Greetings!
Wow! What a response to Tobi's story.
Tobi - The Dutch Warmblood that I got to use for my Curbside Service demo at the Queen Creek Horse EXPO. It's a tear jerker. Check the blog for his story if you didn't get the Special Report.
Also on the website is a new page "Six Days with a Wild Mustang". It says "6 Wild Days" on the button until my web guy makes me a bigger button! It's too long for a newsletter.
To Breesa, "Thanks for 26 years together. I love you always."
Warm time here (or is that hot? 100's). When it's hot, I get into ways to improve precision and understanding instead of working muscles and sweating profusely (both me and horse).This is so important to the horse's understanding and ours and makes the case for the subtle differences between teaching and training.
Tom Dorrance, in an interview sat talking and said "There's a gentle breeze right now as I sit here. It's very comfortable. You can't see a breeze, but you can feel it." This quote seems simple. It is. Yet... how profound. Relate it to every move you make with your horse.
"Patience is waiting. When I say patience is waiting, I don't mean that you do nothing. I see that as laziness. To me, patience is the ability to keep going when the going is slow and difficult." --Carlos Tabernaberri Something to think about here; that doesn't mean that you try to make things faster and easier. That's dominance and ego. Understand that teaching allows time; training sometimes goes for a forced result.
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So... Are You Horseman Material????
I remember a long, long time ago hearing a trainer casually remark to the person interviewing him that there's a difference between teaching and training. I also remember getting my hair up a bit as I scowled and said to myself "Semantics". Alas, upon contemplation I realized how out of line I was. As I write this, I'm working with a horse on her first half dozen rides or so. Okay, not in this moment. I'm not on her at my 'puter :D. This horse developed a habit with her person on-line of twisting her head way up and sideways and then threatening to fall on the off shoulder. She did this as an avoidance technique to scare her person. So, of course she's going to enjoy that same technique mounted if it works.
That is the background. In practice:
Let's say you want horse to turn left. If you drift your rein out to the left with some slack in it and she doesn't go left, what then? You could pull the rein hard and get her head to the left, but it wouldn't necessarily cause her feet to go left (and particularly in this horse's case as she would do that twisty thing and fall off to the right with her shoulder). At this point it's important to note that you are no longer trying to turn left. You're trying to teach the horse how you'd like her to respond when you move your rein like that! And this isn't semantics. Fix it up and wait. Hold the rein in that position and give her the time to flail and fuss and resist and fall right and backup and... etc. So that she can find HER way to the desired response. Making her go (assuming you can) is just that. It's not teaching.
Think of it as a different language. If I said the word "palabra" to you and had you repeat it, three times, you could say the word, but it wouldn't mean you knew what it meant or how to use it. If you pulled your left rein and ended up to the left you might think your horse understood pressure/direction/give/timing/feel and intent. But, not necessarily so.
There's a difference between techniques and technique, as there is a difference between teaching and training. For exceptional results, think "how and how can I".
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Upcoming stuff:
Dominance, Leadership, Control and Fear
Coercion and why it should be watched carefully in your horsemanship as it is in the justice system.
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