Lyle and Tom Dorrance

Dear Reader,

Sorry, no pictures yet. Please be patient.

Lyle and I continue to work to get him ready to be ridden in open country. Here is what we did today. Over 20 years ago I remember reading an article in "Western Horseman" magazine by Tom Dorrance. In it he told how to help a horse get ready to be ridden by a unique way of helping it to use both sides of its brain at the same time. Mr. Dorrance told the reader to mount the horse from a fence so that the rider was above the horse's head at the time of mounting. But there was more. Mr. Dorrance explained that a horse will instinctively stand at right angles to the fence. He wanted the rider to sit on the fence, reach over the horse's body with the long stick and tap on the hind end that is distant from the rider and fence. The horse will be moving away from the pressure applied on the side away from the fence by moving towards the person who is applying the pressure and moving towards the fence. This helps the horse to think using both sides of his brain at the same time and also to control his emotions. Horses are used to moving away from the pressure itself and from the source of the pressure. In this technique the horse is moving away from the pressure of the stick by moving towards the source of that pressure, that is by moving towards the human.

Once Lyle understood that he was to move away from the pressure of the tapping applied to his far side by moving towards me, the source of the pressure, I got on board. Because we were out in the open, Lyle threw his head up and hollowed his back. He also started to hyperventilate. All typical of a nervous horse. I just sat still on him until he calmed down. Then I got off and told him he was a good horse.

All of this teaching Lyle to control his own emotions is to get him ready to be ridden out on trail. If any one would like me to explain exactly how I taught Lyle to move towards me as I applied pressure to his far side by reaching over him from the near side, please ask and I will explain in detail.

Sincerely,

Penny Johnson

Kootenai Curly Horses

Bonners Ferry, Idaho

U.S.A.