A meeting with Stella

I met Stella at a horse clinic at Lancefield. Liz, her owner and I, had spoken on the phone a week before. Stella was a four year old Clydesdale Thoroughbred cross and a relatively new horse for Liz. When we spoke, Liz volunteered that Stella was sometimes difficult to catch, reticent when float loading, not easy to put a head collar on and although in the past she had been handled with ropes, she was untrusting of their use. But Liz's major concern was that Stella would not enter the unfamiliar area of the indoor arena in which the clinic was to be held. As we chatted, I could feel that Liz was starting to think that while she had thought it was a good idea to take Stella, the reality of actually getting her there and the difficulty she might prove to be, were starting to sound all too hard. After a moments silence, Liz ventured perhaps I can bring her paddock mate instead. At which point I heard myself say, well if Stella will load with her paddock mate, then why not bring them both?

To my surprise, my meeting with Stella occurred least where I expected. In the arena. I remember thinking "How good is that. Stella has just punched through one of her barriers".  But as Liz approached and handed me Stella the world changed. On the end of the lead rope, I found that Liz had handed over 500kg of bouncing muscle displaying flared nostrils, bulging unseeing white eyes and a high pitch neighing that was repeatedly tearing at my eardrums. All this while Stella attempted to barge into me and push me out of the way. In fact, Stella wasn't even thinking of me, she didn't even register me in her life except that I was attached to her lead rope which caused her body to circle me.

When you have a horse on the end of a lead rope and it is acting like this it can be frightening and often people think "This horse is not listening to me, it is not respecting me", so they firm up to get the horse's attention. While this may be right in certain situations it is also important to think of what is happening in the horse's mind. Stella's behaviour was a reaction to something that was happening in her world. So before I reacted I felt that I needed to consider "Life from Stella's point of view".  A horse is a herd animal and as Kerry Thomas relates in his life's work on Herd Dynamics, "You can take the horse out of the herd, but you can't take the herd out of the horse".  So, what was happening for Stella? She had travelled to the clinic with her herd buddy and now she was being separated. In the herd situation horses rely on each other to assess their environment for threats to their safety. In other words, they rely on each other to assess and filter information and answer questions like..."Is it OK?". When you take a horse away from its herd, no matter how big or small the herd, you deny them the ability to check out and receive information about the safety or threats in their environment. We were bringing Stella into a new and unfamiliar environment crowded with the predatory eyes of fence sitters focusing on her. Stella was under threat. She had no one to outsource to and double check with. She was desperate to rejoin her herd buddy to restore her connection for help.

What could I have done? I could have become big in the hope of dominating her spirit or I could have stood quietly until she understood that there was a place of peace with me. I chose none of these. I chose to walk her back to her herd. With each step towards her paddock pal, her breathing eased as did her activity. She began to relax. I gave her a short break next to her friend before walking her back to the center of the arena where she began to be agitated again. So, I walked her back to her herd. I repeated this a number of times, each time asking a little more of her in the arena before drifting back to her buddy. It was not long before Stella became relaxed leaving and then returning to work with me. In a short time, I was able to ask her to follow the soft feel of the lead rope, circle me, change direction and follow a soft feel the other way. 

At sessions end, Stella and Liz left the arena together in a very quiet and relaxed manner. As they walked away, they were followed by a heartfelt ovation. The change in Stella had been amazing.

Liz and I talked after the session. I suggested that to assist in overcoming Stella's anxiety, that she begin to work with Stella in ways that Stella would see her as a herd substitute, someone she could out source her environmental assessment to. We discussed taking Stella out on "Adventures", places where Stella would meet new challenges. These could be walks into any unfamiliar area where Stella would need to take in information, process it and then react. If Stella stopped or baulked that was ok. I encouraged Liz to give Stella time to assess the new thing. Liz's reaction would be very important here. If Stella was to baulk she was not to increase pressure or pull, rather to maintain pressure like a wharf post that a boat is moored to.  The wharf post does not move or pull it waits for the boat to come towards it and pressure on the rope is released. This way pressure is not added to a situation where Stella is trying to work out if something is a threat. If you prove to your horse that you can be trusted to both protect them and also allow time for processing information, then trust will develop. When this trust is established, your horse is in effect giving you herd status and out sourcing to you. Your horse will ask "Is it OK?" and when you respond appropriately a lot of those anxiety issues will melt away.

So why is it that I tell this story? It is not to impress you, rather to impress upon you. That one of the things that we need to appreciate is the impact the herd plays in the lives of our horses. If we appreciate the pull of the herd, then we can begin to use that knowledge to help our horse move through a world that has so many challenges. 

A week after the clinic I spoke to Liz and she reported that Stella has been more relaxed to work with, is not worried by ropes and is going softly onto the float.

Stella is proof of the important impact of the herd bond and how we can work with it, rather than against it.   

Post Script

I received a progress report recently from Liz, which I have included...

"She is now a different horse and comes running to me to be caught, it was fantastic to win her trust and become “herd”. I put this down to exposing her to a very big situation and you encouraging her to relax and feel comfortable in there [arena]. After you handed her back and I continued that process of walking back to her buddy, then walking off again, she seemed to "allow "me into her herd. Fabulous result, thanks again."