Being observant of the signs!

𝘽𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙗𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙨...

The modern day “horsemanship” isn’t really horsemanship at all, we are rushing, occupied on other things, expect the world but give nothing, have our horse on one hand whilst we stand and speak to someone for 30 minutes whilst our horse stands there dazzled and confused on what he should or shouldn’t be doing. (I’m guilty of this too!) and to some extent I think we all are. However I pledged to myself that I’ll make the conscious decision to change this.

Since being furloughed I’ve had the time to dig deep into the world of horse behaviour, communication and horsemanship. As a professional learning is a everyday thing it’s like Pandora’s box 📦 and I’ve loved every minute of it. Especially because I know I can help my clients and their horses even more so!

Horses are the same as humans,different in the way they are, what sort of personality they have and how they learn best. Not one horse is the same, and as a professional it is our job to assess this every time we work with a horse. Which is the reason why it is so important to understand the whole spectrums of training.

As you guys know I gave clicker training a go with blue for about two days, I tried this because I liked the concept behind positive reinforcement but like I said above not every horse is going to thrive off it like others do. Clicker training over stimulated blue to the point her focus was completely gone, it was just all a bit too exciting for her I guess which is ok.

So we went back to our foundation training which is natural horsemanship which she responds well too. I tend to switch between different training methods depending on various of things. What horse I’m working with, if it’s blue what I’m asking her to do, so clicker training isn’t off the table and will be used in the future. Which backs up my point of understanding and be capable of doing all different types of training!

Let’s speak about the principles of training I kept in mind today whilst working with blue. Majority of horsemanship trainers use these principles, however Warwick Schiller has a incredible way of explaining things which can be quite amusing with his sense of human.

The principles I kept referring back too:

• Work with the horse you have today

• Change one thing at a time

• Choose where you work and choose where you rest

• The donkey Kong principle

• Don’t go to bed angry

Like I said Warwick has a clever and funny way of explaining things which you can see with the names he’s created for his principles. Let’s look at them one at a time so you can see how these principles can completely transform your horse!

1. 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆 - This is so relatable especially for us British riders who have the tendency to expect things to be perfect 365 days a year. The principle is about observing your horse from day to day. So if you were doing canter piaffe yesterday don’t expect to be doing it today. Observe, observe, observe. Scheduling your rides and training is pointless because we need to do things from day to day and work with the horse you have today! Not yesterday! So if your horse is struggling, tensed, confused go back to basics. Forget your goals and ambitions and focus on working with the horse you have today.

2. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲- This principal refers to training something new to your horse. So maybe your training your horse to be ridden and you’ve gone through the stages step by step and now decide he’s ready for the saddle to placed on his back. If you were to put the saddle pad, with the saddle and stirrups on his back this will completely blow his mind because he isn’t use to it. So change one thing at a time. Start by doing the ground work he’s used to and relaxed with. Then maybe try rubbing the saddle pad on his back, if he’s ok with this then try placing the saddle pad on his back. If he’s not ok with this go back to the first step.

3. 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁- This principal is good for horses who have the tendency to want to only work at one end of the arena, or those who can become quite “Nappy”. Say if your riding down at C and your horse becomes behind your leg, not listening to your aids, looking down at the other end of the arena stop go back to walk, let go of your reins and let me walk where he wants to be (this will probably be the end of the arena near his friends or the gate) once he’s there pick up your reins and go back to the ridden work you were doing. Now ultimately your both happy, he’s where he wants to be near his stable, the gate or his friends and your practising the work you wanted. This allows links in with make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy.

4. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝗞𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲- Think of training horses like a computer game, when you get something wrong on the computer game the game sends you right back to square one. This is what we need to do when training our horses, if we’ve managed to get past the first step, then the second and then we fail at the third we have to go right back to the first again. Everything goes step by step.

5. 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗴𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗿𝘆- If your horse is no longer relaxed, you need to get him relaxed again before proceeding otherwise he will hang on to that tension and frustration. Kind of like if we have an argument with our partner we need to resolve this before we go to bed and start a new day. This also links into one of my crucial principles when training a horse. Which I will go into more detail with...

So as you can see from my video of blue this morning at the start she’s grazing, so right at the get go we are choosing where we work and where we rest. I can’t express enough how important the “rest” part is for the horse this gives them time to think about everything, bring their adrenaline down and focus. So little and often is really good when resting your horse.

Now we start the work you can see blue is already use to this exercise (not with this practically flag) but she’s use to me doing this with her. If blue wasn’t use to this I would start step by step. So approach her with the flag when it’s wrapped up not loose and flying around in the wind. The idea is if the horse stands still you remove the pressure, if your horse was to move around you should keep the flag on the horse and walk with them staying at a 45 degree angle for safety. Because blue is quite good at standing still whilst I touch her with the flag my goal is for her to become relaxed. Some horses will “Freeze” so they won’t move but they won’t be relaxed either. I wait for the moment she is relaxed, so we look for softening with the nose, eyes and she even looked at the flag so then I release the pressure.

Every now and then I’ll give her the ultimate release and walk off with her back to her resting spot.

When I up the pressure of the flag (making a loud noise above her head and in front of her head) blue jumps a little. This is when I was really proud of her and I’ll tell you why.

Horses are flight animals so when they’re scared they run we all know this. Some a more flighty than others but ALL can learn how to control this impulse and this is how. Doing ground work like above, it teaches them that when they’re adrenaline goes up it doesn’t mean they have to run. It teaches them to self soothe and control their adrenaline because when they do the pressure goes and they get all the attention of being a good pony!

If your the owner that “Babies” your horse by not exposing them to things that potentially may spook them your doing them and yourself no favours whatsoever. Teaching your horse to control their natural instincts is a must, for a safe ridden horse.

This blog is called 𝘽𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙗𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙨 that’s because I want to speak more about calming signals. The signals our horses give us when they’re becoming submissive and when they relax.

A lot of the time people can tell me when they’re horse isn’t relaxed or happy. But more often than not they can’t tell me when they’re horse is relaxed and listening. What are the calming signals?

1. A lower jaw

2. Lowering of the head

3. Licking and chewing

4. Yawning

5. Slow eye blinking

6. Soft nostrils

7. Turning head away (submissive)

I find not knowing the calming signals causes problems within our training. So say if your doing spook training/pressure release. And your horse is standing still but isn’t relaxed and you release the pressure. You have taught him to be tensed the complete opposite of what you want. So timing and knowledge is important!

If you look back at the video you can see blue letting off calming signals, she lowers her head, licks and chews, yawns in fact she does all of these...

Hopefully these techniques can help you and your horse. Keep these in mind 🧠