When I Listen To Horses

  There comes a time when you are training a horse that you have no other option. You just have to pull the trigger and hope that all goes according to plan. I have been working with Domino an 8 year old unhandled mare. We started our work together in a gentle way. I would feed and water her in the morning and clean out her yard. As she became familiar with the routine, she soon became confident that I was not a threat and would move off the fence and investigate me as I was mucking out or feeding. It was not long before she initiated first contact and I was able rub her all over, something she began to really enjoy. With our relationship developing I introduced the rope halter into the morning ritual of a body rub. I was so pleased as she became accepting of my touch with the halter. Perhaps this initial success made me over confident with respect how she was feeling about being handled. With the halter rubbing going so well I began to advance and retreat   over and aroun...

  As people come down the driveway, they often shoot a sideways glance at this piece of wood log art work and ask not only “What is it?” but “Why is it there?” It is my attempt to work with the mind set of those horses who are just starting under saddle. So often people have trouble in the early stages under saddle because riders find the horses appears reluctant to leave home or it wonders off and we seem to always be working to keep them on track. In the early stages of educating a young horse I do a lot of in hand work or working from the ground. Walks up the driveway and into the surrounding bushland become regular adventures for the young horses as they develop their confidence in dealing with the depth of their new surroundings. These adventures are used as opportunities to reinforce and rehearsals for already acquired skills. We walk, stop, trot, we do walk trot transitions up and down. We use the spacing between the trees down the driveway to practice inside and outsi...

I wasn’t scared of my grandfather’s horse. I was fascinated, and awed by its presence. In a flash, I was swept up in strong arms and thrown onto the back of the liver chestnut thoroughbred named Gay Lad. As that four year old, I remember looking down and seeing my beaming smile reflected in the faces of both my father and grandfather. So began my journey with horses. In the ensuing years, the journey became a period of strengthening bursts, like my time at university learning from a very accomplished young rider, to periods of drought when my links to horses felt like a gossamer thread of past memories and my career in education and agriculture took hold.   My horse journey was to take a positive turn when my children went to Pony Club. I watched as they were exposed to different instructors. It was frustrating for the children (and me) as the training and education seemed to lack consistency. The instruction was leading to confusion not only for my children but also the horses...

  Neo was a mistake. Born the result of an accidental paddock mating. The only male among four fillies born from the same situation. Perhaps Neo was bound to be different growing up surrounded by female company. He has always been inquisitive, yet not one to push himself forward. Quite often as a youngster he could be found grazing by himself. He is one of those horses who enjoys the company of both horses and people, but it would be easy to say that he has the confidence of one who belongs to himself. At three years old he has come into the yards from being with his gelding paddock mates. Time to start some basic education. The separation from his peers was a non-event. Neo settled down to the routine of feeding in the yard while I cleaned up his pen, refilled his hay net and refreshed his water. When I entered his space, he would always break off from his feed to come over, sniff my outstretched hand as a ‘Horseman’s handshake’, ask for a quick rub and then relax back to a ha...

I am so grateful Ruby Rose came into my life. But there was a time when I so wished our paths hadn’t crossed. A client came to select four mares for her breeding program. Ruby Rose was one of these. She was an eight year old Appaloosa that had spent all of her life running with a mob of 20 to 30 brood mares. She was unhandled. Part of the contract of sale was to have the mares float trained so that they could be floated rather than free trucked. Like my dad says,” If there are 4 screws to be removed from a piece of timber, then one of them is likely to prove difficult.” My float training seemed to parallel the same story. Three mares were a trainer’s dream to work with. Ruby not so. But as I began to think about it, I accepted full responsibility for my total lack of progress. I should have thought of the old saying “Same, same, Different”.  While Ruby was a horse the same as other horses, her experiences, her herd status, her limited interaction with humans and a million other thi...

 As I worked with my twelve-year-old Appaloosa this morning, I became aware that at one point we were not understanding each other. When this happens, I believe it is critical to listen to what the horse is trying to tell us. They want us to understand things from their point of view. So, we have to try our best to work out where we may be confusing them. Can we break it down into smaller bite size bits or can we present the idea in a different way? It is so important to try rather than repeatedly bludgeoning on in the same manner, otherwise if we don't listen, the horse's voice will get louder. Bucking, rearing running away, freezing and rising frustration can result and that is not the way to build our relationship with our horse. I am reminded of a comment from Leslie Desmond when she said. "How important is a 'Yes', when 'No' has no value. Really listening is an important part of communication and leads to building any relationship.