LEARN TO LISTEN TO THE HORSE
LEARN TO LISTEN TO THE HORSE
I consider myself a horse training coach. I might train horses but professionally I teach people how to train horses and support them through the process. I understand humans and how they learn as deeply, if not more as I understand horses.
I have a simple approach to coaching people privately and at clinics. I teach training techniques, knowledge about horses and how they learn, and how to make good training decisions. To train a horse well you need to be able to understand the world from the horse’s perspective. To do this you need to be able to listen to the way they communicate.
Horses primarily communicate through their behaviour, posture, gestures and most importantly - the way they move their feet.
Training a horse involves helping a horse make sense of us by teaching them how we communicate and what we expect them to do. We can then teach them to focus on us, perform certain actions and navigate our requests. At the same time, we ensure the horse is being allowed to develop confidence and gymnastic ability at each stage of training before we expect them to do something more complex. If we progress a horse before it is confident or before it is gymnastically ready, we can damage the horse mentally or physically or both.
Therefore, at clinics I teach people to listen to horses. To start being conscious and aware of what they are doing themselves. People need to be accountable for their own consistency whether that is standing in the round pen with a whip in their hand, hanging onto the end of a lead rope or sitting in the saddle. A horse can only make sense if we are consistent in how we communicate. Finally, I teach people techniques and how to make decisions about how and when they can be utilised.
Below is a message I received from a client who has attended two of my clinics and who has made great progress with an off the track thoroughbred that she took on in very poor condition and she has rehabilitated. The mare has been progressing well at home and my client decided it was time to take her out to a show, here is the report and how she has used the knowledge and skills she has learnt from my clinic and put them into action:
“ I took Amy to a show yesterday to get her out and try a little hacking and a dressage test. There were like 40 horses out jumping, cantering around and poor girl lost her marbles and was so tense. So I had dressage first up and we were all the way away from the other horses. A few "focus loops", transitions and some yields and flexion and one bends to a stop when she was really worried and got her with me again. I parked some humans in between the fence no go zones to split (splitting) and I could feel how worried she was but she did what I asked and she tried so hard for me. We ended up coming 3rd in dressage out of 5. I full on bawled tears of joy at halt salute. Then over to hacking where she struggled to stand still or stop chewing (could just feel her brain whirling away) so I kept her moving and yielding and circles and transitions until finally she let out this huge sigh and relaxed. I got 2nd in my rider class. Wasn't there for ribbons. Still had a few classes to go but I had been on her for a while by this point and finally she stood calmly still for 30 seconds and I took my moment and got off and had another cry because I was so proud of her. Anyway, long story short thank you. I sat a buck, knew how to shut it down. I knew what to do when my horse was panicking. I knew how to calm her and split and use the environment to get the most out of her that day and even though everyone probably thinks I had a tough day I was able to get out and take your principles you taught me and use them to help Amy in a stressful situation. Helped her realise all was okay if she stayed with me. Every little moment from leading her to and from yard to getting on her at the mounting block to riding her I used as training moments and saw the gold she gave me in high stress situations. So thank you. Your ways work!”
I am proud of my client. I am proud because she focused on helping her horse. She used techniques I had taught her to help make her horse feel better and learn to cope in new environments. She saw importance in everything she expected the mare to do from leading to being mounted to finally feeling comfortable to stand still. She made good decisions and even though the show was not over she acknowledged the importance of that movement of stillness and dismounted. I admire her for giving the show a go. For being empowered to put what she had learnt into practice. For finding that starting point in training her off the track thoroughbred to be a horse that is calm and confident in show environments. While some people only saw the difficulties she experienced, she saw the progress and the try in the mare. This is an example of someone who chose her horse first, and the sport second. Someone that has learnt to listen to their horse to make good decisions.
