevant of all of his new experiences.
Many horseback riders and equine enthusiasts try to avoid anything that might bother their horse. Often by evading potentially bothersome situations, it increases the unwillingness and resistance in the horse. These unwanted scenarios add fear and defensiveness diminishing the confidence of both humans and equines. In this video, Sam shares her perspective by breaking down why avoiding conflict contributes to so many unwanted and increasingly dangerous responses in the equine partnership.
New horse learning videos are added to the series every Friday. Subscribe to the Alternative Horsemanship Channel.
Sam is joined in the pasture by a young horse born in the wild.
She discusses how prioritizing keeping the horse's curiosity versus using Horse Training tactics can create fear as the young horse training progresses. She explains how this influences the horse's future willingness to participate and the reasonableness of his behaviors when doing so.
Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series
*Unreasonable Equine Expectations
Many equine interactions can become quickly frustrating and emotionally overwhelming because of the human's unreasonable "hopefulness" in the interaction. The scenario can quickly escalate causing diminished quality in the interaction and building defensiveness in both the horse and human.
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Horse Training and Desensitizing Alternative Horsemanship with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach discusses the dangers of not believing the horse's fear, defensiveness, and concern and how some training approaches can create dangerous behaviors in the animal.
Addressing the misconceptions of "making" the horse comply versus teaching the horse how to learn. How "desensitizing" can cause the horse to become mentally defensive and physically dangerous.
This mare has a history of bucking (and a very traumatic past,) so part of her re-education is to assume nothing and rebuild from the ground up.
I thought I'd share a short clip of what preparing a horse to be saddled looks like for me. In this case, I'm looking for feedback from the horse as to what may be triggering her anticipation, physical tension, or mental avoidance.
This is the first time we did this. Practice first noticing how many different forms of pressure are being presented.
Assess the horse's focus, breathing, movement, the stance at the halt, etc.
Watch for how she interacts with my communication.
What do you see? Everything is a learning opportunity if you commit to seeing beyond the superficial "obedient goal" and search for quality interactions.
**Please do NOT go and randomly try this at home- you and your horse could easily and quickly get into a wreck if you haven't established the fundamentals that go into the "bigger picture."
Alternative Horsemanship with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach shares her perspective in an open dialogue in response to the world witnessing the unwanted, dramatic, and dangerous scenario in the Tokyo Olympics involving a horse.
