We had a jumping lesson this past Friday - that was great - here is a video of me and Tessa:
There is a local show with jumping this weekend - I am trying to decide if I am brave enough to take her - will let you all know :)
After our lesson, my partner and honey, WSL, came over on his horse to the indoor arena to see if we wanted to go out for a ride - which of course we did! Here is a picture that Anastasia took of us :) We love each other, but not sure about our horsies LOL.
Now, I wanted to say a few things about the RAC obstacle challenges and desensitizing horses. It is my opinion that it is not possible to expose our horses to everything in this wide world that they might be afraid of. Instead, myself, as someone who breeds, raises and trains horse for a living, what I do is I teach them what to do when they are scared of something. And what I always want them to do is to stop moving. If they are scared, I want them to think about standing still - IMO this is the absolutely safest thing that they can do, whether we are on them or on the ground.
Almost all my desensitizing begins with a white plastic grocery bag tied to the end of a longish dressage whip. Some horses are very scared of it and so I keep it far away from them, they are allowed to move and walk around (they are on a lead line in a safe place like my ring) and when they stop moving their feet, I remove the bag and put it behind me - therefore rewarding them for not moving their feet. I keep doing this in a methodical way until I can touch the horse all over, both sides and also have the bag go across from one side to the other (this is quite advanced though as they can jump towards me when I do this, so I better make sure that they are going to hold their position before I do that) and finally so that I can whip that bag around at high speed, including over their heads. If they hold their position and do not move their feet then the bag stops and retreats behind me. This is the beginning of teaching them what to do if they are scared and that is to STOP MOVING.
Now, in theory, this should work with anything else that I choose to bring to them and show to them, any and all of the obstacles on the list should be met with the same answer from the horse - they stop moving their feet.
I am also of the opinion that there is not a horse alive today that will not spook at something. Even the dead broke and old nags will have instinct kick in at some time or another and this is just something that we will have to live with having these prey animals in our lives. We can help them though to know what to do when they are scared and if we do our jobs right teaching them, they will revert to this training even in the worst possible situations.
An example is Tessa today on the trail - we were trotting along - we were in front and out of no where a dog appears - now Tessa is a more reactive Curly than most, and believe me she did react! But she also caught herself before things were escalated to where I might have been in trouble... even though she spooked and spun around, she was still listening to my aids and my reins and she stopped moving long before most scared horses of her type would have done, she did not bolt off, she remained in my control and she recovered quickly and we had a great ride!
Okay - I am off my soap box now! I have been DYING to show you all my new stallion and yet I know that I have to do something with him for RAC to blog about it.... Yesterday I did some ground work with him and gave him a nice bath (we can run warm water from the house - yes it is still cold here!) Well, as you can see, this boy is going to have to get used to LOTS of baths :) He was really great, an incredibly nice temperament :) So this is my 2 year old Curly stallion *BCF Icon, he is currently about 15.2hh, so a big boy for sure - I am in love with him!
Shelly in Summerland, BC Canada
Shelly-
ReplyDeleteWe do the same thing when desensitizing our horses to things. Let them move move move and when they stop on their own remove the object.
I will say the one nice thing about all the different obstacles is that when done properly it not only desensitizes them to many things but helps to build a level of trust between horse and handler.
Love hearing all the wisdom from the people who train a lot of horses!!! :) I haven't done too many objects yet this year and am only working with one (actually two) horses, but because AhD DIDN'T like the umbrella, I am going through this. I can see the progression of acceptance as explained by Shelly, and like Zoe says, I can tell we are building trust. I went to a clinic last year where the trainer used a white plastic bag on a whip, and AhD was pretty darn good with it. Thanks for the reminder, Shelly!!!
ReplyDeleteShelly- I totally agree with you on what you said. We have a nice stick with a grocery bag on the tip -- also use tarps and other such "stuff". So far our magic rule has been --that we keep with the scary object until the horse can stand still for having it "thrown" at them three times.. all sides. We often repeat this through out a horses life here at the farm. I do love the obstacles though.. gives the horses just one more reason to trust and listen and learn.
ReplyDeleteI went to a clinic once a few years back and they also used the rule of 3. It has stuck with me ever since and have used it especially now trying new things with these obstacles. I think it has been fun to spice up my riding time with my horses and have pushed them beyond their comfort zones. I have to tell you guys this really quick story about a trail ride I took Marley on last summer. We where riding along and there was another horse infront of us and all of a sudden deer ran from the corn field right infront of us. The lead horse turned to run back to camp and Marley stood stone cold still. I was very surprised at this. I know they always say that Curlys do this but it hasn't happened to me until that day. Let me tell you that reaction is much nicer than the bolting. Have any of you ever done much with empty plastic milk jugs?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing your wisdom! My Curly Tygs hasn't had an issue with any of the obstacles except for dragging the milk jugs, and my instinct was to get him stopped when he wanted to get away, but it was because I didn't want a run away horse. I wasn't thinking about it in those terms that we want them to stop when they're scared so we've got control. We've got a Walker that just the wind spinners have been a challenge and his flight instinct is great and he's a big boy, so your explanation will help us greatly! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI also realize, as I hope every horse owner does, that no matter how much you've trained, a horse could go off. It's part of accepting the risk of being in horses, just like any sport like football or hockey, just to name a few.
PS: Your stallion is gorgeous! I love the paints!
ReplyDeleteJaneen, by far the scariest thing for AhD last year was the milk jugs. I was lunging him and he almost ran me over - not fun at all. So the milk jugs are definitely on my to-do list to START this weekend, but we are well on our way with the umbrella (which was no big deal last year - go figure!). Betsy, thanks for the "3-times" tip, I will make sure to use that rule. Shelly, yes, your new boy is lovely.
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