What food tells me about a horse

Once upon a time before I understood the relevance of food exercises with horses, I merely gave my horses treats whenever I wanted or just avoided food when it became an issue.

Upon learning the Carolyn Resnick's Waterhole Rituals, I became very aware of what an important area this was to work with.

As I began working more appropriately with food, I found ways to incorporate it into all types of exercises.

Let's start with simple ideas like how horses move each other around food to show leadership and rank when we drop multiple piles of hay, they will move each other around those piles. Sometimes people think it is mean or random but it is natural behavior amongst horses.

When I observe horses eating together it can tell me who is food oriented and who is not, who are buddies (they will share food), and what the general rank is in the herd.

When I have very little time to build rapport with a horse during session, I will use food or treats to get a feel for a horses' character. If I offer a horse food and he is stand offish, that tells me something about how he feels about me or people. If I offer a horse food and he tries to grab it or get pushy with me, that tells me about that horse. With the pushy horse, I know I have an opportunity to start shaping boundaries and that let's me start a natural flow to the relationship. I will spend more time with the shy horse trying to grow their trust until they are comfortable with me.

Another way I use food, is as a measure of how much a horse is set against something. For example if I am going to try to use food as a motivation to encourage a horse to do something more challenging, like step toward water and he wont take it. That tells me he is not ready to do the task. This is not to be confused with coaxing. It is meant to be a reward that is given for a good effort. (see videos below, horses are allowed to choose interaction with the exercise and leave if they want at any time).

When I travel with horses to new places, The grazing exercises combined with Eye Contact are invaluable. If I unload my horse from the trailer or have him at a new place with lots of stimulating activity going on, asking my horse to keep an eye on me and then giving permission to graze is a really good way to reward and gain focus. Once I have focus, I can keep the lines of connection and communication open between me and my horse.

Here is a video playlist of how I used treat games to work with clippers with several horses at Liberty and one in particular who refused to be clipped and was quite dangerous. I am also employing the very effective Monkey see-Monkey do approach by working with several horses at once and employing a couple that are comfortable with clipping. Enjoy!
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Beach: part 2

Here is part 2 of my beach adventure with Mercury. Enjoy!
Click here to go to Beach: Part 2 video
http://fdhvirtualclinic.com/view?q=5113155553053.flv&playlist=1

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Going to the Beach: Part 1

Lots of smiles that day!

Well, I finally got to the beach and it was super fun and a great experience for Mercury and I!

If you didn't know, I have had Mercury since he was a yearling and there was time when he would not set foot in water. Not even a puddle. Working with water can be an important element to any discipline, even the casual trail rider may have to cross a puddle or small creek. It's also important in that it's a good trust exercise and horses sometimes need to be hosed or stand in water for medical reasons.

When I approach anything more challenging with any horse I have to keep a close watch on it being a Trust making or Trust taking exercise. I have seen many approaches that look a lot like bullying under the guise of "Training". This video was inspired by many things but one was a video I saw a while ago on getting a horse to go in the water at the beach. It looked neither fun nor a good experience for either horse or rider. It got me thinking. Here is Part 1 of the videos of our beach experience. Enjoy!
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Click here to go to Beach video link

The Grazing Game

Here is a video Inspired by Carolyn Resnick's Grass exercises. This is an immensely helpful and important exercise. It takes very little time to get the horse to understand and is quite a nice way to play with grass areas. See more like this at http://fdhvirtualclinic.com/ 
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Inspiration...

Mercury says palying in the snow is fun!
Look how happy he is!

At this time of year sometimes it's hard to be inspired. It's cold, the ground isn't always safe and we can't always think of things to do with all those limitations.

Well as a very creative person and someone who has not always had the perfect places to play with my horses, I have lots of ideas on what can be done to amuse, connect, and even practice some good foundation exercises which will improve things when the weather is better and you can do more.

First of all, when it's cold out, active Liberty play is a GREAT way to build connection and bond AND stay warm. It can be done virtually anywhere. If the footing is better for slow work, do that. If the footing is good for more up energy work, do that. Snow is actually quite good to work in if there is no ice layer underneath. Here is a list of exercises that can be done to keep you and your horse going!

1. Liberty Grooming: Get the rubber curry and go out in the paddock and get all the good spots. Not for cleaning purposes but for getting spots he can't reach and where another horse would groom him. If he tries to groom you back, It is up to you to how to handle this. You can gently make a boundary or allow it on your boots or chaps which is safer.

2. Leading (Herding) from Behind to Companion walking working on precise transitions and staying up at your shoulder on the Off and near sides. Off (right side) is harder and winter is a good time to practice for short periods if your horse is ready to allow that.

3. If your Companion exercises are good than try some beginner Liberty dressage movements. You could introduce Turn on the Forehand at Liberty, Side Step, and Turn on the Haunches. Also precise size and shape circles. If the footing is good try some at the trot. Spanish walk is another fun one.

4. Send and Draw at slow speeds or if the footing is good at the trot and canter.

5. Horse Yoga stretches with treats.

6. In hand work with a Halter and line or Liberty Rein. Play with Leg Yields, Turn on the Forehand, Turn on the Haunches, Side Steps, Shoulder in, and Backing up with the lightest possible Communication. This is a good time to also play with Touch Training to work on Soft communication.

7. Eye contact exercises: LOVE these they are soooo important to advanced Liberty and Focus! Excellent for spooky and distracted horses and can be done stationary or moving as you both get better at maintaining it.

So I hope these give you some ideas to play with and inspire you. It has actually been a pretty mild winter here in New England so it's been easy to work outside without too much trouble. It was 55 degrees the other day! Hope it stays that way. Have fun!
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Confident Horseman exercise part 3...Change your mind, Change your horse

Riding Mercury Bridless requires me to be completely focused on what I want to have happen and not what bad and dangerous things could happen...

I will be offering for those who want to participate, a Flower Essence mix suggestion for a new approach to dealing with fear in the horse and person. It will complement the next exercise which has 3 steps to it, is the hardest but also the most powerful.

The next part of the exercise is:

Step 1: Learn how to identify fear coming up in yourself as it starts. Then recognize the fearful or negative thoughts that follow.
Example: "Oh my horse is scared of dogs, and hear comes one" the next thought may be "oh he's going to spook and I'm going to fall off!"
So this is how the fearful mind starts to gain power or the situation.

Step 2: Recognize the the thoughts coming up and make a choice to change them to a positive thought.
Example: "I am now changing my mind about this" We are walking calmly past the dog, and nothing is going to happen" You'll note I said "we" not the horse is going to. "We" is a team, a partnership. You can add calm deep breathing to release your own fear and tension and mirror to your horse. Two other very powerful exercises is to visualize you and your horse doing exactly what you'd like. So I'd see me and my horse walking calmly past the dog together. I'd see that picture in my mind and hold it and breath. Some of you may find it nearly inpossible to not visualize a bad experience so instead, I want you to visualize something calming and soothing that may have nothing to do with that moment. Examples would be a sunset, A beach, doing yoga, a hot bath, even a glass of wine! Hold that though until you can own it and the moment has passed. This takes practice but it does become a new thought pattern with time.

Step 3: I consider an advanced exercise and a goal to set for yourselves. It involves getting to the point where you don't even get to a place of fear anymore when a possible situation arises. This is when you have mastered the power of the mind.
Example: You are riding toward the dog and you immediately send a picture of the two of you walking calmly passed the dog. In this scenario you exhibit what I call Calm Leadership. You recognize the horses concern and using positive visualization. you "Lead" your horses mind to a calm place with yours. You maintain clear focus and your horse has confidence in your Leadership and guidance. We don't want our horse to feel like he has to take over every time he is afraid because we get just as frightened as him.

One other scenario I want to talk about is "Real" fear, necessary, sensible, self preservation fear. This is the voice that says "We are in real danger and we need to get safe. That is the time to listen to your instincts and stay as clear as possible. Try to learn the difference between your gut telling you the truth and your mind taking over control of clear thinking.

As for the Flower Essence part of this. There are Essences that can help release the grip of fear and "Stuck Thinking Patterns" I am offering to help anyone who may feel they need additional help of Flower  Essences to help release a really stuck pattern in themselves and or their horse. Respond in the comments section. Let me know how your confidence is improving!
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From Fearful to Confident Horsemanship...

Mercury has been a very good teacher to me about Calm leadership , focus and clear thinking...

Carrying on the theme for the last post of using positive thought patterns and breaking stuck thinking patterns, I want to continue with more ideas for working through and past fear. We cannot be seen in a leadership position if we are mirroring fear to our horses all the time.

People often want a trainer to make the horse fearless so they can be less afraid. But at the same time we need to work on our fears because a horse will mirror back whatever you are feeling. An example is a horse being calm when I work with him because I am exhibiting Calm Leadership. This same horse can be given back to his person who is afraid and the horse begins to mirror the person he is with. Horses are in the moment with whoever they are with. Some horses are generous and confident of nature and not as bothered by a person being fearful around them. Others are too un-confident themselves to have a person be the same.

If you find yourself in this situation, It is good to start breaking down the issues into little achievable goals. The first thing to do is to get an idea of what your fears really are.

There are three fears I see when working with people. 1. I am afraid of certain things but my horse is actually quite confident. In this scenario, you are working on your own fears and your horse may actually build confidence. 2. You are afraid of your horses behavior because you have had an accident or you think you could have one with him. So you are actually afraid of your horse. 3. You are afraid and your horse is afraid as well. You both need to work together to become more confident as a team. It also ok to find another partner if it seems like a better situation for both horse and person. Sometimes this is the best option.

So if you thought about those 3 categories and thought you might fit in one, you are on your way to becoming a more Confident horseman.

The exercise is to write down a list of what exactly you are afraid of and also what you are not afraid of. Be as detailed as possible. Also write down what you would like to be able to do as a goals that you are afraid to do now. If you would like to share these lists in the comments section, please do so as we can all learn from each others experience. I will post the next step in the next post.
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Warming up and the importance of it

I would like to impress upon people the importance of simply Warming up your horse for any type of work. I don't care what discipline you ride you need to warm your horse up in what ever way seems appropriate to the individual.

I tend to address training often using simple logic and this is one of those areas. If you are working your horse at a certain level that requires any suppleness, strength, cardio, or athletic difficulty, you need to warm your horse up properly.
Some things that I will do is read my horses posture to know if my horse is ready to start more demanding work. The video shows what posture I like to have in my horse before I start to ask them to do more focused work.

Ask yourself if you went to work out or do a Yoga class, would you want to go right to a bunch of really difficult exercises cold or would you like to loosen up first and gradually get into more challenging things little by little.

Another thing to think about is how we often try to cram a horse into outlines or frames they would actually choose to take naturally if they were given a choice and a bit of time to relax into it. With no help from you. Yes, The horse would actually offer the very thing you were trying to make happen manually and too early in the ride. This could also cause undo strain and injury to a body that isn't ready to go there yet.

When it comes to arthritic and older horses it is even more important to take longer more gentle warm ups to make sure joints get plenty or blood flow to increase mobility and flexibility. These horses will stay sounder longer and work happier and more comfortably.
I have lots of things I do and they vary from horse to horse from hand walking for several minutes to mounted exercises. I have several video exercises some are more involved then others. Some are on the ground and others are mounted see below for examples.