more about round pen sessions

A few weeks back I did some round pen sessions with Z that were videotaped for another person to view. For some time, I have not felt totally comfortable with the “how and why” of the round pen. I felt that it provided too much chance for abuse, placing psychological pressure on the horse to the point that he had no choice but to submit.

After doing those sessions, I thought about it long and hard and decided I would never go back to doing traditional round pen work ever again. I knew that I did not want my horses to do things because they had to… but because they wanted too please me.

This may seem like a subtle difference but it’s a difference that changes the dynamic of the horse-human relationship from slave-to-slavemaster, to friend-to-teacher.

Generally, I work my horses in the RP in much slower ways, working on the small details that hopefully will show in the larger scheme of the work. Today I posted two new blog entries for Z’s recent round pen sessions (done my way), called Movement 1 and Movement 2 at Common Sense Horsemanship.

Dee (liberty, roundpen, riding)

Yes, indeed we rode! Not very long and just at walk but so it begins!

We also got some Liberty Work done – third session – and just working on her responding with confidence and smoothness to my requests. My eventual goal for this is to help her learn to relax while moving and transitions… if you watch closely you can see the high head carriage, stiff neck and tension in her body.

Video 1

Video 2

They are broke up to two video parts of the same session due to time constraints but overall it was about 20 minutes or so. While I broke to explain things to the camera, I won’t in the future as this was just for videotaping explanations. I was very suprised and pleased to see she was already connecting with me so much – this horse is smart and wants to please.

Some thoughts I wanted to write about how I do Round pen work:

I’m not a fan of the round pen and have stated before why. I won’t repeat all that but one thing I do want to write is my biggest issue is using it as a rodeo place to “break” your horse. This is sooooo not needed and IMO ends up damaging the relationship far more then it helps the horse get “tamed.”

If you do a search for Round pen on Youtube you will see lots of folks chasing and lunging their horses in the round pen until the horse has become a robot. If you enjoy having a robot to ride, well then go ahead and do it this way. However, I do it differently:

- a place to observe how the horse reacts when not constrained with a halter, leadrope, bridle and/or lungeline. The horse (if the person doesn’t chase them about) has choice – do they want to connect, respond or defy you?

- the horses’ reactions reveal the holes in the training, the horses’ comprehension of what you are requesting, or the cracks in the human-horse relationship. However, this can only be observed if you don’t get all worked up about “controlling” the horse in the RP.

- Observation can help you find out the horses’ weaker and stronger side, the preferred bend, if they react differently (Dee for example, is quicker to respond when bending counter-clockwise and over-reacts because this is her difficult/stiffer side) when seeing you from one side, if they know voice commands, how they feel about the whip, and how they feel about you approaching parts of their body (i.e. front, side, back, left, right).

For example, sometimes a horse will react quite differently from a human approaching their 4 o-clock then their 9 o-clock.

- Help the horse learn to respond to body cues as opposed to voice cues. This translates to saddle work when you want the horse to respond to seat cues. If the horse starts to learn in liberty to pay attention to your body, you can transpose this to riding.

- teaches the human just how much they have to do (INTENSITY) to get the horse to respond. Most of us give too strong a cue when a lot less will do. Working in this way you can start teaching yourself how much you have to do to suit each individual horse. It’s also important to realize that horses are unique …. what would work with Z, I would not do with Dee.

- games and rewards for paying attention can be done to encourage the horse to connect with you. In this video, I’m using scratches and verbal praise, and have used treats in the past, thouugh I try to mix this up so they don’t rely upon treat rewards all the time.

One of my big issues with Parelli, is people do the games way too long and frequently. If your games are all repeats to the point of boredom, your horse is learning nothing but boredom and how to tune you out. Unfortunately, I have seen several well-trained Parelli horses who became either spoiled or rebellious due to the tedium of their training. Mix it up! Advance! Your horses’ aren’t robots!

- Warmup the horse in a method that also RELAXES the horse… after this warm up we went and rode for a bit and this is how I hope to continue our work together with even more emphasis on relaxing and moving quietly and easily.

long discourse on liberty work

One reason that I raise my eyebrows and roll my eyes with Big Name Trainers is their adherence to rules. It seems to be “do only this” when in reality, horses are individualistic animals which dictate a flexible and adaptable approach to working with them.

When working with students, either riding or with ground training, it is the inflexible ones who seem to end up having the most trouble. It’s hard for them to switch gears and gauge their response by what the horse presents; this seems to be because the student – who has learned never to think for themselves and that there is only “one right way” is trying to apply linear thinking to a situation that needs lateral, problem solving.

This was no more apparent to me then today with the Liberty work with Z in the large dirt arena. I could tell she was excited because she was really stepping out when I lead her out of her pasture. When I took her through the gate, she wasn’t listening to me at all and instead had her eyes on the two Black Beauties (the owners’ Freisian mares were grazing the commons which wraps around this arena). I let her go, and sat down in a chair.

She made her way down to the opposite end of the arena so she could get closer to the mares (who thankfully ignored her). About 15 minutes of grazing the arena (unfortunately, grass has gotten back in with all this rain), she finally started to walk back down to me.

I fed her some carrots, groomed her and then she left again when I squirted some medicine on her back leg wound. At this point, most people would have gotten impatient and just haltered her, however, I had time, so I sat back down for another 10 minutes. When it was clear she wasn’t going to engage again with me, I walked down to her, fed her some carrots, turned and left slowly.

At this point she decided to follow me. What really makes me snicker about a certain Trainer is the idea of that the horse is freely following because of a connection, when in reality she uses carrots. Not hard to get a horse to connect when you have a carrot – yet are they connected to the carrot or to you? In the beginning, trust me, it’s the carrot and not your phenomenal Chi-Power.

Here is where the concept of feel starts to play a huge part in how you work with the liberty horse. Remember, the liberty horse can leave at any time, and this is a huge arena. You have to be aware of the horses’ mood and anticipate their movement before it happens.

Case in point: She followed me on a tackless lead. When I stopped she stopped. Click, treat. We walked on and started a huge circle. At times she thought about disengaging, so before that could happen, I would change my own position to that of driving from behind, walking backwards in front or sending her away…

At one point, I dropped behind her and start leading from behind. This is not a new concept – irregardless of Carolyn Resnick citing it as if she has some sort of exclusivity rights to it. Leading from Behind started long ago with driving concepts, and is also detailed in works by Klaus Hempfling (Zone 3 p. 67 Dancing with Horses) and Linda Tellington-Jones. Resnick just puts the old “Monty-Roberts-Learned-from-the-Wild-Horses” spin on it which seems to appeal to the romantically minded, horse person.

Hempfling's Zone 3 - from behind

Being behind the horse you have two choices: to follow the lead horse as if you are a partner letting the horse be in charge; or to direct the horse in front as if you are “driving”, selecting pace and direction. I find it useful to switch in-between these roles.

The horse partnership is not always with us as leaders and definitely should not always have the horse slavishly following us at all times, esp. not during liberty work which should allow more free will to encourage the horses’ beautiful movement.

Zone 3, Hempfling writes has medium dominance, optimal development of independence, self-responsiblity and confidence. This is why, horses who “don’t wanna” will often react strongly and leave when you are in Zone 3. You are putting a lot of mental pressure upon them and they have the maximum potential to make the decision to leave (as opposed to say, Zone 1).

Zone 3 directing from behind

What is interesting with Behind driving is that horses which are tuned out, abused or have been over-used by humans, will wander off from you and you lose their interest – in their mind you are just being a bully.

While, the strong-willed horse (like Z) will eventually get fed up with you in this position, and will also leave – generally at a higher rate of speed and like today with a good kick from behind (“fuck you!”) as an exclamation point.

Before the horse can disengage, you must time it where you leave the Behind position and go back from leading from Front, sideways companion walking, or sending away.

Leading from Front is Hempflings’ Zone 1 which has greatest dominance, minimal independence on the horses’ part, and where developing the horses’ self-responsibility is not really possible. However, Zone 1 is the position to start in when you have a horse who is really not listening – if you started in Zone 3, the horse would disengage before you could connect.

Hempfling's Zone 1 - in front, facing, walking backwards

The point being is this is a fluid conversation and very much based upon how the horse is feeling that particular day, the horses’ level of training, the horses’ personality or amount of self-will, and your relationship with that horse.

To sum up today’s session with LadyZ: When she did not want to engage, I walked up to her, Said Hello (Carolyn Resnick’s term), fed a carrot and left. When she followed, I went into Zone 1 and she did a Tackless Lead down the arena showing me she was interested in working together and getting more carrots.

At one point when I felt her attention drifting, I went back to Behind (Zone 3) for about 6 horse lengths. Then I would move away, slowing my pace, often stopping or backwards walking to widen the distance between us. She would naturally follow (horses follow what moves away from them – whether that is from curiousity or just “hey! don’t leave me!” I don’t know but it seems universally true with them).

From Zone 1, I would drift to her shoulder (Zone 2) and using the whip behind me with slow taps on the ground keep her momentum (not allowing her to stop). If she was getting too close (her pushy horse behavior), I would fan the whip faster and raise my knees, signaling her to trot off – usually sending her away from me about 4 horse lengths.

What is interesting to note here is that when you send a dominant horse off, they often will react strongly – rearing, bucking, striking out or running off is not uncommon. Be prepared for it.

However, what is very interesting is no matter how strongly they object to being sent away, they come back, wanting to re-connect, almost as strongly as they left! Personally, I like it when there are strong objections to leaving – it generally means they will quickly re-engage.

The further she pulled away the less movement I would use – often just stopping. Then she would turn and walk back to me. Click and Treat.

dangerous games

Today I played the Chase the Tiger game with Pandora. It’s been some time since I had the time to really just play with pony. The BO’s young daughter was there and she assisted.

I’ve played this game with pony and LadyZ but quickly decided not to pursue it any further with the filly. This is why I am cautious about providing training tips to people with horses I do not know. The horses’ personality plays a huge part in deciding the right approach.

For example, Pandora could take the excitement of the game and even though she chases, with pinned ears, and intent to kill, she ALWAYS knows it is a game. You can see this in how quickly she stops when she hears the click and then politely, ears forward, awaits her treat.

With LadyZ, the game quickly became an obsession with Intent to Maim and Kill! She made no differentiation between the object she was going to bite, destroy, and pound on ME!

I found that this game actually increased her aggression. Instead of teaching her that the game had boundaries, she took it as a license to do whatever she pleased! If you have been reading this blog, you know that she is indeed no “shrinking violet” that needs to be “drawn out of her shell.”

Instead she is a bold, strongwilled, and dare we say, stubborn, filly that knows she is the center of the universe and that she has a crown on her head giving her all sorts of privileges and rights over mere mortals.

Once again, returning to Hempflings’ What Horses Reveal, the personality of the horse (and in this book he believes physical characteristics reveal the inner horse) dictates how the horse’s work is approached. Before ever playing this game with your horse, you better have a really good idea that he/she is going to stop and not run you over, trampling you and leaving a bunch of little hoofprints on your forehead.

The flag (“Tiger”) is attached to a lunge line. You could use some sort of other combination of objects. General ideas you could use it for:

• Targeting (horse touches target which is the flag tiger)
• Teaching free lunging (horse circles, chasing or following tiger)
• Free jumping (horse follows target over a jump)
• Head position (using a stiffer pole, the tiger could be moved up or down to adjust head and neck during free lunge work)
• Head down (as seen in the above video)
• Expressive play for non-aggressive horses
• Warm up play to energize the lazy or laid back horse
• Free play exercise with no purpose (as opposed to concentrated, focused work with goals in mind).

For the horse that is disconnected from humans, used to boring structured and repetitive work, the Tiger game might be appropriate; for the fearful, highly strung, defensive and/or aggressive horse (fight first ask questions later), this may not be the way to go.

Mindfulness: Horse Meditation (part 3)

Have you ever had a magical moment, where across the room your eyes meet a perfect strangers? Immediately the two of you seem to breathe in and out at the same time, and start to walk to each other. As you approach, time slows down… your world shrinks to a magic bubble that only contains the two of you… afterwards you don’t remember anything but a wave of timelessness and magic.

Like I had written in an earlier post in this series, trainers who have success have an intent focus on the horse during the training process. This mindfulness – awareness of the moment – translates to the horse who reciprocates with full attention. The two of you synch and the dancing magic begins….

Klaus Hempfling

Stina

Kim and Shoki

When starting out, some tips:

1.) Remove distractions. Don’t have an audience that you speak with. If you need someone around for safety, make sure it’s someone you feel comfortable making mistakes and who is not rushed and patient with the time you need.

2.) Spend a lot of time with your horse doing nothing. Realize as you “do nothing” your mind keeps breaking away to skitter back to ‘real’ life (i.e. bills, errands, what you should be doing, boredom, worry, etc…) Keep returning to blankness, where only the horse and what he is doing now matters. This is a Horse Meditation for me.

3.) Work the horse slowly. Have no objections but watching, listening and responding. As the horse moves you do so in concert. Notice the body posture of those working their horses. Their tall carriage, movement with the pelvis, the energy of their movements, and the give and take as the horse settles with this new idea of working together.

4.) Don’t expect it all to synch in one go – or even two. Like any partnership it takes time to become easier to understand each other.

5.) Whenever you find you can’t hold the focus any longer, end on a good note. If that means you only got 10 minutes done, so be it. Concentration and focus comes with practice.

6.) Do less. Whenever you feel your horse or you is getting frustrated, cut down on your movements, pressure and expectations. All horses can regain their sensitivity to us, given the time to be rewarded with that return focus.

Time to Dance!