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Post by horseguy on Aug 12, 2016 19:02:14 GMT
What Is Horse Training? That might seem a silly question. Everybody knows what horse training is. But like so many things, the meaning has changed. This is recent a picture of a POA mare that I bought at a "give away" price from a breeder almost 20 years ago.  The caption on this picture from Throncroft where Mocha currently resides reads, "Best Pony on the Planet". The breeder sold this pony as a weanling to a woman who was going to train it. This seller was a real dedicated breeder who cared about her reputation and her ponies. She followed up on every animal she bred and sold. After two years the buyer who bought Mocha as a prospect had not established a training program with the pony, so the Breeder harassed the buyer until she sold the mare back to her. The mare by then was around 3 1/2 years old and nasty. Both the breeder and I agreed that the mare had talent. You could see how she moved in the pasture and how she used her body to be a demanding bully in the herd. The breeder cross examined me in depth about my skill and commitment and determined that I would indeed train her pony, so she sold Mocha to me at a very reasonable price. Some mares give mares a bad name. Mocha was one of those. Bite, kick, swing her butt into you, and freeze up in a stubborn passive aggressive way when she finally got it that her behavior was intolerable. She'd constantly bother other horses, break lead ropes, and did about everything a horse can do to make themselves undesirable. The only thing I could say good about this pony in the beginning was she was an easy keeper, never got sick or lame, and didn't need shoes. When she's act up I'd explain to students at the barn that Mocha a was the reason we kept all the guns in the house, which was a distance from the barn. I would further explain that in the time it took to walk to the house, get a gun and load it, my commitment to being immediately rid of her would subside. (half kidding, half telling the truth) If there was ever a horse or pony that should be sorted out and sent to the killer at the auction, it was Mocha. But like so many other horses, Mosby, Riley, and many more over my life training horses, there was something about Mocha and the rest of them like her that kept me interested. That and I have a soft spot for App mares, having had some spectacular Apps as polo horses.  My bleached out spotted App mare Sprite in her teens, one of the best polo horses I have ever had or seen, and not an easy horse to train (but easier than Mocha).What Is Horse Training? It's turning a prospect like Mocha into "the best pony on the planet", not sorting her out because she will require a lot of work, discipline, time and skill, but it's also believing that in the end it will all be worth it and it was. Here is how I trained her ... (more later) |
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Post by horseguy on Aug 13, 2016 21:04:02 GMT
So, you get a horse that almost every trainer today would sort out. As I said, you must have the skills and believe that in the end it will all be worth it. If either one of these are lacking you are most likely in for a rough time. Also, if you don't have the skills to deal with a horse that has that "worth it in the end" talent and ability, you have to ask yourself why you call yourself a horse trainer or a horse sorter. The reason Mocha was worth it was her gaits. She is 14.1 H and she rides like a 15.1 horse. Being an APP she is tough and could carry weight well. I weigh around 150 and she carried me easily. Apps also tend to be tough minded, which for me is a plus, except when it isn't. The APP toughness in mind and body is a huge asset if you can get them on the same page as you are on. I think that to train a horse like this, you have to ride them. I say this because you must establish a very business like relationship with talented independent horses and ponies like Mocha or they won't take you seriously. Many of these challenging but "worth it" prospects will jostle you around to put you where they want you. This is there way of telling you how they like to balance and that they will determine that balance with or without you. I respect that and do it there way. But I wait and look for opportunities where I can create a better unified balance than they can. That is the essence of how to establish a practical business like relationship with this type, you have to show them you have something to contribute to the unity, the balance and the whole experience. They believe you have nothing to offer. I rode Mocha through the fall. She's get angry with me regularly when I introduced new work and made her do it. I continued to compromise on things like her determining our shared balance, but the task work had to be completed to my satisfaction. There were some bucks, twists and bolts, but those were opportunities to let her know I had a whole lot more experience dealing with her type than she had dealing with my type. I think I came off her once, but I got back on and we finished the task. My boss in my first paid horse training job, who I think was a head of his time with "natural" horse training ideas, told me that horses like Mocha were stoic, and that type had to be methodically ground down into a powder so they get it.  So we rode through the fall into the winter. She never has shoes and the winter came. The trails in the woods got icy from the sun and shade and that was the beginning of our real relationship. First, I must say she always knew where her feet were. If a horse doesn't have this quality, don't use this method. We started slow and as usual I let her determine the shared balance. I rode her faster a few time in the early winter, jumped a few small jumps in the woods with her. I was trying to scare her a little, which was not easy. And then, when I felt I had her moves cataloged I pushed her hard at speed. In doing that I showed her how a rider anticipates the next balance and prepares for it before it is needed on ice. This goes contrary to how horses think. They are completely in the present, but speed over terrain in challenging footing requires anticipation. This is how she earned that I was more ready than she. We had a basis with which we could work together. This is essential. |
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Post by horseguy on Aug 14, 2016 20:32:34 GMT
A summary:
Talented independent horses and ponies are what separates the horse trainers from the horse sorters.
The steps in establishing a relationship with these types of prospects are:
(1)Ride the prospect in a manner that demonstrates that you can stay within the balance, rhythm and range of movement that the prospect determines. This builds respect from the prospect and educates the trainer as to the prospect's scope.
(2)Once the trainer has established the respect of the prospect by demonstrating that he/she can stay in the unified balance the prospect determines, the trainer teaches the prospect work tasks that the horse must accomplish correctly. Repetition and quiet steady discipline are the best means.
(3)The first two steps well established, the trainer looks for opportunities to show the horse that he/she has a significant positive contribution to the unified balance the horse needs to feel. Example, I like to use a downhill wide jump with a turn in the landing in bad footing. Since I have established that I am capable of finding and maintaining unified balance in all kinds of circumstances including riding tasks, I put the prospect to the challenging downhill jump with a turn in the landing in good footing.
It is in this challenging combination of movements that I offer a balance that is superior to the horse's anticipated balance on landing. Horse are in the moment and usually do not anticipate future required balance changes. Many do after years of experience. When I land the jump, I am already in a turning balance, outside leg and seat bone prepared for the turn and sufficient for a balanced landing. Prospects wait until the land to initiate the turn balance but I have started to do this before they have considered it. It is thus a pleasant surprise that simplifies the landing with the turn.
It is these kinds of anticipated prepared balances in a sequence of tasks that causes the horse to increase its respect for me as the trainer. By means of demonstrated superior balance before the moment (square zero) that increases, not threatens the prospects need for unity I become the obvious teacher. This is the only way to effectively train an intensely independent talented athlete of a horse. You have to be better than they are.
Horses like Mosby, Shadow, and Riley found immediate relief in knowing that hey did not have to "do it all". Horses like Sprite and Mocha were intrigued by the possibility of sharing how unified balance is determined with the rider, but continued to test that idea for many years before accepting it.
This 1, 2, 3 step is advanced horse training and necessary for some horses. A trainer can reach this level of training only through experience. If young trainer sort out these types they not only lose a potential "best pony on the planet' but also the opportunity to learn from them. It involves physical risk, but the rewards are substantial.
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Post by horseguy on Aug 15, 2016 12:03:16 GMT
There is a lot more to Mocha's training. After she became civil to ride and we worked on precision in jumping and other work the next step was generalizing her training, meaning getting her to accept all riders, not just me who could constantly pass her tests and meet her standards. This phase was about teaching her that she had to accept all riders and be more forgiving.
The main method used for this was allowing students to ride her who were good riders but not perfect. These riders would make mistakes and she would complain. Once in a while her complaint resulted in a rider on the ground. When this happened I would get on her and as the old joke goes, "I'd ride her until she thought she was dead, then I'd ride her until she wished she was dead, then I would ride her to where I was going." When she acted up she got ridden hard and long. A trainer has to be careful using this technique. Horse with weaker bodies than an App can be injured if ridden to exhaustion.
Riding an App to exhaustion can take some time. They are tough. The fact that she was a pony and I weighed 150 helped. When a horse gets tired they get more efficient, most of them. In her efficient mode she had to pay more attention to what she was doing. Thus disadvantaged mind, I think, helped her become more forgiving. She just wanted it to end and after several of these marathon rides she knew the drill. It would end with her lacking the energy to complain. If it was not too late or dark and there was a student around the barn, when she came back to the barn expecting a bath, she got a student rider on her back instead.
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Post by horseguy on Aug 18, 2016 20:14:59 GMT
If I had to write a list of Horse Training Truths, one would be "treat the horse like it is a horse".
I was driving out in the country near a farm I used to go to help a woman with her horse. She fired me because I was mean. Example, she said her horse wouldn't load and I loaded him in a few minutes using only voice. He tried to back out twice and I stopped him with voice. Apparently it was what she considered a mean voice. The final meanness straw was when the horse spun (very un-athletically) and went for the barn, I stopped him and made him canter way from the barn. I used a crop.
I talked to her about how I was working with her horse. We exchanged emails about it. In the car today I was remembering her mindset, which was that the horse was not being agreeable with her. She asked for my help because it made her upset in a "why doesn't my child love me?" kind of way. She thought that my help with her horse would be in the form of better communication, and that as an expert I could communicate enough kindness to him, as she had tried and failed to do, to make the horse care enough for her to be agreeable. She defined the problem as the horse not feeling sufficient love, affection and attention for him to listen to her and do what she asked.
As I drove I thought about her horse that tested so much, and complained when the result of his test was correction. I hoped she was OK and not hurt. I could foresee that as he took more and more control that she might get hurt. I thought about how over the past 50 years how the idea of how to deal with a horse has changed in a way that the horse is no longer treated as a horse. How did this happen? Natural horsemanship? Cultural? The gender shift in horse ownership? Animal rights? What?
Mocha, the pony this topic is about, tested. It took years to get her to stop testing while being ridden. When she left I was not done with her testing in the barn. Like I said, if a horse was ever going to be sorted out as too much trouble, it was Mocha. But in the end she took more young kids on their first fox hunt than any pony I every owned and some kind in Chester County think she s the best pony on the planet. I treated he like a horse. It's important.
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