Although the natural horsemanship methods I attempt to follow relate to herd hierarchy and relationships, somehow I've lost my way a bit so a timely visit from my friend Susan (who has been studying and working with herd dynamics for many years) is a huge help and learning her approach is taking me right back to basics and making sense of a what is going wrong. Already since her visit there is a difference in Lucie's attitude and she seems much happier to have our relationship and position more clearly defined.
There is some old video footage of me with her before she went lame, where she is really connected & engaged in playing around some obstacles at liberty. So I needed to find out what had gone wrong. I felt that although my horse looks for leadership, at the same time she questions it & imposes herself for example, by blocking me with her body or head. I have been confused about this, but the answer is that I have been confusing my horse!
Susan noticed that when I was handling Lucie I was making a lot of movements which were giving imprecise signals with my body and the rope and being very confusing for my horse. I hadn't realised quite how bad my rope work & body language had got! When you are on your own you don't see these things, except through your horse, and I did know my ability to interest her had gone right off recently, and she is uncomfortable around the obstacles. As Susan observed, she goes through the motions, knows what is expected such as going around the tires, but her body language says she's not enjoying it. Some video here of me:
http://youtu.be/ZvYyUajvZdc
When we changed places, I immediately noticed that Susan's body language is very calm, assured & clear. Her shoulders invite the horse to follow her and when she stops, she is firm & still; when she moves off, it is a clean movement and she takes the horse with her. My body is all over the place in comparison - so that's something I need to work on. I know these things but I haven't been applying myself... must do better! http://youtu.be/13g1WxS42wM
It may look very simple stuff but here are the building blocks of a good foundation for the relationship with your horse in which the horse accepts your leadership and from that, your ideas.
I must emphasise that the problems I have been having are of my making, because I am following certain training methods but applying them badly - the fault is mine, not the horse or the training methods! I will be working on myself very hard now, my body language and energy control particularly, and no more flapping about vaguely with the rope and hands. My aim is to have a happy horse who wants to do things for me; if I don't it's my fault. You can make a horse do something, but can you get them to want to do it... I am better at saying it than doing it, but hopefully thanks to Susan's help, we are going to get back on track.
Some of Susan's comments:
"Lucie uses very readable body language and some of it is clear and some very subtle!!
I started by walking the area, owning the space and dictating our path, all the time watching her reactions and reading the signals she was displaying, the main things she did were to block with her head into my space, it was quite subtle but clearly showed her to be trying to take a dominant role in our new relationship, I moved her back and pushed her head away then led her off. Her flat back ears were another signal of her not totally accepting the situation as were the focusing of her attention outside of the area when she decided her blocking wasn't having an effect. As I said she is quite subtle with her language and it could be overlooked if you were not reading her, at some points she turned in when halted and again blocked me I responded by doing what another Alpha horse would and cut across her brushing her head out of the way with my body and walking positively in a different direction this forced her to follow my lead which she actually did willingly. Once she started to understand her position in our pairing her ears became much softer and responsive to my language, she halted with soft interested ears flicking towards me, she was still blocking with her head at first but was told each time to move it out of my space she accepted this with soft ears and body language and she stopped blocking very quickly, each time she respected what was being asked of her she was rewarded with a lowering of energy and a stroke on the neck or head. It is very important to build up the asks in a session in small steps, reading the horse each time and responding clearly in the correct way that they understand.
She is a lovely mare and once she has clear signals and bounderies presented to her she definately starts to respond well, the only problem at the moment is she tires quickly and it is important to keep the sessions short with the opportunity to follow the same method outside the area on walks to keep her interested and alert, this is something Sheila has been doing since the visit.
I would say that Sheila is too hard on herself and working alone is not easy especially if you start to go stale and have no-one there with a second pair of eyes to pick up on things that maybe need a different approach, Sheila is very capable and experienced and will definately get her relationship with Lucie back on track."
"The pressure and release in Herd Dynamics are used as a mare would with her foal to start with, just placing the horse in the foal position each time and correcting them when they overstep or start to take the lead, all the time building up the very close mirroring that the mare needs to establish to keep the foal safe, when she moves the foal moves when she stops the foal stops etc etc, once this has been established the distance between the two will be increased but always retaining the connection. Once they understand this then the relationship of other herd members and the language they use to move each other around is introduced, it always starts with small gestures and asks and only increases in energy if the horse does not respond. I say it is like teaching a child to read, small sounds and words to begin with, praising each time and not moving up to the longer words until they understand the small ones and how they connect together. With horses the language is the body and its energies.
Pressure should be subtle and release immediate upon compliance, exactly how horses use it."
If you like what you read, and would like to know more about herd dynamics and how to use it in your training, or would like some similar help from Susan, this is her website: http://herddynamics.wordpress.com/
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