Riding Well Means Never Having to Say "I'm Sorry"

When I look back over the last 20 years of riding I can now say that in almost every case where I had problems with my horse under saddle, it was usually because of what I was doing to disturb the horse's balance and emotional state, probably inflicting pain either at the front end by pulling on his mouth or by bouncing on his back while moving around erratically, giving mixed signals for whoa and go at the same time.

Anyone who's spent more than a year of consistent contact with a horse, knows that for the most part, they are a patient and forgiving animal. Some animals have more tolerance of course. The ones who don't put up with our foibles, are passed on to owner after owner. We just had a horse at the stables that had been given to a horse owner for free from the previous owner who had also gotten her for free. She was apparently of excellent breeding with several foundation quarter horses in her pedigree.

Unfortunately, no one told her that she was a supposed to be a well bred horse, worth thousands of dollars, which apparently guarantees that her behavior would be exemplary, a horse easy to train and destined to be a success in the arena or out on the trail. She has now been passed on to yet another owner because her personality was one that made her very mistrusting, oversensitive and downright dangerous when pushed to her limits. Fear was the most prevalent emotion for her, followed by a need to be dominating-the scariest combo in a horse. When overwhelmed with fear (which happened easily)this horse will try to run first, then fight vigourously. Without consistent, confident treatment, it's only a matter of time until she hurts someone or is hurt. Unfortunately, many people believe that the only option is to use the mares for breeding, passing on the extreme personality to yet another generation.

Fortunately, my horses recently have been very forgiving, allowing me to continue my education as a rider while I learned to keep my position consistent, the cues as light as possible and my hands as quiet as I can manage. There was a horse, though, in my past who fit the same description as the horse who recently left the stables. Being inexperienced and downright ignorant about the personality differences in horses, I continued to dismiss the signals that my mare was giving me. Instead of becoming calmer and more confident, my time with the horse made her more agitated and mistrusting, to the point where she finally decided she'd had enough. It was the first and only time a horse has injured me-I was lucky, a broken collarbone and a few bruises, including the one to my ego.

Now that I know what I know, I would have used significantly different techniques to train the mare. I would have also known that she was about to blow when I got on her that day. Since that day eight years ago, I've been trying to understand everything I can about the horse, so that it would never happen again, to me or anyone else. And I'm sure I owe the mare that bucked me off, a serious apology.

Today's ride with my current mare was a success. She remained calm and confident from beginning to end, even though I chose to ride with a bit in her mouth. My hands remained quiet and I asked her with cues that were barely noticeable to anyone but her and me. So many times over the past years, I was not so nice to her and she reacted negatively. I blamed her and the ride ended in frustration and disappointment for me and probable unspoken pain for her.

So,today I said "I'm sorry" to my mare for all of the bad rides we'd shared and made a silent promise to continue working on my riding, so that she would never lose her balance or feel nervous or experience pain because of my ignorance or physical limitations. I've learned that riding well means never having to say "I'm sorry."

"Just Get on and RIDE!!!"

I can still remember the days when I used to come home and talk about my frustrations with the horses and my family would listen politely, but never really understand what the problem was. How hard can it be to sit on an animal and hold on while it takes you wherever you want to go. As if there were an on/off switch that signaled to the horse that you were ready. From there, it's just a simple kick to go and a pull on the reins to stop, right?.

Seems like I've spent the last 20 years trying to do everything to avoid those exact things. And while that is going well, it's only occured to me recently that just that act of bringing my horse out and saddling her up is not a guarantee that SHE is ready to go. We as humans forget that they are living, breathing creatures with emotions, good days and bad days. They are effected by the weather, their feet, their joints and muscles aching, the cold air, the wind blowing, female hormones and most of all they are effected by how they are being treated at the very moment you enter their day.

How many times have you seen someone just hop on their horse and expect today to be just like any other day. Chances are if they do the same monotous things with the horse, it will be. If you ride around an arena at a walk and then a trot, not asking your horse to maintain speed or gait, not turning your horse at a particular spot, not asking your horse to bend around an object and maintain the shape and size of a circle for example, then your expectations will be pretty low and your horse's performance will remain at the same low level. In order to remain interested in horsemanship and riding, I look at something new at least once a week. Being the owner of a rental service that has hundreds of DVDs to choose from, this is not difficult. But, now a days, there is so much information, on TV, in magazines, at expos, clinics AND DVDs, that there is no excuse for wandering around aimlessly with your horse or using the same tired old techniques from the trainers who haven't changed their routine for over a decade.

It seems that even with the wealth of information out there, we still see people who believe that if the horse's head is down and they are going around and around quietly, then they must be well trained. I believe that if you work with someone who is asking to be paid for their knowledge and they do the same thing over and over with your horse, then you should look elsewhere for help. Especially, if you cannot duplicate their results without using spurs to go, severe bits or tie downs to slow or stop your horse and even with "training" your horse does not behave well on the ground.

I can honestly say that today I was very careful about keeping my excitable mare calm from the moment I asked her to stand still as I mounted to the walk back to the stables from our ride in the pasture. I know now when my patience is lacking and I stop and regroup. It saves us from fighting and she remembers the experience the next day. I keep harping on the emotional state of the horse, but since I've begun paying attention to it more, I've seem a dramatic improvement in my horse. With her calm, it gives me a chance to pay attention to my riding, my position, my legs, my balance, all of the things that were impossible to do with her racing off in a fit of anxiety, the two of us locked in mortal combat, or so it seemed.

Now, I don't share all the details with my family when it comes to the horses and all they know is that I'm out at the barn again, riding my horses. When I ride with them (they're usually on bikes), they notice how calm and well behaved my "nervous" horse is and they take for granted that I took their advice to "just get on and ride!"

At least the trim went well...

The days are getting shorter and so when I decided to go out and ride at 3:30 in the afternoon, I had to remember that there was only a little over an hour until dark. Right now we have just an outdoor arena to ride in and a large round one at that. Normally, I'd take Chanty to ride in the pasture, but decided to ride in the arena, so I could let Sally run loose and exercise on her own. Unfortunately, she was not feeling up to any running around. It's hard to tell if Sal is improving on her new feed or whether she has significant arthritis in her hocks that some days slows her down.

I know how she feels. There are days when I am just a little too achey to ride for long and I can tell immediately that it affects my balance and my ability to focus on what I am asking my horse to do. It isn't just when your off physically, but on the days when you're feeling a little "out of sorts", it's so easy to blame your horse for the missteps and the resistance you feel with each transition. Things began to go from bad to worse and fortunately I was able to see my own mood creeping into the riding. It was close to dinner, Chanty was watching the other horses leaving the arena and there was no reason to push her to do anything beyond what we had done today, even if it was just to raise her heart rate and run her around for exercise. My job that day was to leave things on a positive note. I still had to trim her feet before the day was over.

Since I first acquired Chanty, she has been very sensitive about her feet, especially the back feet. As a matter of fact, the previous owner had her for almost 5 years and had never picked up her back feet. Chanty had not had her feet trimmed for years when I bought her and since I had not begun trimming myself, I contacted a local farrier for the first few hoof care appointments. He was barely able to trim the front feet and was totally unable to handle the back without a serious struggle. As with most farriers I'd met, he considered it a sign of bad behavior and wanted to physically dominate Chanty, which only served to aggravate her more. Her previous owner told me that she was once trimmed with a twitch on her nose to keep her still during the process.

It wasn't until I'd learned more about Chanty's personality and what it meant to her to have her only source of escape taken from her, that I finally understood why she was reacting so strongly to the trimming experience. Instead of constantly trying to reprimand her for reacting normally to her feelings of insecurity and utter dread, I have been paying attention to her reactions and interpreting them from her point of view. I reward her for standing quietly and for calmly picking up her rear foot and letting me hold it and even place it on the hoof jack while I rasp AND use the nippers to trim off hoof wall. That's something no one was ever able to do during the first 12 years of her life (she is now 15, I've had her 3 years). I consider our time to together during a trim, in which she is standing in the aisleway, untied, eating hay , as one of our many moments of success. She trusts me, she is confident and calm and she remembers how much I care for her feelings no matter what situation we are in.

So, maybe the riding exercise didn't go as great as I'd hoped. No day with my girls or being out in the sunshine with good friends (four legged as well as two legged) is a waste. At least the trim went well....

A Small Victory

It's always the litttle things that we either don't notice or that we appreciate for their simplicity. It never ceases to amaze me how both things could happen at the same time for different people, especially when it comes to horses. After spending just 20 minutes with a horse whose owner had been struggling to simply walk him back to his stall, I noticed that the horse's emotions were dictating his every move. He wouldn't walk forward without looking back at his pasture mates, he would stop and pull his head down to the ground, and his feet seemed to belong to another animal, because he continually slipped or tripped over them on his way. His owner commented several times that he was typically fighting her and overreacting, pulling and throwing his head during their short walk together.

Having made the observation a long time ago that horses react differently to different people, I was now able to prove to this horse that I was someone different from his owner and I was going to offer him a chance to trust a human for more than just this one time. It had to start with something as simple as getting from his safe haven at the paddock where he "hung out" with his buddies all day, to his other safe place, his stall, without feeling threatened, harassed or intimidated. He had gotten very good at intimidating and threatening his owner as a pre-emptive strike and that's where the battles began.

Having walked him back and forth several times with slow deliberate effort, offering him a chance each time to stop and relax, he finally walked the entire distance with his head low and made it to his stall with what I think was a different perspective. The real test would be how he would act the next day, first with me and then with his owner.

Today, it was my turn to bring in all the horses and it was strange for me to doubt whether I could bring in the young horse with whom I'd worked just the day before. Was he going to remember what we did and would it have impressed him enough that he would trust me without hesitating? Only one other horse owner saw me walk the gelding back to his stall and I'm sure to her it was not a notable event. But to me and to this young horse, it was a huge accomplishment and in its simplicity, made me smile. I will ask his owner when I see her again if she was able to walk her horse the short distance back to his stall and more importantly, did it put a smile on her face when their journey ended without their usual battle. Ah, a small victory!

A Beautiful Day

What a gorgeous day! The picture was taken several weeks ago at the peak of the fall colors, at a location just 5 minutes from home. The leaves were extraordinarily beautiful this year (I guess all of the conditions were right). I almost drove right by, but realized that the trees, the sky, the water, may not look quite that beautiful if I waited for another day when I'd have more time. I wasn't really in a hurry anyway-just headed to the stables.

Today, even though most of the leaves had fallen,it felt like early autumn. It was 60 degrees and clear skies, perfect for being outside. I had promised one of the young women who rides with me and for whom I've helped for a year now with riding lessons, training and working with her new horse, that we would spend a few hours together, ride and even take a short trail ride just off the property of the stables.

We both went to get our horses from their respective paddocks and as with most simple tasks of every day life with horses, it became a chance to teach both horse and owner. Parellis would probably identify her horse as a mix of left brain introtrovert and right brain introvert. He can act dominate, pushy and very food oriented with a "what's in it for me attitude", but mostly he is a horse who is very concerned about his survival and when it comes to trusting humans to keep him safe, he is not convinced that we are up to the task . Walking him up the hill to the stables to saddle him turned into a real challenge and my young friend recounted for me how many times she had struggled to keep him from pulling her so that he could eat the grass on the way up the hill as well as his general disregard for her space and her role as human leading horse and everything that goes with that.

The "lesson" (and isn't everything we do with horses, a lesson?) began with reinforcing the idea that pulling me (now at the other end of the lead rope in order to demonstrate for my friend) was not going to happen, because I was not going to put any tension on the rope. If he dipped his head, I would smooch to him, signalling my desire for him to move forward, thereby lifting his head. IF he did not, he would receive first a slap to the ground near him, then a sharp tap to his side with my stick or end of the rope. Once he complied, we moved on. Having a personality that looks for safety and survival first, he tends to fight back with dramatic moves where he humps up, bucks, kicks out and throws his head to intimidate. Calmly, I reassured him that I was not the enemy and that as long as he didn't pull on me, I would never raise his level of anxiety with any physical threat to him, which is what he expected. Once that was taken away, his attitude changed. It took almost 20 minutes, but it did change and once he was able to control his emotions, asking him to move his feet without resistance, was easier and he was willing to listen to my suggestions. He just didn't want to be SHOUTED AT.....

Once you have a horse's emotions under control, there is nothing you can't do! She was now able to ride him and ask of him, first the most simple and familiar tasks under saddle and then, again without pulling on him and stirring up his innate need to be safe and comfortable, ask him to move out in different direction, maintain circles, figure eights, keep his speed at each gait consistent and respond to weight and leg cues with the lightest effort on the part of the rider. Because she had gotten his emotions under control and knew better how to avoid pushing his buttons and losing that control, she was now able to take him out to the big open pasture to ride. He came through with flying colors. SUCCESS....

But the greatest success for me today was practicing what I preach with my right brain EXTROVERT Morgan mare, Chanty. To say that she is motivated by a need to feel safe and comfortable, is an understatement. When she is pushed beyond her comfort zone (which doesn't take much) she turns into a "sewing machine on speed" with her rapid trot in place that rivals any horse of her saddleseat breeding background. We have been practicing the control of emotions, by first and foremost, identifying them before they get out of control. That is where my education has been helped tremendously by watching my Parelli videos more than anyone else. I knew how to move their feet, backwards, forwards, sideways, etc and rewarding the slightest try. I knew how to disengage the hindquarters and circle my horse, back up my horse, etc, etc. Trouble was that by the time I got to all of these "techniques", it was already too late. I had not listened to the earliest signs that my horse was about to lose it, emotionally.

We headed out on our trail ride after giving Chanty a chance to unwind in the arena with a few patterns and most importantly, without any pulling on her face/mouth (we're riding with a bitless bridle these days) which immediately makes her feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable, emotionally and physical. She of course, wanted to walk a little faster than my friend's new mount, a 13 yr old quarter horse mare who loves trails and who belongs to another horse lover in our close group of friends. But, the minute I felt the energy that moved her forward change from a walk that said "we're going somewhere" to "I've got to back to the barn now, before I die!", we would come to a soft, slow "whoa" with a gentle pull and release on the rein and I would let her turn to wait for her buddy, even letting her eat a little grass to calm her (horses can not be nervous and lower their head to eat at the same time). Most of all I had to keep up my mantra of "calm, rhythm, consistentcy" in which I would pick up one rein to signal her quietly along with my body, that we were walking and she was doing great.

It was one of the best days yet-the weather, the horses and we made it back without a fight, without a bad word and with a horse that was just as calm coming home as she went out. A beautiful day....

"She likes it, hey Mikey"

Today was another gorgeous day and of course, my other commitments kept me from getting out to the stables until late. I think that is the biggest challenge for us horse owners-finding the time for our critters. And why is it that those of us who are the busiest have not one, but TWO horses? Actually, I'm much more fortunate than most because I spend only 16 to 20 hours at my "real" job and the rest of my time is available to my real passion-horses. Oh yeah, and my family and friends. They understand though, the addiction, and have yet to sit me down for an INTERVENTION, but it's been close in the past.

When I finally made it out to the stable, my friends were already saddled up and riding and I still had cleaning, feeding and grooming to do. I couldn't resist though, and so grabbed ol Sal Gal and took her to the arena with no tack and just decided to jump on her bareback. Okay, so I used a step to get on her back. I don't think I've EVER just jumped up on her or any horse's back. I know Linda Parelli recently demonstrated jumping on a horse by getting them to lower their head and neck and using that to jump up-good for her-still not going to happen!!

Sal was already feeling better on her new "light" food and wanted to trot around with me holding her mane, hoping she'd remembered all those days long ago when we worked on bridleless riding when she was feeling less achey and arthritic (turns out all of those years of wearing heartbar shoes with toes pointing down and constant concussion of her back legs, had created damage to her hock joints). She moved out pretty well and my friends were impressed when she pinned her ears as she passed their horses. Sal has a reputation for being the sweetest horse in the barn. They've only seen the Sal, post founder, hock arthritis, looking older and harmless. But when she's feeling well, she can move out faster than any horse in the barn (it must be the Arab in her, matched with her long legs) and if you're not ready for it, she'll take you back to the barn in an instant.

Back at the barn Sal was more than ready for her evening portion of beet pulp with the great tasting feed that was now part of her dinner. Both her and Chanty have quickly decided that beet pulp alone for breakfast just doesn't cut it. Sal actually left the entire pan untouched this morning, but was thrilled when I sprinkled a little low starch feed on it. I'm so happy she likes it....

The days are shorter now and after arriving at the barn so late, it was already time to go. Tomorrow is supposed to be another cool, sunny day, so more riding outside. I thought about hooking up the trailer and hauling out to the park at the Columbia River but I may need to get home a little early tomorrow and help the hubby with his project. As long as I get to ride my girls ....

Welcome!

Welcome to "More Horse Matters"

It occured to me that every day is something new with the horses and while it used to be that I kept a journal to remember it all, it seemed a better idea to share it with those who are out there struggling to get it right as well.

Here in the NW, it has begun to rain quite hard, or at least it did for the last 48 hours. As I look out my window, it has begun to look sunny and cool and I know that my "girls" (my 15 year old morgan mare Chanty and 18 year old morgan-arab mare Sally, featured on the site) are thrilled to be out of their stall and running in their paddocks, able to stretch their legs. I won't be able to see them today, but I know they are smiling.

Yesterday, I began feeding my girls a feed from Triple Crown called Low Starch. I'd known about the feed for almost 2 years but until recently, it was not availble in our local feed stores and driving 30 miles to buy feed did not seem fiscally responsible (it cost too much!). In the past I would feed a combo of beet pulp and rice bran with multi vitamins, plus their hay. At our stables, the hay comes from multiple fields and so it varies in its carbohydrate content, bale to bale. I could have all of them analyzed and feed the lowest carb hay, but again, it is an added cost and not very practical. Sally began gaining too much weight with all the extra hay she was getting (to stay warm on the cold nights), and was showing signs of early laminitis-sore feet, fat pads more prominent over eyes, lethargic and more outbreak of skin fungus on mane and legs.

Why is all of this important? Because both of my horses have had acute laminitis and Sally has foundered (rotation of coffin bone) at least 3 times, the last one was 2005, winter time, when I finally learned that it was diet that triggered it. She was on high levels of grain, eating alfalfa, all because I was riding her constantly and I thought she needed it. She is the reason that I went looking into natural hoof care after seeing Pete Ramey. It's a long story and I'll share it with you throughout my entries here, but suffice to say that this time of year is critical when it comes to feeding and managing your laminitic horses.

Hormones in the horse's body are changing in order to adapt to the colder weather and as an adaptation to the change in the natural diet of a horse which can be quite sparse in the winter months. Morgans as a breed (as well as ponies and other breeds) are designed to tolerate very harsh conditions and live off of very little vegetation. We fill them up with lots of excess calories thinking they need to have rich grasses and grains. I had to learn the hard way. At the time, there was not a lot of information-even the vet did not suspect it was a dietary issue and said it was okay to continue feeding grain, maybe just a little less.

Fast forward to today and numerous bags of beet pulp and rice bran later-Sally has not foundered and has grown out her separations and rotated coffin bone (turns out that the bone is not permanently deformed as I so naively believed, but is just moved out of place by the swelling and subsequent laminar wedge that develops). I have now been trimming her myself for almost 3 years. She is my "project" and has educated me about horse behavior, anatomy, physiology, hoof care, not to mention being the most loving, patient, sweet tempered animal I've had (other than my beloved, Belle, lab golden retriever mix, now passed away). I will keep a close eye on Sally and Chanty as I change their diet slowly, but hope springs eternal that I will finally be able to give them the nutrition they need, keep their weight at a healthy level and not put them at risk for further laminitis episodes. I'll keep you in touch...

Sal's Gal