Horse Riding Tips: Acknowledging the Equine's Communication

Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series 

Horse Riding: Acknowledging the Equine 

Alternative Horsemanship the Remote Horse Coach discusses the importance of learning equine behavior and communication to create a solid foundation in the horse rider's education.

Click the link to watch. New videos posted every Friday on the Alternative Horsemanship YouTube Channel.

Horses "Following a Feel"

 "Following a Feel"

Those words had no value to me in my initial years of riding (groundwork was nonexistent.) I interacted with the horse offering unintentional, continuous tension- on the lead rope, on the rein, in my leg, etc. There was never a pause, time for mental processing, recognizing separating directing the thought from movement, adaptability in my aids or any conscious release of pressure towards the horse (other than during a jump.)

Connecting the Groundwork with Horseback Riding

Connecting Groundwork and Riding

One of the challenges in offering instruction is to communicate clearly with students AND horses. As I overhear, read, or watch many “horse training” sessions/clinics I find that there’s a general lack of “connection” in the student’s ability to understand how the “here and now,” especially in how the quality of their groundwork is, relates to their future ride.

Horse Training Help : Containment or Skills

Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series 

Tying the Horse: Are you teaching unwanted equine behaviors?

Horse Training Basics

Teaching containment or adaptability in the equine? So many unwanted equine behaviors are taught by human interactions that challenge the horse without ever teaching the horse the skills to think, search, try, and retain.

Click the link to watch on the Alternative Horsemanship YouTube Channel 

New videos posted every Friday 

Livestreams with Alternative Horsemanship the Remote Horse Coach

November Alternative Horsemanship Livestreams in the Locals Community

Changing mindless patterned horse interactions leads to unwanted equine behaviors.

Part 1 Mental AnticipationsSaturday Nov 5th 9am pst

Part 2 Physical Behaviors
Saturday Nov 11th 9am pst

Part 3 Specificity & Timing
Saturday Nov 25th 9am pst

 Watch the November Livestreams now

Empathy and Equines

Empathy + Horses = Weakness

There is a constant human imposition upon each other and horses...
Unrealistic ego-based demands without having accountability as to how a person's clarity of thoughts and intention, quality of communication, adaptability in energy, accuracy of timing, and everyday mindless interactions, are constantly "teaching" horses unwanted responses that people then criticize and chastise the equine for.

Horse Rider Tips- Anticipation and Unwanted Equine Behaviors

The urgency of the stories in our head...
So many good-intentioned equine enthusiasts unintentionally get pressured and distracted by the "story" of
*last time...
*that one time...
*what if...
*what others think...
*I hope...

Horse Behavior: Engaging the Mind before the Movement

 Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series

Horse Behavior: Engaging the Mind before the Movement

Alternative Horsemanship the Remote Horse Coach discusses the importance of separating engaging the horse's mind from his movement to diminish unwanted common equine behaviors that create mindless, chaotic, excessive, movement.

Click to watch on the Alternative Horsemanship YouTube Channel

New videos are posted every Friday

Horses Pressure & Release Part 2

Pressure & Release Part 2

The reality is that many riders feel like they are begging for the horse to acknowledge them. Other folks’ approach is to “make” the horse do something through physical dominance; this fuels the horse’s defensiveness. Then there are riders who learn to work “around” the horse, limiting what they ask of them to avoid potential resistance or conflict.

Pressure and release… The missing language of a quality equine partnership Part 1

 Pressure and release… The missing language of a quality partnership Part 1

A majority of unwanted horse behavior stems from the animal responding with defensiveness toward any form of pressure. Spatial and physical are the most common types of pressure people use to communicate with horses. If there is physical resistance and mental distrust towards pressure, this can lead to a wary partnership between horse and human.

Groundwork and Horses

 Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series

Groundwork: Help or Hindrance

Alternative Horsemanship the Remote Horse Coach discusses the perception of groundwork, and whether it is helping to improve your equine partnership or decreasing the horse's trust.

Click to watch on the Alternative Horsemanship YouTube Channel

Are you teaching the horse anticipation and fear?

Are you teaching the horse anticipation and fear?


Most people never consider how the horse responds to just the sight of tack or notice if there are Quality Conversations while tacking up.

Each aspect of the equine interaction influences the mental reasonableness and physical softness that follows.
While the norm (often out of convenience) is to tie the horse while tacking, the degree of bother or concern a horse may have while doing so, is frequently suppressed.

Horse Interactions : Human Goals vs Quality Partnerships

Goals vs Quality
It is very easy to fall into a pattern of setting goals and getting fixated on accomplishing them to feel successful with the horse.
In more scenarios than not, the goal is frequently prioritized over assessing if there's quality during the interaction with the horse.

I will often hear people excitedly telling me about how much they have accomplished with the horse.
Then as I watch their equine's behavior and see things like: chomping on the bit
pinned ears
tails swishing
fidgeting or excessive movement
"grumpy" faces
physical tension
rigid nostrils
wide eyes
inability to stand still (mentally and physically)
avoidance at being caught/ led/ tacked/ loaded into the trailer loading or mounted
or if every time the halter is removed the horse goes running off

Helping the Highly Reactive Horse

Dear Sam: Horse Help Horsemanship Series

The Highly Reactive Horse

Alternative Horsemanship the Remote Horse Coach discusses the overlooked contributors in everyday human patterns and interactions that create highly reactive horses and unwanted equine behaviors.

Click the link in the comments to watch on the Alternative Horsemanship YouTube Channel

 

Behaviors Sabotaging the Human and Horse Partnership

What is the most common issue I see sabotaging the human & horse partnership?
Containment

I define it as:

When a person is physically trying to "stop" an unwanted equine behavior, which is usually the symptom and not the underlying "issue," without acknowledging and addressing all the constant equine communication reflecting holes in the horse's education or understanding.

Misconceptions of a Confident Horse

Just because a horse is going through the motions of "doing things" and is "learning" does not mean that he is gaining confidence and or more curiosity from his experiences.

The horse may "quietly" tolerate a situation a few or even many times before he starts to show more obvious signs of stress, insecurity, or fear about what is being presented if he is being pushed to physically comply with the task given.

The Human Emotional Filter Sabatoging our Equine Partnership

The Human Emotional Filter
Frequently I've had posts shared with me about how "cute" something is in a horse, mule, or donkey's behavior. Unfortunately, when folks filter their interpretation of an animal's behavior with human emotions, it clouds their judgment in learning, recognizing, or believing what the animal is experiencing and communicating.

Curiosity in the Horse and Human

Curiosity in Horses... and Humans
One of the greatest challenges I have in so many cases of Equine Rehabilitation and Re-education is stimulating Curiosity in humans.

Horses amazingly enough, despite their past trauma, in most scenarios will still try, if given clear support and communication. As their fear diminishes, their curiosity increases.

But humans? Such a struggle. They become self-absorbed with fears, anticipation, what-ifs, distractions, and stories about "last time" which often become a fixation or mental block in their ability to be present in what is happening in "real-time."