Can't Fool a Horse

They know what you know, and they know what you don't know.. .. and that keeps us honest.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

and the horse, a simple creature, who's purpose is to survive and breed,  knows this.   We have to earn their trust and with it comes willingness.

Playing and Learning.

I love watching the foals and youngsters playing, and today was one of those moments where I managed to see the yearling chasing the foal, chased by two year old and all watched by the 10 month colt.  The mothers just carried on munching on the haylage bales, as these three just went round and round, looped down to the next bale and back again, out across the field and out of sight.  The yearling could obviously out run the foal but didn't, and the two year old could out run them all and didn't.  Back they ran later,  easing off the pace as through the overgrown hedge (natural made squeeze game)  and over the stream.   The herd offers comfort and protection, a safe environment to learn respect and manners, giving rise to confidence, trust, bonding and inquisitiveness and people wonder why I don't wean.  The best lessons are taught and learnt in the herd, far better than any of us can teach, and less stress all round.

Never thought that would happen

Hooray, got the inquisitive back into the youngster we bought in, never thought that would happen.   It had been knocked out along with confidence and trust.   How did we get it back? Well, not sure for certain, time being a horse with no pressure and trust started, I guess.   Anyway Inquisitive is very very good, training will be easier, and  confidence will grow.
Rule number one, never knock the inquisitive out of a youngster, or a horse of any age for that matter.  Learn to recognise what inquisitive is and work with it.

What kind of a Relationship ?

It's an important question to ask, what kind of a relationship do we want with a horse.  Whatever kind of relationship we desire, we have to earn it, and the horse will wait patiently for us to arrive at it.  He will reflect and react according to our behaviour, and it's not always what we desire.

Every move I make, counts

The horse watches everything all the time, every move I make, the horse is aware of my good and bad actions and reactions.  In whatever shape or form I behave around my horses they are absorbing this.

p.s.

our horses have horse brains

When my horse / human relationship words change

 I started with using words such as "respect and space", then "trust", I think, "you trust me, I trust you".  "Non-confrontational" was another. " It's not a contest".  "Offering a way out",  was a good one.  "Patience", that always stays with me. "Allowing time", "time to learn", "time to heal", "time to absorb", "time to settle"," time to grow", "time to be a horse".
 My words keep changing,  and that's good, it means I am learning, and we are all engaging in a better relationship.

Never

Never ever ever, miss the opportunity to stroke a youngster ...

Keep your anger out of horse training

Firstly working with the horse is not a contest.  If you aren't communicating with the horse and getting cross,  you may have come to the end of your knowledge.  If you get cross you won't teach the horse anything, and he won't be able to learn.  When angry (or fearful) you become ungrounded and out of control, the horse will feel this and respond accordingly.  Listen to what the horse is teaching you at this point and see if you can fill that gap.  Stop and take some time out to think.  Just quietly keep searching for the way forward.  Keep your ego and anger out of it. 

Grounded

It is important to stay grounded when working with your horse. If your energy is not calm he will intuitively pick up on this 

A horse...

A horse is a horse, respect that and give it room, thats what they do to each other, they give each other space

Living is Learning

I should have trusted my intuition, but didn’t.  I brushed my gut instincts aside, and shouldn’t. I have learnt …. again.  The only thing which surprises me, is that once again I am surprised. 

Gut Feeling

Intuition is an immediate thought without the use of rational processes

Sometimes known as a “hunch” or “a gut feeling,”  intuition is a perceptive insight or just a sense, we have been born with, which over time we have chosen either to trust or not.   Trusting your intuition, for which there is no scientific validation is very difficult. It’s easy to allow doubt and reason to step in. 

Learning how to give credence to an unexplained thought, which comes almost from nowhere, yet is very powerful, is tough to get your head around. Start small and this will help give you confidence to recognize that what you are hearing or feeling is correct. Our intuitive mind has access to a seemingly unlimited supply of information, including information that we have not learnt from experiences in life.  As we learn to go with our intuition the more plausible the concept becomes.   

What exactly is intuition and how can we all use it to our benefit.  We all have this ability to be intuitive, and like anything we do in life, the more we are aware of it, and the more we use it, the easier it becomes.  Most successful people are using their intuition without knowing it, they trust their gut feeling and use it to their advantage.  Animals however do not suffer our dilemma, they are born with it and have maintained it. 

Does this resonates with you?

When you care for your horses and you know their quirky little ways and behaviour.  

When you have stood in the field or at the window and watched. 

When you have been there through pregnancy and foaling.

When they depend upon you for food and care, you know them and you know when something is wrong.   Why can’t others respect this, and may be, just may be big enough to  accept that you know your animals, be it a horse or dog.  

As animal carers we grow and learn with experience and this experience counts for a lot, we also have the world and knowledge at our finger tips now and this helps us keep up to date, learning from the experience and opinions of others. 

And we have our intuition, our gut feeling. 

So give new things a chance ....

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.  

Arthur Scopenhauer  

Natural

Natural refers to what happens in the horses natural world … We cannot deduce what is natural for horses in a domestic environment

Horse Communicator

Just had a catch up call with a friend and she said I can call myself a horse communicator …. thx Tina … she also said I can call myself weird !!!  thx  for that as well Tina

Focus

Allow your horse time to touch new objects with his nose … His focus isn’t as sharpe as ours. He may hesitate at something new and this is the reason. Also he may perceive shadows on the ground as holes as he has no depth of focus … You may notice him raise his head to focus .. Allow time for this

This is my quote ...

Having problems with your horse? By helping one of you, we naturally help the other … 

Please feel free to quote me .....lol

What level ?

How can you evaluate a horseman, when they are further along than you? Watch them ride, and note their horse’s softness and willingness.

Engage the Brain

When training is rich and varied,  the horse  engages mentally, and that will be  enough to hold his interested. 

My horse has a short attention span ?

Prey animals survive by paying attention all the time.   He has just found something else more interesting to do.  Does that make you boring ? 

What is Natural Horsemanship?

We are trying to define what is and isn’t natural; and what does and doesn’t belong in “Natural Horsemanship.” I don’t know who came up with this term, or what their intent behind the term was. However, to truly understand the phrase, we must first understand the words within the phrase.

The word “natural” is derived from the word “nature”. Nature consists of many different opposing forces that create the whole cycle: life and death, growth and destruction, serenity and upheavals, love and violence, splendor and distress, contentment and fear.

On one hand, nature can be very cruel. For example, watch a mountain lion stalk and kill a fawn. It doesn’t make any of us feel very warm and content inside, yet it does make us feel very respectful, very small, and in awe of the whole of nature. Does the fact that the lion (in this case) killed the fawn make him wrong or evil? In nature’s eyes neither the lion nor the fawn is good or evil, or right or wrong. They both play their part and neither one feels sorry for himself or remorse for the other. Life does not exist without death. Growth cannot happen without upheavals. It is all just a cycle; a cycle called nature.

On the other hand, nature is our guiding light; nature is the all-knowing. It is something that a few mere words can’t define, but we are all born with a softness and wisdom deep within ourselves; this is our nature, and every living-breathing creature here on earth is born with it.

The word “horsemanship” broken down is horse-man-relationship. Thus, horsemanship means the horse and the man in the process of building a relationship. This is a very significant meaning that is often overlooked.

The building of any meaningful relationship consists of trust, respect, love, equality, two-way communication, listening, and growing. These things are the backbone and foundation of what we should be trying to develop with the horse. If we look at it as though we are “training” the horse, we lack the depth in understanding we could have in building a relationship with the horse. Putting the horse in a training program is not natural to the horse, but building a relationship is.

“Natural Horsemanship” is a term that can make us feel good about ourselves; it gives us a sense of being right. We think that we are doing things the correct way because we are doing it “natural.” If we are just going through the motions, however, we are still doing things mechanically. We have no feel to offer the horse because we are not feeling our true nature and the horse knows this, so he can’t completely trust us. Whatever it is we are asking of the horse he may do, but he won’t do it as freely as he could if we were to ask him from a place of feeling from our nature; this is something he can understand and respond to in a much softer manner.

A lot of the problems we encounter with our horses come from our lack of understanding our own true nature as well as theirs. We as human beings have stepped so far away from our true nature that many of us can’t even comprehend that we are even a part of nature’s cycle. We see ourselves as something much more important than this. This is something that is very unnatural. If we want to locate and feel nature, there is no better place to start than by doing a little soul-searching deep within ourselves. We can learn about our true nature by observing the horse, for he lives by listening to his nature.

He lives by feel, and feel is an intuitive response encompassing all of our senses to any given situation from moment to moment.

“Natural Horsemanship,” in the way I think of it, is not a method; it is a feel, a way of thinking, and a way of being. If we are to be successful with our horses in a natural way, we must become more aware of what feeling of them means and listen to our own true nature. Throughout the process of developing a relationship, it is helpful to remember that there will be times of contentment and times of upheaval that will envelope all of nature’s cycle. However, if a person is working on building a relationship with the horse while discovering himself or herself, the upheavals will truly be just a time of growth for us as well as for the horse.

Written by Clay Wright