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about horses, equine sports and horse owners in northern British
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Issue # 153 .gif) December
10, 2002 published
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Editor
- Kristi McCrindle, Southbank, BC |
I hope you enjoyed
the last three weeks in which I detailed some of Raime’s
history. When I sat down in October last year and looked at
what we had accomplished, it really surprised me how far we
had come, with the little ugly duckling colt that we never thought
would amount to anything!
And now I get to move back into the present time, and my current
mount. Tori has been finally put back into work - actually,
I first got back on her on November 16, three and a half months
after she was laid off. What fun that is!
For starters, I’m calling her the Three F horse - fat,
fuzzy and flabby. It is amazing what a poor level of fitness
that mare had, especially considering that she was turned out
for the last three months, not stuck in a stall!
However, the condition does come back and the fat goes away
- albeit slowly - once regular exercise starts again. I was
supposed to have her on lights, which would have taken care
of the fuzzies, but I just haven’t gotten there yet.
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Photo credit: Chris
Hassell
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Perhaps now that she is settled - I’d have to work
something out with Nathan and Elly to cover the extra hydro
but it would be worth it to get my slicker looking horse back
and to have her cycling for early breeding.
Of course, my rides have started out pretty short - the first
one was a mere 15 minutes of walk time in which she actually
broke a sweat - are you getting a real picture of just how
out of shape she is?! Actually, to be honest part of that
was strictly from nerves. I’d love to tell you how the
time off eased her mind and made her sweet and quiet to ride,
but I’d be lying! Tori hasn’t changed a bit and
I think I will struggle with that again throughout the winter.
She just isn’t an easy horse to ride - mentally she is
so busy she doesn’t have a lot of time left over for
learning that she can just be a horse and go nice and easy.
I have my work cut out for me I guess! And on that note, I
think I’ll go riding!
Till next week,
~ Kristi :)
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| email: kristi@hiway16.com |
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Retraining the spoiled horse - Part 2
- Understanding Why
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As many of you have become aware through books and magazine
articles, horses and humans have some serious issues surrounding
their interaction with one another. Horses, by nature, will
test and see who is the boss (also called alpha) in their
herd. While this sometimes appears cruel, it actually serves
two purposes - the horse who decides he is boss, and continually
proves it when challenged, allows those horses below him to
relax and look to him for leadership. For a more timid natured
horse, this is quite important!
However, this testing of pecking order also extends to your
horse’s interaction with yourself. It’s just equine
nature to test you and see where you fit in the herd - they
don’t deliberately set out to hurt you or to annoy you,
it’s just their nature. This experimentation is done
mostly every day in their lives - subtle little things that
they do to check and see if their status in their herd has
changed.
In the case of testing their human, it can be something as
simple as laying back their ears when you feed them, or not
stopping immediately when you ask them to when you are leading
them across the yard.
In spite of their superior size, you are the thinker of the
relationship. It is up to you to form ground rules that you
will always adhere too - and in that statement I have hit
the most important part of horse training on the head - consistency.
In order for any horse to behave in a safe and respectful
manner, you must be consistent and fair in your application
of whatever rules you decide to stick to.
This also carries over to anyone who assists you in the daily
care of your horses. If you insist that your horse put his
ears forward before you feed him his grain each morning, but
your husband feeds at night and he lets the horse push him
out of the way with his ears back, well you can see that retraining
this horse simply won’t happen!
When you set out to change behaviours (or to prevent new ones
from forming) you need a very clear set of instructions for
yourself and anyone else handling your horse - a clear set
of “This is allowed” and “This is not tolerated”
- and what to do about it.
Next week, we’ll look at that list of behaviours, one
by one.
If you have comments or suggestions along the way, please
share with me at kristi@hiway16.com
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Halter training - Part 8
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Last week we left off after attaching
the leadrope and ready to start the leading lessons, so let’s
begin!
If you read Part 5 you’ll
remember that I suggested pulling to one side or the other with
the rope around the foal’s neck. Same thing goes for leading
with the halter for the first few times. You’ll find many
experienced horsemen do this without even thinking about it
to unstick a balky horse - they just pull the horse to one side
or the other to get the feet moving forward, and then redirect
the horse in a straight line once they are moving again.
Same goes for foals - pull them slightly off balance to get
their feet moving, and then reward them for the step forward
by releasing the pressure. You can also use a small treat as
a reward, but be careful not to encourage biting, nipping or
mugging for treats.
As with all aspects of horse training, you take the small steps
and build on them. Ask first for one step, and then two. Ask
to the left and then to the right, until the back and forth
motion becomes a steady series of forward steps, merging into
a straight line.
Now, if you are lucky, your foal will never have pulled back
to this point. Pulling against a foal is extremely dangerous,
as the vertebrae in their necks are very easily damaged - sometimes
permanently. While I try to never let go of any horse, as it
can teach them to pull away from you because they “won”,
I would rather let go of a foal than hang on and fight it out
- within reason.
This is why it is very important to always work your foal in
a smaller area with a safe fence until the lessons are well
learned, and then venturing out of the smaller area to test
the training. I will also try to never have an out and out straight
pulling match with a foal - again I revert to the sideways pull
to put the foal off balance.
If you spend a long time teaching these lessons, your foal will
become so solid on yielding to pressure that she will likely
never pull back, even when you add tying to the list.
Next week, we’ll work on tying your foal up for the first
time.
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