Alternative Horsemanship™ with Samantha Harvey the Remote Horse Coach shares horse training and horseback rider coaching, philosophies, and approaches she has developed over three decades. Offering horsemanship clinics worldwide, distance horse coaching instruction, equine consultations, equine re-education and rehabilitation, colt starting, and lessons. Follow her #alternativehorsemanship on all social media platforms.
Are you able to leave stress, work, distraction, past occurrences with your horse behind?
Did you notice any differences in your attitude, energy or intention that could influence your horse in a negative way?
Horses frequently mirror us. If you don't like what you see, perhaps take a few minutes and assess yourself.
Is this something that is easy to do? No.
Do we always like what we see in the mirror? No.
Should we mental beat ourselves up for where we are at? No.
What it does allow is a starting point. Once we learn to have an awareness, then we can begin to change our own intentions, behaviors, and patterns that may not be contributing to the partnership with our horse.
I frequently get inquiries from folks reaching out for help with... Catching their horse Loading the horse in the trailer Saddling/bridling issues Unwanted/Dangerous Behaviors
They ask for "just a few pointers" or ideas on what they can do to fix their horse's problem.
The good news, is people have realized they need help. The bad news is their perspective.
Each of the scenarios I listed is a symptom, not the issue.
Yesterday I posted a video clip of working with two horses having two separate conversations. One was being asked to circle. It occurred to me that I should share my interpretation of a circle.
Lunging... driving with a whip/stick/flag/etc... flee... high rate of energy... tension... "making"... stiffness... counter bent... should not be a part of the horse's movement while on a "circle."
The actual shape of the circle should be round, balanced and with the horse's inside shoulder stepping towards the direction of movement, without the horse "falling-in" towards the human.
The horse should be looking where he is moving.
The horse should be able to follow the feel of the rope and offer the "shape" the human is asking for without heaviness or resistance.
Most folks drive their horses nuts with circles because they have a misconception of what "it" should look like or the purpose of them.
Many horses have learned to avoid critique by offering light circles, yes, there is no tension on the rope, but there is no softness in the brain or body.
Folks are in a rush to move through the gaits in each direction, frequently causing auto-pilot from the horse and not have honest conversations, which in my mind defeats the point of a circle.
Then the person attempts to ride, and finds out the horse has more "stuff" to sort out, and the human wonders why the circle didn't help. Because it was a conditioned response and not a thoughtful conversation.
Circles should be a tool, not a crutch. But to have it be quality, preparations need to be made before teaching a horse to think around and then move around a circle. The ability to directing the horse's thought, influencing his energy levels, addressing how he feels about physical and spatial pressure.
The circle can be a preface to many other conversations. The circle can be taught in quarter sections to the horse, wherein they need to be able to differentiate between think, step, check-in and be available for further guidance, no different than what occurs during a ride.
For years in traditional riding lessons, I heard things such as: Sit up Heels Down Look up Deep in the saddle Hands up
Not until much later in my riding career did I start to realize that ALL of the rider's movement is connected. If there is not a strong foundation- starting with the seat- the rest of the rider's body will have unwanted "side effects" or excessive movement as a way to unintentionally compensate for a lack of balance and stability.
First, think about things you do "all the time" with your horse. Pick three or four scenarios to start practice changing your routine and any potential patterns in your own behavior, and as an opportunity to assess your horse's reactions.
None of the suggested experiments is supposed to get you and your horse into trouble.
What you're looking to assess is if mental resistance appears in the horse if/when you change how he is used to you doing things around him. If he is unsure, what are his emotions like, is he mentally available to her your guidance, and is he physically reasonable?
Remember as you start with "changing it up"- if you don't address potential initial concerns in the horse, don't continue to keep asking more "new" ways of doing things and then wonder why he may act resistant or physically dramatic. Believe him as soon as he shows any wariness or insecurity. Then address it.
Offering to change the pattern in the small day to day interactions is not a test of if the "horse can handle it" but rather a way to safely assess the adaptability within yourself and the horse.
If there are any "holes," the safe time and place to start changing the conversation, thoughts, and behaviors are not under the pressure of an event that is out of your control. Improving the trust and support in the partnership long before the day of unexpected events allows for less traumatic scenarios for both humans and horses.
Here are a few ideas:
Haltering- Go out to the pasture or stall to halter your horse, call them over, and when you'd normally put the halter on, stop, and leave. Then come back a while later and actually halter them.
Walking out the gate- Change out the direction, body position or breaking down down the way you "always" go out the gate.
Leading- Do so from the horse's off (right) side, or from a distance farther ahead or behind than you normally do.
Tacking- Do things out of order, such as bridle first, then the saddle, and then cleaning hooves.
Mounting- Different locations, different side or perhaps get on and off several times throughout the ride.
Riding off- go to a different spot to warm up, change the direction of the warm-up.
Riding home- head towards home and then turn back as if heading out again, perhaps several times.
If you'd like to contact Sam to help you come up with ideas and training tools for your particular scenario, please check out her Remote Horse Coach Services.
Thinking forward to Friday's Facebook LIVE video, #FifteenForFriday, this quote will be the topic of the video.
In the past few weeks, I've had this conversation with a variety of horse folks who all seem to be struggling with progression because of the past. It can be overwhelming debilitating and seem to perpetuate a cloud over the equine partnership. Please join us in the groupHERE
What intentions do you have for you and your horse? What are you doing to work towards them?
Do you have a realistic perspective or are you trying to imitate some other rider, trainer or professional who may have far more experience or different goals than yours?
I believe if more folks "bit off less" in what they attempted to do with the horse, ironically they would accomplish so MUCH more.
I remember reading an article years ago on the best "training preparations" you could do, is to help your horse take on the world by building their confidence at home.
Each piece of my conversation with the once completely wild filly prepared her for her first bicycle ride. Teaching her to soften to pressure, follow a feel, follow pressure, try when unsure, be reasonable, adapt her energy, mentally think through things...
This was not a random "let's see what happens" the first time I ride a bike with her. Instead, I worked on building up the trust, offering support, and now with curiosity, she is interested in new things.
Forgive my goofiness, it'd been 20 years since I've been on a bike, and choosing a trick bike might not have been the smartest for my knees.
Is everything perfect in her behavior? No, but watch the changes she goes through in just one circle as she sorts out all is well.
And no... don't try this at home without ALL the tools in your communication box.
A client came up with this post's title as I was discussing with her my recent, um, "frustration," at watching a video of a trainer using outright bribery with food to get a horse to accomplish a task that was clearly making the horse uncomfortable and stressed.
Yes, I could be opening a can of worms with this topic.
Preface- I am NOT saying ALL treats are bad. I'm not saying you can't ever feed your horse a yummy snack. I'm not saying there is ONLY one way to do things when interacting with the horse.
I remember reading a book early in my riding career about folks who did not adhere to the "norms" or what a riding/training session had been historically defined as.
It was one of those things that I didn't realize how much it would influence me until much later, ironically when riding on remote ranches. It was only then I began realizing how many different "jobs" you had to do in one "session" with a horse, frequently due to circumstances out of your control. Such as while checking the water at the ponds, realizing the calves had found a hole in the fence and were now out exploring, so the initial ride evolved into a 2-mile detour and several hour adventure to get all the critters back to where they belonged.
