AboutApril Reeves Expertise Horseman's U.com. Level 3 English/Western/Jumping Instructor. Ask me questions regarding training, colt starting, handling, care and feeding, plus the disciplines of Western (reining, flat, show), English (Hunter/jumper, flat, dressage, show) breeds, recreation (trail, ring work) ground work and Natural Horsemanship (handling, manners, trailering) and problem horses. Visit my site: Horseman's U.com - you'll find lots of training videos and useful information. Watch for my clinic dates for 2009 - I may be in your area!
Experience April Reeves is a Level 3 English/Western/Jumping Instructor and has been in the Horse Industry since 1963. She has shown almost every breed and discipline along the West Coast of North America. Watch for April's 2009 Clinic Schedule - she may be in your area in 2009.
Organizations Certified Horseman's Association, Horse Council
Education/Credentials EQUINE: studied under Rick and Jennifer Maynard (H/J), Patricia Deptford (Dressage), Kevin Pole, Morgan Libbert (reining). Hundreds of clinics, including Al Dunning and George Morris.
Question Hera is Friesian mare that foaled again on Saturday morning 17 October 2009. She shares accommodations on our private farm near Pretoria, South Africa, with some Hanovarian warmblood stallions, a thoroughbred brood mare and some Friesian stallions (Apollo and Achilles, the former having sired the new foal 'Jupiter'. We bought Hera as a well-mannered but bright juvenile. In the 3 years with us she has turned nasty. She kicks, challenges and bights. Her ears are permanently back on her head. Now that the foal is about she is worse. Compared to our thoroughbred who foaled the previous week, Hera even makes access to her foal problematic. Saddle her though, as she is a well mannered and safe ride, even on outrides. Hera has NEVER been poorly treated and our horses live in pristine conditions with the best care. What do you suggest we do?
Answer Answer from April Reeves, Horseman’s U.com: Your problem is common, and of no fault to you or Hera. It’s just that horses and humans think entirely different. You are about to learn to think like a horse.
Horses have no idea that they have it good (according to human’s standards). All they know is that they feel urges to move even though they may be confined; they desire to hang out together, even though they are paddocks apart. They are guided by habit and instinct, and will travel many miles in one night when left in the wild. We can feed them, house them, groom them and comfort them, but they are still living in the wild, in their heads.
To them, you are just another horse, a bit funny looking and smelly perhaps, but no less a herd member. Because they have elaborate pecking orders that change continually, you, the human, will need to be on your toes and stay on the top of that order.
Hera is exercising her place in the herd on the ground with you. Humans do not realize how valuable this place is, for we see our place in the saddle, and don’t realize that they are two very distinctly different places. Horses don’t. Everything starts on the ground. Somewhere in this relationship, you have let your place slide by not matching her aggression towards you.
In your herd of 2, you must maintain herd dominance at all times. When one mare approaches another, there is posturing and manipulation. The winner gets to move the other horse’s feet. Usually they pin their ears and swing their head, or lift a leg to kick. If things get really bad, the lesser horse will get hurt if it does not obey. That lesser horse is you.
Learning groundwork with horses is one of the most rewarding things you will do, as it will help you through every issue that comes up with any horse, and will establish your position in the herd very quickly. With the correct timing and approach, you can re-establish your position quickly with Hera (an hour or less). Although I will be sending this in an article, I will guide you to video you can watch, as your body language and timing are important.
First, I will send you an excerpt from my blog on groundwork. These exercises will take a bit of work to get the timing down, but they are simple enough to get you through some of the challenges you have with Hera.
Groundwork is the foundation of all the other things we ask from our horses, including this. Good groundwork done previously would have prevented the horse from getting dangerous and challenging.
For now, let’s start with these exercises.
It’s important to purchase and keep the following equipment. These tools can be used with any breed or discipline. A trainer is only as good as his/her tools:
Rope Halters
Traditional halters have a nice elegant look to them and are easy to put on a horse. Unfortunately, some horses tend to pull against them and drag their handlers around, as the wide bands of leather (or nylon) are almost comfortable for a horse.
Rope halters are generally made of soft round rope, all neatly tied into a halter that you tie up instead of buckling. Done up properly, they are easy to untie should the horse pull back in one, and there are no buckles to rust out or break. They come in another variety that has several knots in the nose, and a bit stiffer rope, for the really ‘bad boys’. They don’t need oiling to keep them soft, and can be washed.
Their function is to create pressure and ask a horse to pay attention and listen. They take the place of having to resort to nose chains, lip chains and other various ways to dress up a traditional halter to maintain control. They are very difficult to break should a horse get hung up in it, so never put a horse out with one on. They are NOT to be used when teaching a horse to tie for the first time, or to be used when trailering.
Rope halters work on the horse through pressure around the poll area and the nose. The thinner strand of rope is soft enough to not burn a horse, but small enough to allow more direct pressure points. When in use, it asks the horse to “pay attention and listen” without causing anxiety or abuse, as opposed to painful methods such as lip chains. Pressure teaches; pain builds resentment.
You may want to try one on your horse and see what you think. Rope halters are used by English and Western trainers, as many disciplines are finding the value in their simple design. (There is a good “halter tying” article on my blog under Natural Horsemanship – ”I ride English. Do I need a rope halter and how to tie it?”)
Lead Rope and Horseman’s Stick
You will need a soft rope no shorter than 12 feet.
The Horseman’s stick is valuable as it is durable and won’t bend like a traditional whip will, and it has a ‘tail’ end of rope that also aids in teaching.
The horse you lead is the horse you ride.
You are going to get your horse to be compliant in these areas:
1. Lead without pushing you or getting into your space
2. Stand quietly away from you without reacting to external stimuli
3. Keep both eyes on you attentively
4. No fear of being touched or handled anywhere
5. No vices such as biting, kicking, rearing or head bouncing
Standing Quietly
Here is an exercise you can start in the aisle way of a barn.
Stand the horse in an aisle and face him. Keep your lead loose, and tap the whip/stick rhythmically on the ground for a few seconds, on front of his chest.
If he backs up at all, stop and tell him he’s good in a quiet voice. Continue, and praise him for the smallest try.
If he does nothing, tap the whip in 3 stages, softly, asking him to back up, for about 6 taps, then tapping harder and close to his chest, with the intention that he had better back or else, and if this does nothing, it’s time to connect. Tap him with intention and firmness once on the chest between his legs. Mean it. Do it and when he startles and backs, keep the lead soft (no pulling what so ever) follow him and stand and look at him for about 5 seconds.
If he runs back and wonders what hit him, just let him back, staying soft with the lead line, no pulling, letting it out as he moves back, and stand very quietly. Let him blow on his own; it will teach him to take responsibility.
Then repeat. Keep repeating until you only have to tap the ground and he responds.
Now take this lesson outside and test it. This exercise gets him to pay attention to you by keeping two eyes on you all the time in anticipation of your next ‘question’ to him.
I really like this exercise and it is the first I often do with horses who generally don’t have anything really ‘bad’ about them. When you do stand quietly, let the rope rest on the ground with you holding the end, as this is the prelude to ground tying.
I also like to start in a barn aisle as the horse has to face you and pay attention.
Leading Exercises
These exercises help with keeping horses out of your space, respecting your speed, keeping up and general obedience.
Leading against the fence
Take your horse out along the side of a fence and with rope in one hand and stick in the other, letting the ‘tail’ drag along behind you, ask him to move with you and stay at your hand, not in front of you or behind you (rope is in the hand by his head, stick is in the opposite hand) If he lags behind, flick the tail of the stick behind you as a lead mare would flick her tail at a lazy herd member. Move at a reasonable pace. If he gets in front of you, use the stick in front of him to ask him to stay back. Keep your hand up at his eye, with the palm of your hand facing the horse. This asks him to stay out of your space while you walk along. As you get better with this you can keep your hand lower. I like to hold my hand in a ‘leading gesture’ – just below their eye and in front of it, once the horse understands to keep their distance. If the horse moves into your hand, keep it firmly in place by the eye and pulse your hand in rhythm. The horse will have no interest in hitting your hand.
Always work both sides. Two eyes, two horses (don’t buy another horse, just work the two you already own). Work one side first and get it down fairly well before moving to the other side. The fence line keeps your horse beside you. Do not use your hands to move the horse around; always use your stick. Horses move into pressure from your hands pushing them. If the horse gets into your space, bring your hand up to his eye and if he continues to move into you, ‘pulse’ your hand rhythmically near his eye without hitting him. If he does continue to move into your space, you will have to use your hand in rhythm and let him run into it. Horses seem to know the difference when they run into things and when a human hurts them. By allowing the horse to run into you, you set him up to learn to be responsible for his own actions.
It’s important to practice the ‘pulsing’ with your hand. It is a continuous, same speed of movement; don’t increase your hand speed if the horse gets pushy. Keep the same rhythm and speed in a moderate pulse.
Whenever you are performing any movements for training, don’t increase them if the horse doesn’t get it right away. It’s like going from talking to yelling. If you want the horse to listen a whisper, quit shouting. Continue exactly what you are doing until the horse gets it, then quit the second the horse gives you the slightest inclination to do what you are asking.
The Squeeze
Another exercise is a ‘squeeze’. Ask him to walk in between two barrels. Keep them far apart for now, but gradually decrease the space until he has to squeeze between them. Do not pressure him to do this; go about it slowly until he is comfortable with the process of having both barrels hit his sides as he moves through. This gets the horse over the claustrophobic issues they encounter, and builds trust that you will not put them in harm’s way. There is always a way through.
You can also back him through the barrels also, using the first method above that you did in the aisle way, to tap the stick and ask him to move backwards through the barrels (again, another test for obedience and submission).
An advanced exercise with barrels is to lay them on their side, and split them for the horse to walk through. Slowly bring them together as the horse gets confidence, and eventually you can join them and jump them on the line. Go slow with this and don’t force the horse over the barrels until his confidence is there.
Sending Exercise
This is one of my favorite exercises and I use it extensively when horses begin to lose their brain. It’s called a sending exercise, and the point of it is to keep their feet moving and to tire them out a bit to encourage their thinking brain to kick in (horses use instinct first for survival; it’s up to us to teach and encourage them to use their thinking brain).
Its roots are similar to longeing but there are some subtle differences in how you apply the techniques.
To begin, stand still and ask him to move away from you to the left. Take your left hand and hold it out away from you to the left, little finger to the sky, elbow straight, guiding him, through the halter pressure, gently away from you. Most people pull on the halter towards them, tipping the horse in and guiding the horse in towards them. Be careful how your body movements speak to the horse. Move slow but deliberately, not letting him run into you (you move the horse’s feet, not the other way around). Keep using this technique until he gets it, and when he makes the effort to walk to the left, let the rope out, soften and stay quiet (do not move your feet). You will have to start this exercise on a smaller circle so that you are close enough for the horse to ‘feel’ the pressure to one side. Once he begins to understand, change directions often, asking him to go left and right about every 1 1⁄2 times around. This is called ‘moving the feet’ and the purpose of this exercise is to create leadership and get the thinking part of his brain engaged.
If he gets moving too fast, pull him in and redirect him the other way. Never let him move your feet. Never let him stop and hang out. Eventually he will understand that he needs to conserve his energy and begin with quiet demeanor. This is another one of those lessons that can take time. Just start with a quiet gesture to move out, let him respond by moving out where you suggest, feed him some line and stay quiet with your feet. If he is fairly calm, reward him by letting him stand and ‘soak’ once in a while. Never wind a horse. It will sour them and turn them apprehensive about training and learning. If he has had a rather energetic time trying this exercise, and he is breathing hard, let him stand and catch his breath before starting up again.
To get a horse to stay out at first, you need to become ‘large’. Bring your hands up higher and bring up your energy to match the challenge. Never let a horse move your feet. If they come in too close and crowd me, I hold the stick out, and let them run into it with their shoulder or ribcage. It they posture you with their hindquarter, use the stick to spank it away from you. This is the advantage of a Horseman’s stick; it is stronger and not as flexible, and when you tip it into the ribcage of a horse, they are going to move from it quickly, as they can’t bend it.
It’s valuable to practice how to lift and lead the rope. Have another person at the horse end holding the rope and keeping their eyes closed. Lift and lead and have the person move one step to where you are sending them. This will help you to gain ‘feel’ in what you are doing. If the person moves toward you, it’s a signal you are not moving the horse away either. Keep your hand out and to the side. Change places with the other person and see just how subtle the ‘feel’ is to a horse.
These are basic introductory exercises; if your horses is not ‘behaving too badly’, they should be done every day and before riding. I do these daily with a few of the more aggressive horses I ride as I always want to know that the horse on the ground is paying attention and using the thinking side of his brain. For my more sensitive horses, I still do groundwork, but it’s more in the style of flexing and bending than obedience.
These exercises will help you establish a better relationship with Hera, and are easy to start with. I don’t think it will take you long to get her back to being easy to work around. Being a mare, she may never be a happy horse with ears up all the time, but if you can make her a safe mare, that is all you can ask for.
I am glad that she is a good saddle horse, but that is typical of Friesians. They make splendid saddle mounts, and have great endurance and power. Usually the horse on the ground is the horse you ride, as manners on the ground repeat themselves under saddle. Remember, you are simply herding the horse from the saddle when you ride. If they don’t respect you on the ground, it’s likely you won’t get respect above either. Hera sounds like a wonderful mare.
Since she has a new baby, you might want to spend time with the foal. If foals are left without handling, they often acquire the mother’s attitudes and manners. Since Hera is a boss mare, she could pass on this attitude to her baby.
It sounds like you have a nice farm in Africa. I have not been to Africa yet, but maybe in the future I will be inspired to teach and put on clinics there.
I hope this helps and if you need further assistance do not hesitate to email back. Thank you for choosing me as your online helper,
