Clear Communication/Visible Results
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The Big Three
Posted by Rick Gore
Category: General
Wow, talk about big topics. I call this "The Big Three”. These are sometime mystical terms that are used often and most people never really understand them, never know their importance or never experience them. These things come from "Time". Time handling horses, time working horses, time riding horses, time watching horses, time making mistakes, time seeing others do it right, time seeing others do it wrong, time listening to the horse and time reflecting on all of this. "If you take the time it takes - it takes less time.
Sounds like double talk. Sounds like old horse whisperer stuff. Are these things really real or is it something that old timer’s just talk about to intrigue others. Let’s talk about each one of these since I think they are all connected and all affect each other. So I will try and discuss them individually.
-- Release: Anyone can pull or yank a horse, but it takes someone who understands how to release, and how to release with timing and feel to really get results. Release is that exact moment where learning takes place in the horse. The second a horse gets release, he connects that release to the right answer. So if a horse is pressured by a person and it rears and as soon as it rears, it scares the person putting on the pressure, so the person backs away in fear of their safety, the horse sees this as release. So the person gives release, but with bad timing. The horse does not know this, it only knows, it got release when it reared, so rearing gets him release, therefore, rearing must be the right answer. This is an example of bad release but since release teaches, the horse always sees release as good.
Good release teaches the right thing. So if a person tries to get a horse to back up and puts pressure to back up and as soon as the horse takes one step back, the person releases, and then the horse learns that backing up is the right answer. If the person stops pressure when the horse turns away, rears, or tries to bite them, then the horse thinks and learns that is the right answer. So knowing release only works if the person knows how and when to release pressure. Almost everything a horse learns is by pressure and release. An example of a horse learning something without pressure and release is more "classical conditioning". You break a carrot in half, the horse hears this, knows what this is and comes over to get the carrot and you give the carrot to the horse. However, this could be seen by the horse as pressure and release if you are not careful. If done wrong, the horse can see him coming over to you as putting pressure on you and then you giving the carrot is release from his pressure on you. Everything with a horse is how they see it. This is a Key Point.... it does not matter what you intended to do, what you do or what you think you did, it only matters how the horse sees it. Too often I see people teaching things they do not know they are teaching and then wonder why the horse does it. I have a couple of videos that explain Classical condioning on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch
So understanding release is very important so you can know what you are teaching, when you are teaching it and when you did it wrong. And remember, once you understand release, if you do it with bad feel and timing, it means nothing and you will be teaching something you did not intend to teach. Confused yet? We are just getting started.
-- Timing: Sounds like a clock thing; if you can tell time you can have timing? If you can hit a baseball, drive a car or play any sport you should have some sort of timing. So having timing with a horse should not be that difficult. Well, timing could be a horse book in itself. Timing comes from doing wrong, experience (good and bad) and many other lessons from many horses. Pull on a horse at the wrong time and you get a fight, pull too early and you create the horse to pull, pull too late and you get behind the leverage point and you get dragged or get the rope pulled out of your hands. Of course pulling requires release, so if you time it right and don't release right, you blow it.
On the other hand if you have timing, you can get a horse to do things twice as fast, twice as easy and twice as good. Wow, this sounds pretty important, why are so many people so confused about it? It takes time and practice to learn it, develop it, perfect it and refine it. Every horse requires it to be done differently, maybe just a little but each one responds to timing with different feel. So having good timing with bad feel does not work, having good timing with bad release, does not work. All three are required, all three have to be constantly adjusted and all three need to be refined depending on what the horse does and how the horse responds.
-- Feel: This is putting timing and release together with constant adjustments. So, lets look at this like kissing a girl (girls apply this to guys), a kiss is a kiss right? Kiss your wife good morning is different than kissing her goodbye. Kissing her after not seeing her for a month is different than kissing her after a hard day of work. Kissing her after giving birth to your child is different than kissing her for getting you socks for your birthday. Kissing her after she is in a car wreck is different than kissing her after you broke her favorite silly glass thingy collection special piece. Kissing her after you say "I do" is different than after she says "No you can't". And lastly kissing her after or during that special private time is also very different. So if someone said how many ways can you kiss, your first response may be a kiss is a kiss, but if you think about it and break it down, very little changes in timing and situation changes the feel and way you kiss. And of course, I kiss my horse differently than I kiss my girl. :)
So just applying feel to a kiss you can see it has many variables. Now lets apply feel to how you handle a rope, how you put on a head stall, how you catch a horse, how you saddle a horse, how you pick a horse's feet, how you handle a horse in general, how you ride a horse, how you handle the reins, how you move towards a horse (pressure), how you move away from a horse (release), how you look at a horse, how your body is used to influence a horse and understanding a horse can feel and shake a fly off his hip. If you are thinking how can anyone know all this, welcome to the world of horsemanship. No matter how long you do it, you are always learning from each and every horse. You never know it all and the journey is never-ending.
Then how can anyone claim to teach this? I have not seen too many that try and teach feel. Tough subject and not easy to learn. This would explain why so many people have so called "problem horses". You may hear things like, soft hands make soft horses. You can't pull a horse to softness, but if you don't know timing and release, feel will not matter.
I mentioned handling the reins earlier. Feel is so important here. Too rough, too loud, too soft, too easy or too inconsistent will all result in confusion to the horse. When a horse is confused for too long it will stop trying to learn and stop searching for the right answer. Then they look at other cues as picking or harassment and then they can become upset or they feel (different kind of feel) that there is no right answer and they can't find release so they go into fight mode if they cannot flee. So feel on the reins can very helpful or can teach bad lessons. Being soft at the right time, firm at the right time and consistent will teach a horse how to be soft. But all this needs to be with timing and release.
Let’s see if I can tie these together now. A good example of using all three of these would be catching a horse. How many times do I hear the same old story, "my horse won't let me catch him", "my horse is hard to catch", "my horse just runs away when I try and catch him", and my first answer to this is "STOP trying to catch him".
In order to catch a horse you need release, timing and feel. You need to know how to release pressure when the horse looks at you or faces you. You need to release this pressure with timing so the horse connects the release with the looking or facing you. You need feel to read the horse on how to put just enough pressure to create movement and just enough release to draw or stop movement. So when catching a hard to catch horse, a person with understanding of release, timing and feel can catch most any horse. And since a very common complaint is how do I catch my horse, this tells me that most do not have a clue about the big three. Can I teach you this? Can anyone teach you this? My answer is the best teacher of the big three is the Horse. Listen, watch, and learn from the horse and stop trying to teach, train and improve the horse. Always remembering, "The best teacher of the horse - is the horse."
You can read more about this on my web site: www.thinklikeahorse.org/
Category: General
Wow, talk about big topics. I call this "The Big Three”. These are sometime mystical terms that are used often and most people never really understand them, never know their importance or never experience them. These things come from "Time". Time handling horses, time working horses, time riding horses, time watching horses, time making mistakes, time seeing others do it right, time seeing others do it wrong, time listening to the horse and time reflecting on all of this. "If you take the time it takes - it takes less time.
A lot of my videos on Youtube explain this in more detail: www.youtube.com/user/horseawareness:
Sounds like double talk. Sounds like old horse whisperer stuff. Are these things really real or is it something that old timer’s just talk about to intrigue others. Let’s talk about each one of these since I think they are all connected and all affect each other. So I will try and discuss them individually.
-- Release: Anyone can pull or yank a horse, but it takes someone who understands how to release, and how to release with timing and feel to really get results. Release is that exact moment where learning takes place in the horse. The second a horse gets release, he connects that release to the right answer. So if a horse is pressured by a person and it rears and as soon as it rears, it scares the person putting on the pressure, so the person backs away in fear of their safety, the horse sees this as release. So the person gives release, but with bad timing. The horse does not know this, it only knows, it got release when it reared, so rearing gets him release, therefore, rearing must be the right answer. This is an example of bad release but since release teaches, the horse always sees release as good.
Good release teaches the right thing. So if a person tries to get a horse to back up and puts pressure to back up and as soon as the horse takes one step back, the person releases, and then the horse learns that backing up is the right answer. If the person stops pressure when the horse turns away, rears, or tries to bite them, then the horse thinks and learns that is the right answer. So knowing release only works if the person knows how and when to release pressure. Almost everything a horse learns is by pressure and release. An example of a horse learning something without pressure and release is more "classical conditioning". You break a carrot in half, the horse hears this, knows what this is and comes over to get the carrot and you give the carrot to the horse. However, this could be seen by the horse as pressure and release if you are not careful. If done wrong, the horse can see him coming over to you as putting pressure on you and then you giving the carrot is release from his pressure on you. Everything with a horse is how they see it. This is a Key Point.... it does not matter what you intended to do, what you do or what you think you did, it only matters how the horse sees it. Too often I see people teaching things they do not know they are teaching and then wonder why the horse does it. I have a couple of videos that explain Classical condioning on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch
So understanding release is very important so you can know what you are teaching, when you are teaching it and when you did it wrong. And remember, once you understand release, if you do it with bad feel and timing, it means nothing and you will be teaching something you did not intend to teach. Confused yet? We are just getting started.
-- Timing: Sounds like a clock thing; if you can tell time you can have timing? If you can hit a baseball, drive a car or play any sport you should have some sort of timing. So having timing with a horse should not be that difficult. Well, timing could be a horse book in itself. Timing comes from doing wrong, experience (good and bad) and many other lessons from many horses. Pull on a horse at the wrong time and you get a fight, pull too early and you create the horse to pull, pull too late and you get behind the leverage point and you get dragged or get the rope pulled out of your hands. Of course pulling requires release, so if you time it right and don't release right, you blow it.
On the other hand if you have timing, you can get a horse to do things twice as fast, twice as easy and twice as good. Wow, this sounds pretty important, why are so many people so confused about it? It takes time and practice to learn it, develop it, perfect it and refine it. Every horse requires it to be done differently, maybe just a little but each one responds to timing with different feel. So having good timing with bad feel does not work, having good timing with bad release, does not work. All three are required, all three have to be constantly adjusted and all three need to be refined depending on what the horse does and how the horse responds.
-- Feel: This is putting timing and release together with constant adjustments. So, lets look at this like kissing a girl (girls apply this to guys), a kiss is a kiss right? Kiss your wife good morning is different than kissing her goodbye. Kissing her after not seeing her for a month is different than kissing her after a hard day of work. Kissing her after giving birth to your child is different than kissing her for getting you socks for your birthday. Kissing her after she is in a car wreck is different than kissing her after you broke her favorite silly glass thingy collection special piece. Kissing her after you say "I do" is different than after she says "No you can't". And lastly kissing her after or during that special private time is also very different. So if someone said how many ways can you kiss, your first response may be a kiss is a kiss, but if you think about it and break it down, very little changes in timing and situation changes the feel and way you kiss. And of course, I kiss my horse differently than I kiss my girl. :)
So just applying feel to a kiss you can see it has many variables. Now lets apply feel to how you handle a rope, how you put on a head stall, how you catch a horse, how you saddle a horse, how you pick a horse's feet, how you handle a horse in general, how you ride a horse, how you handle the reins, how you move towards a horse (pressure), how you move away from a horse (release), how you look at a horse, how your body is used to influence a horse and understanding a horse can feel and shake a fly off his hip. If you are thinking how can anyone know all this, welcome to the world of horsemanship. No matter how long you do it, you are always learning from each and every horse. You never know it all and the journey is never-ending.
Then how can anyone claim to teach this? I have not seen too many that try and teach feel. Tough subject and not easy to learn. This would explain why so many people have so called "problem horses". You may hear things like, soft hands make soft horses. You can't pull a horse to softness, but if you don't know timing and release, feel will not matter.
I mentioned handling the reins earlier. Feel is so important here. Too rough, too loud, too soft, too easy or too inconsistent will all result in confusion to the horse. When a horse is confused for too long it will stop trying to learn and stop searching for the right answer. Then they look at other cues as picking or harassment and then they can become upset or they feel (different kind of feel) that there is no right answer and they can't find release so they go into fight mode if they cannot flee. So feel on the reins can very helpful or can teach bad lessons. Being soft at the right time, firm at the right time and consistent will teach a horse how to be soft. But all this needs to be with timing and release.
Let’s see if I can tie these together now. A good example of using all three of these would be catching a horse. How many times do I hear the same old story, "my horse won't let me catch him", "my horse is hard to catch", "my horse just runs away when I try and catch him", and my first answer to this is "STOP trying to catch him".
In order to catch a horse you need release, timing and feel. You need to know how to release pressure when the horse looks at you or faces you. You need to release this pressure with timing so the horse connects the release with the looking or facing you. You need feel to read the horse on how to put just enough pressure to create movement and just enough release to draw or stop movement. So when catching a hard to catch horse, a person with understanding of release, timing and feel can catch most any horse. And since a very common complaint is how do I catch my horse, this tells me that most do not have a clue about the big three. Can I teach you this? Can anyone teach you this? My answer is the best teacher of the big three is the Horse. Listen, watch, and learn from the horse and stop trying to teach, train and improve the horse. Always remembering, "The best teacher of the horse - is the horse."
You can read more about this on my web site: www.thinklikeahorse.org/
Happy Trails,
Rick
Monday, September 13, 2010
Training Methods
I am a NH trainer. I use a combination of methods, an array of things that work for the individual horse I am working on. The comment I want to make is directed at the backing discussions. When training a horse to do something, anything, he has to fgure out what you are asking. He will choose the wrong or incorrect response sometimes often, before finding the correct answer. When the correct response happens, the trainer rewards by releasing pressure. In this case the jiggling of the rope stops. Some learn it faster than others. I teach this to EVREY horse I ride or train. It is an invaluable tool. Sometimes you are just not close enough to pull the rope toward his chest to ask for a back up. Using this technique I can ask from anywhere. My horses are so light with it it just takes a little wiggle of the rope and back they go. So the only real crazy waving involved is usually the first time teaching them.
Do I think the big name trainers have gotten out of hand? Yes. I also they they brought to light a lot about horsemnanship that main stream folks were not aware of. Things they should have been aweare of, but weren't.
My 17.3h sensitive draft cross and I have a great relationship. We preactically read each others minds. One day going to a trail he spooked. I could feel the m oment that he thought, OMG I'm going to die and Loretta is asking me to move forward. Someone has to save my life and if it's not going to be her it's going to be me. Really, I felt him close me out. Know what I did? I got down. And we walked back and forth in front of the scary yellow do not enter tape for the next hour. He was side passing at a trot to try and not get close but keep his eye on it, right next to the road. But if he had freaked and pulled away, I'd be alive even if he got hit by a car. I've had many folks tell me I did the wrong thing. I will never be convicned of that. For that horse under tose circumstances, I did the right thing.
So I applaud those who realize not every way works with every horse. Just like our children. Each have unique qualities that I beleive should be taken into consideration while training.
Do I think the big name trainers have gotten out of hand? Yes. I also they they brought to light a lot about horsemnanship that main stream folks were not aware of. Things they should have been aweare of, but weren't.
My 17.3h sensitive draft cross and I have a great relationship. We preactically read each others minds. One day going to a trail he spooked. I could feel the m oment that he thought, OMG I'm going to die and Loretta is asking me to move forward. Someone has to save my life and if it's not going to be her it's going to be me. Really, I felt him close me out. Know what I did? I got down. And we walked back and forth in front of the scary yellow do not enter tape for the next hour. He was side passing at a trot to try and not get close but keep his eye on it, right next to the road. But if he had freaked and pulled away, I'd be alive even if he got hit by a car. I've had many folks tell me I did the wrong thing. I will never be convicned of that. For that horse under tose circumstances, I did the right thing.
So I applaud those who realize not every way works with every horse. Just like our children. Each have unique qualities that I beleive should be taken into consideration while training.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Top 10 Purchasing Guidelines
Loretta’s top 10 Questions to ask and things to do, notice and look for when reviewing a horse for purchase.
- 1. Are his eyes clear? His coat shiny?
- 2. Are there rings on his feet? Cracks? (not good)
- 3. Does he seem interested and friendly?
- 4. Is he jumpy?
- 5. Watch how the owner handles him. i.e. is there a chain over his nose?
- 6. Does he willingly comply?
- 7. Touch him all over. Don’t start at his head, some horses just do not like that. The shoulder or neck is a good place to start. Run your hands on his whole body. Back, legs, hind end. Watch for his reactions. Does he twitch or move around?
- 8. Ask about ground work and manners. Watch how he reacts and moves when being led, etc…
- 9. Does he stop when she stops walking or does she have to make him stop moving? Where does she hold the lead while handling him?
- 10. Try to lift his tail right at the top of the dock. Watch his reaction. It is a sign of trust if they willingly allow you to pick up the tail.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Your position-his response
Monday, May 31, 2010
Why do riders fall?
WHY DO RIDERS FALL?
by Jan Dawson
What causes a rider to make an unscheduled departure from the back of a horse?. The focus is on those times when rider loses her or his seat with little or no help from the horse, not situations involving bee stung horses or times when equipment has failed or when the horse has fallen also.
What has to happen for the rider to be able to fall off? What can the rider do to insure that he/she does not fall off?
The short answer is, "Just keep one leg one each side, little lady, and you'll do all right." Hey, if it was good enough for western movies it should be good enough for us. Right. In this case that cowboy was right and it is not a joke! Beginners and novices fall off more than other people. And what do you see in the typical beginner position? What is the first thing that you notice? Most likely it is the out-of-position leg. "Oh, that's okay; we are working on that and it will come with time.", says the instructor.
It may come with time but to leave the issue up to experience is to admit that the beginner or novice is going to be left to his own devices to figure out, not just balance, but how to stay on the horse. There may be a better way.
A different perception may be to view the out-of-position leg as the beginning of a fall. That fall may not happen that day or that week or that month, but as long as the leg is out of position the rider is at risk because the anchor for the upper body is not in place. All you have to add is a higher center or gravity (weight on the stirrup rather that the seat or the heel) and an unexpected movement. Sometimes you don't have to add anything. Consider the beginner or novice in early trot or canter work, or even jumping or trail riding. Whether by choice or otherwise the horse goes forward at the trot or canter and the rider is in the fetal position, legs too far back and leaning forward over hands held at the waist. Not only can this rider fall, it can be a one point landing on the head.
Before the unfortunate rider falls something else usually has happened: The rider's center of gravity has become too high. The rider's center of gravity should be at all times as close as possible to that of the horse. If the weight is solidly in the seat or solidly down in the heels it is not so easy to dislodge the rider. Being able to maintain the center of gravity as low as possible goes a long way in maintaining the position of the leg. The reverse is also true: A correct position of the leg aids the rider in maintaining a low center of gravity.
Stiffness in the body may also contribute to a fall. Consider the classic example of the broomstick on the diving board verses the piece of boiled spaghetti or a pile of Jell-O. If the rider is reasonably in balance with the horse stiffness in the body is required for a rider to be unloaded under normal as opposed to rodeo or rodeo-like circumstances.
In practice this means that instructors need to concentrate on helping the rider achieve a secure and correct leg position almost before they do anything else. If the leg moves or becomes unstable when the skill level increases they should go back to where the leg was stable and try again. It helps to have a pocket full of exercises designed to position the leg then teach the upper body to move around over a stationary leg, rather than the other way around which is exactly the way most beginners and many others ride.
Once the upper body has learned to move around over the correct leg, the instructor must show the student how to relax or unlock the lower back to avoid the stiffness that can contribute to a higher center of gravity. Most children will not need help to do this. They will do it instinctively. Many adults will not, some, even after years of experience. To tell if the lower back is unlocked and supple just watch the riders hips. If the hips sway front to back, the rider's lower back is locked. If the hips move laterally with the left and right sides dropping alternately the lower back is unlocked. This should also help the horse to move better as the horse never uses both hind legs at the same times, consequently his back never moves both sides at once.
Riders should also be cautioned against pinching with their knees as this also causes the center of gravity to rise. When this is pointed out most riders will feel it as squeezing themselves out of the saddle.
It is not possible to put too much emphasis of teaching and maintaining a correct leg position. Western or English, it doesn't matter. The leg must be still and securely placed directly below the mass of the riders weight if the rider expects to remain aboard ;the horse indefinitely, through good times and bed. If the leg leaves it's "home" position it is the beginning of a fall; maybe not today, this week or this month, but it will come. "That's right, little lady," just keep one leg on each side of this critter and you'll do just fine.
For suggestions on how to teach this secure leg position please see the AAHS Riding Instructors Handbook available now through the United States Pony Club or at your booksellers next summer.
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