I wanted to clarify the word "respect." I learned from my instructor's that if they taught me that one plus one was two, and two plus two was four -
That tomorrow, they would RESPECT me enough not to go back to "one plus one is two." This is what I learned visually today. Respect me enough to know I am smart and have already learned what you wished me to! "now, we can play..."
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October 14, 2010
Unbelievable, but realistic and true. I am documenting this to myself tonight, in the hopes of writing more in a new journal, or continuing this one. I had an extraordinary evening with my horses tonight. I have learned that you ask for what you wish from a horse with the slightest of cue. Whether, it be, a move of your seat, a slow pick up of the rein, the intention (which should be first,) or the follow through to the point of pressure – but not “pull.” All of the above is about “RESPECTING YOUR HORSE.” I now realize the power of that sentence. The respecting of your horse. Means that you ask something of him, and if your love is true, your respect is true (just like in a human/human relationship) your answer from your horse Will be true. What I am saying is, ask him without the rope. Ask him/her! If you have shown him (I am thinking, even once) on a rope halter to go to the right, the left, a hind quarter, a front quarter, a whoa, a go over there! Maybe, if we treat them as smart as we are, they learned it the first time we showed them. Point is, This a.m. I saw my horse (the alpha) Jester turn his head slightly to the left while looking at my horse Gator. Gator moved off to the left. Now, I am talking a SLIGHT tilt. I had never been aware of this first (maybe third, what do I know) cue from a horse to another horse to move. Gator moved from the slight tilt of Jester’s head. Now, I should mention to my fellow horse lovers that yes, I know the mean moves, the ears back, the snake head, etc. This was different. What I saw and have never seen was the look of the eye, the suggestion, the “you go away,” thought and slight tilt. I kept thinking about what happened between them all day. I knew that I wanted to speak horse. Then, I thought of how politely they “first” ask. Maybe, this is unusual, because it was between two dominant horses. Usually, when it is between a dominant horse and a lower horse I never see the steps of asking… OH MY GOSH, I just realized what I just said. A lower horse would be learning the cues so he is prompted abruptly with the “you move now, cue.” Where as the Older horse that knows the “cues” is given warnings and he should KNOW them already! Which means something I learned just recently in a lesson. When you know your horse knows what you are asking and you are STILL going through the phases of “ONE, TWO, THREE,” He has already learned the “one, two, three,” so go from one to three!!! So, how does “RESPECT’ play in all of this? I am thinking it is HUGE. Tonight, I was moving horses from one area to another. I decided to “play,” with them. Started asking two of them in the one area for motion. Oh, but what was different?? I DIDN’T have a rope! I didn’t have a halter! I just thought, “play” and motioned with my one hand for movement, and pointed with the other. I had one horse on a bridge, and one horse the alpha, standing and focusing on me. All from my hands and energy and love. Lots of kisses, praise, and fun. They told me that if I respected them, then they didn’t need to be on the end of a rope. They are smart enough to know what I want. Oh, and they love me enough to try! It was unbelievable. It really was. Now, I understand why the Indians rode without a saddle or bridle. They gave their horses the respect they deserved, and treated them as equal. So, tomorrow, I can’t wait to ask my horses for more!!!! Huge empowering evening tonight. I need to keep asking myself some questions while I am dealing with my horses. The main question is, "why not ask THIS of my horse!" I need to stop focusing on things that I believe aren't possible, and "ask." I also need to be more courageous in my lessons learned and point them into different directions when dealing with my horses. I have to tell you that tonight's "let's see what happens if I do this," lesson was HUGE! :)
The Educated Equestrian's had a workshop given this past weekend on trail riding. It was the second workshop on this topic that I have attended. (I can't get enough!). Julie Robin's assistant, Kendra DeKay gave both workshops. In both of them, one of the main lessons to be learned was to "protect your space." This is while you are on the ground and other horses are approaching you, or if you are in the saddle and you are having another horse coming too close in front or behind your horse. Twirling of the rope as if it was a fan to back off the approaching horse. This all makes tons of sense, but the HUGE part of this is that you horse gains more respect for YOU when you do this. Re-read the last sentence... So, here I am tonight with a calculating, pulling my chain, horse Gator and his unwillingness to come to the barn for dinner. Hmm - wonder why right? My mind raced for the last two nights and thought only that he was in pain. He has had laminitis and I thought that maybe, just maybe, he didn't want to maneuver down the hill to the barn. Oh, two banamine shots, and loving care of a catered dinner of apples/grain and hay to his paddock instead of the barn, I realized something. He was not in pain. He was avoiding the barn because he thought I just might keep him in his stall for the night (as I did four nights ago.) When I realized this, I confronted (verbally) my thoughts on this to him. He then swung his head in a stallion manner and galloped down to the barn and into it at full speed. Yes, I was left in the dust. Tonight, I thought, "Gator is coming to the barn in a halter and I am taking him." My ego was bruised from the night before and I was determined. I walked into the pasture and haltered him up. Started leading him down to the barn. Low and behold my mind was not thinking about my alpha horse and the other two behind me. I heard the thundering hooves, and thought "protect my space!" I whirled around and my alpha Jester was headed straight for us! "No way," he thought, was Gator getting to the barn before him! I twirled. He backed off and bucked. Gator ran behind me and to the side and huffed. Like, "I am out of here!" I still had the rope! Then, it was a lightbulb, AH HA, moment. Gator realized that I just protected his space. The other two horses (Guinness and Beau) realized that I just moved the alpha Jester's feet away from Gator. Jester realized that maybe, just maybe he was not the alpha in this herd at the moment. MOM WAS! OH MY GOODNESS!! HUGE CHANGE in the entire herd. Gator came up and stood right behind me with his head at my shoulder to say "let's get after Jester!" or "way to go MOM, thanks for taking care of me!" Jester became an obedient soul. All of this from a fan twirl of a rope, and a protect my space and my horse's space attitude! Isn't this stuff grand! Great lesson today with Kendra DeKay. Short note here basically for myself to remember.
If my horse Jester ramroad's me (I see the previous word is not a word - oh well) and runs over me to wherever... At this point it was into the door of the horse trailer looking for treats. If his energy is a HUGE blow me off and charges there, I MATCH that energy with the correction to back him up or HQ him. I do not start out with a soft asking. Makes sense to me. He already has the cookies so! He has learned there is no re-percussion here because my consequence that I have been giving him was a light one. So, why not????? go into the trailer get some treats - - because Mom has this light slap on the hand. EASY! PEASY! No more, my dear Jester.... I now know I can match that "ramroad" and back you up. Then, you ask again for him to maybe "walk" past that entrance of the trailer. I am not suppose to try to correct him to not go in there. I only correct if he starts to turn in there. If the turn is soft, my actions are the three phase of one - two - three. Jester got this on the first try. Amazing. Not happy though! This is the first part of my subject line. Matching the energy. Second, is the Patterns. He has learned a "pattern." This is a negative "pattern." There are positives ones too (like the HQ). So, then we worked on alphaness. By putting a bowl of grain down between him and me. Me asking him to back up from the grain and give me "good ears." When he did, he got to eat a few grains. Then, you ask him to back up again. Really, cool. Trailer loading was fun. Jester has this mastered though and was eager to investigate the trailer. This is a good thing to do. Especially, with a green horse. Since Jester isn't a green horse, it was OK, but then let's get to our business. He was so intelligent! Smart, a great trailer dude! Thank you Kendra My instructor Kendra Dekay is helping me with the lateral flexion of my horse Jester. Apparently, Jester is learning just a green horse what this means. Getting the flexion on the ground with then translate into the saddle when I ask him to turn, or do the
hind quarter. Below, I will post a link to some of the lesson where we worked on this! He is getting smarter every day!  My lesson last week was with Beau. I wanted Kendra to meet Beau and Guinness to see where they are in their lessons. I meant for her and I to only spend a few minutes with each horse, then go on to Jester. We ended up spending the entire time with Beau. It was really good. It started with me driving him into the middle area pasture then towards the arena. He kept turning in (like Jester). But, it wasn't LIKE Jester. His turning in was fear problems. Saying, "I am not so sure I want to leave my herd." She talked about reading the horse here and his emotions. She had me HQ him then. Then, she had me go backwards with him towards where he was comfortable (driving him there) then turn around and go again. She stressed how since he has the fear (packing the suitcase syndrome) that he needs to know he can move his feet. That I should not MAKE him go forward. To let him know he can move his feet, and give him the opportunity to say "no." This gives him more confidence in me. We did finally make it to the arena. He was pretty good with his transitions on the line, and his HQ was really good. I then showed her what he does when I take him off the line at Liberty. This is where he gallops off like a loon. He did this. But, she said he isn't galloping off in fear here. He is galloping off and saying "I don't have to listen to you" attitude. She then said that the way to repair this is by having the horse move around the arena and not letting him turn in to me. Because, this then makes it his idea, he owns his feet. So, every time he would stop, she made me resend him for a total of three laps. He galloped at each lap. I didn't ask for galloping he was doing this. By the end of the lesson you could see that a lightbulb kind of went off in his head. Like, "I think it is more fun to be with mom than me running around like a crazed guy." A lot easier too. Kendra said this will help in the saddle and his bolting. At the end of the lesson, and when I had his full attention I asked him into me. He then followed me everywhere in the arena. The next day I took him back to the arena. Did ground work and then let him loose at liberty. I had to ask him to move off. He did at a WALK. Then, he started to trot for for maybe five seconds then back at a walk and made his circle around me HALF of the arena (his idea) and kept an eye on me asking to come in. I guess it worked. :O
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