Reclaiming your horse life

They say horses are like potato chips, you can't have just one. Given their social and accident prone nature it makes since to keep a few good horses. I personally have two and one in the “oven” and I can't imagine my life without them. Since childhood my horse life has been about doing stuff. Trail rides, shows, clinics, parades, and numerous other events, I have horses because I like doing stuff with them. I love the thrill of galloping alone down a long dirt road, and riding in the surf. I love what I experience while riding, and I am not the only one. How many riding dreams have been you lucky enough to experience? How many goals still remain on your “riding bucket list”, and what is holding you back? If your answer is the training level of the horses in your barn you also are not alone. Hundreds of horse owners have several horses who are not trained enough to do anything. These owners dream of trail rides, shows, and other events and yet years go by and they still remain dreams. Friends it is possible to reclaim your horse life but you must be willing to start somewhere.

If you are truly committed to reclaiming your horse life and fulling your dreams you must first be willing to put in the work long term to reach your goals. This means setting aside time on a regular basis to work with your horse. Can you imagine what the school system would be like if we only sent our children to school 1-2 days a month? The horses learning curve works the same way, the more consecutive days (or close to it) you spend training the faster you will progress. You would be amazed at what you can accomplish with a few months of steady riding.

You must be willing to prioritize. This is where it gets hard. If you really want to change your horse life you are going to have to focus on just one horse. I know that they all need work, but it is nearly impossible to bring along several horses equally in a timely manner unless you are doing it for a living. If you decide to spend 6 months but better a whole year with 1 horse out of 4 at the end of the year you will have one horse you can do something with instead of 4 horses a ¼ of the way there. When you have a horse you can reliably ride you can then start to do things with them and build your confidence and skills for your other horses. But most importantly you will be able to start living your dreams horse back and will be on the road to sharing those dreams with each and everyone of your horses.

You must be willing to be scared, repeatedly. Fear is a completely natural part of riding, and after years in the saddle I still still get nervous the moment I do something new with my horses. John Wayne said it best, “Courage is being scared to death- but saddling up anyway.” In my experience with horses the more scary something seems to be the more fun it is when you finally do it.    

Is it you? How riders affect training and progress

In today's modern world it is easy to loose perspective on what it takes to train a horse.  Just pull up youtube, turn on RFD-TV, or open a magazine and you can see 1,000's of awesomely trained horses who we would all love to ride.  Regularly we see Bob Avila and Tom McCutcheon doing perfect reining patterns in the NRHA, and we just finished watching Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro win gold in London.  And who could forget Stacy Westfall and Roxy at the 2006 Congress as seen here.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wLikusmCEA

We hear about and see the results of hard work on a regular basis, and yet we rarely talk about what it takes to actually achieve it.  So today I am going to talk about some rider factors that affect training and the speed progress.

1.  Time spent-  It is a proven fact that the more time you spend working with your horse the faster you will achieve what you want.  So if the professionals ride 6-7 days a week while you only ride twice a week logically you would have to ride 3-4 weeks to achieve the same amount of riding/training that the professional did in one week.  So if Stacy Westfall had Roxy in training for 3 years before their 2006 congress run (http://www.westfallhorsemanship.com/faq/6/), it would have taken her close to 12 years riding twice a week to achieve the same results.
     
2.  Knowledge/Experience-  The more experienced you are the faster you will be able to realize your riding goals.  When you have little to no hands on training experience teaching a behavior it will logically take you longer to achieve the same results as someone with more experienced.  Considering that Bob Avila has been in the business nearly 40 years and started 1000's of horses it would be illogical for the average rider to expect to be able to achieve the same results in the same timely manner.  This does not mean you will never become experienced and knowledgeable at what you are training; it just means that you should allow extra time when you are not well versed in what you are doing.  On average it can take 2-3 times longer to achieve the same results when you are not experienced in what you are training.  Just remember that everyone had to start somewhere.
 
3. Timing-  Timing is the key to successful horse training.  With a understanding of timing you can often make up for a lack of experience and or greatly speed a long the process.  When you release/reward your horse learns, and the better you are at rewarding your horse the moment he does the right thing the faster you can train.  Unfortunately timing is not something that can be learned from a book but it is a skill that must be learned through trial and error and perfected over time.

At the end of the day you can have a ride like Stacy Westfall but you must be willing to work for it.  The average rider must realize that it is possible to achieve your goals but that the road to completion may be longer than expected given your own personal circumstances.  Besides isn't life is about the journey and not the destination anyway.       

Why I love clinics and why you should too

  Since the age of 7 I have in ridden and attended clinics.  Growing up we as a family spent our vacations hot, dusty, and horseback.  In our little white Bruton Easy Pull we logged hundreds of miles attending Aggie 4-h clinics, and riding with wonderful horsemen like Brian Summerall, and Bob Allen just to name a few.  My Dad would take care of us and the horses and my Mom always rode in the clinic with us.  I was picked up from school in a loaded horse trailer more than once.  Growing up clinics were almost magical, not only did we get to stall our horses and ride in a arena (super special when you do not have them) but we also had the chance to learn something new from someone besides Mom.  Years later as a adult I still love a clinic and here are some reasons why.

1. You get to ride in a group.-  Many of us ride alone or with just a few friends and family.  Attending a clinic allows you a largely unknown group horses to ride and interact with.  Because it is a training/learning environment it is a great place to socialize a horse.  

2. You have to haul.-  Attending a clinic forces you to confront your loading fears and problems.  Every horse and owner should be comfortable loading and hauling and most of us rarely have the chance to practice.  Going to a clinic is a great way to get you both out and about in a understanding training friendly environment.  At our clinics we always help when some is needed. 

3.  You can't beat a little distraction.-  Between the new surroundings and new horses there are a lot of distractions possible for your horse at a clinic that you can not get riding at home.  Attending clinics is one of the best ways to teach your horse to perform reliably in stressful and distracting situations.  Again being a learning environment you are able to do what your horse needs without issue.  

4.  Another Perspective.-  Many of us spend so much time working alone that we do not notice small changes in our horsemanship and riding.  A clinic allows for a fresh perspective on your riding and horsemanship from the clinician, and a chance to evaluate for yourself where you stand among your fellow riding peers.

5.  You can't beat the time horseback.-  Most riders average 20-90 minutes on a normal ride.  At a clinic you often spend 7-8 hours each day with your horse (not all of it actively riding).  Just as you really do not know someone until you have traveled with them, you really do not know your horse until you spend two 8 hour days with him.

6.  Practice makes perfect.-  I have probably attended at least 12 Aggie clinics in my lifetime, and while each clinic was taught by different students they all presented the same exact information year after year.  Why attend so many of the same clinic you are probably wondering?  Because each time I had the chance to re-enforce what I learned before and pick up/remember something new.  Because each time I got better, and each time my horse got better.  Eventually I had a different horses who each time got better.  Our horses have participated in on average 8 clinics each year for the last 4 years, not to mention those by others, and yet each time we find something new or something else to work on.  

7.  The bang for your buck.- Between the long hours, personalized and general instruction, the unique training opportunities, and one of a kind atmosphere you would be hard pressed to find more value for your time and money. 

            

  

Dressage gets The Colbert Bump

A wonderful thing happened recently in the horse world.  Thanks to The Colbert Report and Stephen Colbert with the help of Michael Barisone millions of people have been introduced to the sport of dressage and the world of horses.

Be prepared to laugh, I know I sure did; and be sure to share it with all your horsey and non friends. 

                                   Image from The Chronicle of the Horse

Stephen's Dressage Training Pt. 1

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/lav3uh/the-colbert-report-stephen-s-dressage-training-pt--1

Stephen's Dressage Training Pt. 2 

And for a behind the scenes look check out this from The Chronicle of the Horse. 

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/f5vsty/the-colbert-report-stephen-s-dressage-training-pt--2

Modern times, modern training problems

"It's my money and I need it now!"

Many of us have heard this annoying advertisement and yet many of us use the same philosophy in our horse life.

 "It's my horse and I need him to ___________ now!"

How did we get here?  When did we trade horsemanship for showmanship?

It happened when we put horsemanship on a deadline.  We need our horse to do ___________ because we have a show, trail ride, etc.  We have a date on the calendar which we can not ignore.

Now deadlines are not absolutely evil.  They can prompt us to ride, train, and can offer a gauge to our progress.  But they more often lead to short cuts in training which may pay off in the short term, but will eventually create major issues in the long run.  

I had a child horsehood without deadlines, yes I still had major horse events but I was taught as a small child that a horse will always show you what he needs, and that if he is not doing it he is not ready for it.  Knowing this I rode until things got better, I rode until things clicked and my horse was ready, and then I rode even more.

I was taught that good horses are born but great horses are made and that every great horse had someone in their life willing to ride through it all to find the wonderful horse inside.

As I've gotten older I have realized that what I learned as a kid is the right way.  There is no magic trick to fix your problems except to go back to the basics.  It takes me 4-5 years to "finish" (for lack of a better term, because you can always improve, horses are never finished in my book) a horse. How long does it take you?

Just ride, things will get better. Eventually everything will come together.  I promise.    

Join Up- Video with researcher commentary

Video Link and article with commentary from the researcher herself Cath Henshall.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/science-takes-on-the-man-who-listens-to-horses-20120713-2219x.html

Check out Snarky Rider http://snarkyrider.com/2012/07/27/round-penning-with-remote-control-cars/ for a great snarky follow up post to this weeks post- Death of the Join Up.

Monty Roberts speaks out.

http://horsetalk.co.nz/2012/07/24/monty-roberts-fights-science-with-science/#.UBL3CLQ7W3s

http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2011/10/042.shtml

http://www.montyroberts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/science-trials-summary-results-with-graphics-final.pdf

Death of the Join-Up?

Yesterday this link to research done by the University of Sidney was floating around online:

Researchers urge rethink of 'Monty Roberts' horse training method

http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=9617

Below you can find my response to their findings and observations:  

The data did prove that you do not need to act like a horse to be successful, but also that pressure and release works (which we already knew).  I would like to (as the article suggested) know what the researchers themselves consider to be humane treatment when initiating contact a 1,000lb prey animal. 

I will admit that the Join Up really does get miss used by the public.  I'm sure many horses think their owners have brain damage because they just keep doing the same thing over and over.  I myself use it only until I can catch the horse, and I don't use it unless I need to teach a horse to be caught.   

What it did prove (according to me) is that robots are as good or better than humans at training horses because they offer no emotion to influence, add to, or confuse the horse.  The talk about being a good leader or herd boss is really all for us humans to better project a cool, calm, and collected image to the horse.  All the talk is just a mind game used to convince owners to loosen up and stop being a doormat.  The horse could careless on how a person presents themselves, they just react to how you do it.  Even after 10 years together if this week I presented myself as a doormat Pie would treat me as such.        

It proved that you just have to speak clearly and consistently in order to "speak horse".  I'm quite certain that if they had continued the experiment using only pressure and release they could taught the horses just about anything.