Guides along the Way

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

 ~ Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C

If you are seeking that connection with your horse that is outside the traditional experience, then there are three books I strongly recommend. These are the three that have rocked my world in the last 12 months and while they are not “easy reads” and can be overwhelmingly confusing at times, they provide profound insight.

That is the sticking point. Profundity does not come from simply wishing to understand. It comes through reflection, meditation, processing, external practice, and internal comprehension as truth.

What Horses Reveal by Klaus Hempfling: provides horse archetypes which can help you understand the nature of your horse and how it would determine the training path.

I have long puzzled over this book and only had a breakthrough in understanding this last month. I was being too left brained. These are  concepts of an archetypical horse – a horse who reflects a distilled essence of personalities found all around us.

In past blog entries, I’ve discussed The Minister, the Modest One, the Victor and the Origin. More then personality types, these ideas connect into our desires and dreams.

Gallop to Freedom by Magali Delgado and Frederic Pignon. The Cavalia group discusses their philosophy and how they interact with their horses. I am still immersing myself into this book, finding more in it’s deceptively storybook pages then a first glance could decipher.

Delgado and Pignon will not teach you how to teach your horse how to bow and rear upon command. This is NOT what this book is truly about and those seeking that information will be disappointed.

Again, I cannot stress enough that these three choices are not “how to train a trick horse” A to Z book. Approach them as philosophical tomes about the nature of the horse and how man can achieve enlightenment through the mirror.

Empowered Horses by Imke Spilker. Of the three, Spilker’s book is the most approachable for the beginner and the traditionalist. She lays out clearly the mental and physical aspect of the horse and how we can enter their world. This book, like the others, is NOT a how-to train a horse to achieve a certain end. It is a powerful connector of the philosophies cited in the above volumes. 

I received this book over the weekend, and if there is a starting point this is the first signpost helping you enter a world on the other side of the Looking Glass.

Spilker doesn’t wrap it up in mystical mumbo jumbo. There is no “learned it with the wild horses” baloney but OTOH she is not a meat and potatoes, traditional horse trainer. This is an extremely dense book with a lot of excellent illustrative photos. It connected the dots between Hempfling and Cavalia to me in a blinding way.

There are many trainers out there – many ideas. I present those who I have a personal interest in and who I feel can offer with integrity their involvement with the horse.

I tend to be more left brain then right brain. I am a logical thinker who wants to know hands on how does this work…? However, I also know there is good and power in the artistic, intuitive side of our natures. I have to make a conscious effort to let go of my goals and plans to reach that hidden side. Some days that is a struggle.

Meanwhile, I’ve watched right brain people put themselves into dangerous positions with horses and then become disappointed when the horse didn’t love them in the manner they believed would happen. These are the folks with no plan, no goals, no understanding of the horse because they allow too much sentimentality to cloud their reason.

Strive for balance…. Remove the mystical “biographies” (much of which is disproved upon investigation) from a trainer and then ask if their method is meaningful to you. However, don’t underestimate those that are hard to comprehend. Enlightenment requires patience and an open, yet discerning, mind.

Goodbye 2010 and good riddance

Generally, I don’t write reflective end of the year posts, and this year is one that I’m glad to see the backside of… however, in the spirit of the season, I’ll post some thoughts on 2010:

My biggest insight with the horses came when I was working Z with the neckrope. The Mirror Exercise is one I need to do more with and I know there is a video still awaiting to be published on it.

The biggest influence in books came from Gallop to Freedom by Pignon of Cavalia. Again a surprise because I was expecting it to be a coffee book, fluff piece but it really grabbed my heart and shook me up.

The biggest personal change in my life was deciding to go back to school and start working towards being a certified Vet Tech. I have a B.A. in journalism but have no more interest in continuining in that field (yes, I have been a news reporter and worked in public relations – for reasons not important to this blog, I want to go a different direction at this time in my life).

Probably the biggest benefit of going back to school is meeting people and getting interested in something outside of family and home. I have a tendency towards clinical depression and 2010 was quite a struggle in that area but attending school has helped me by pulling myself out of myself. Even though it did turn out to be harder then I thought at the time of signing up.

The biggest worry all year long was Big Guy. His series of accidents put him underweight going into the fall and I officially retired him. I struggled with that decision all year long – a year compounded with multiple injuries to him by Lady Z, on and off again lameness, and simply just not the horse I want to be riding right now. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is definitely the right decision for him.

I also contemplated moving him into a retirement home but could never find anything that cost-wise would have worked.

The biggest surprise was Dee’s arrival. While I love her with all my heart, she also scares me right down to my toes! The challenges she presents are none that I’ve ever dealt with before – I have to learn a lot of new stuff and that is time consuming!

I don’t feel like I’ve done right by her this fall – with very little riding and it has me feeling very guilty. I need to stop being wishy-washy and get with it.

My biggest frustration was the current barn. Things didn’t go as smoothly as I wanted. We ended up having to put in a lot of man hours to get the area pulled together- and I still need to make a decision for 2011 hay storage and buy more stall mats.

With the length of the drive out there, it has not saved me the money that I had forseen. OTOH, I love the amenities, it’s right down the road from the Vet Tech school (literally like 5 miles!) and overall, the price isn’t too bad considering everything.

On family:

Unfortunately, my daughter has done some surprising things this fall which were totally unexpected and will have long term consequences on herself and the family. I need to make some proactive decisions for her welfare but the magnitude of the situation is often overwhelming.

My son has another year of school and then will be graduating from high school. As a mother, of course I am excited but also a bit concerned. Hm. Probably more excited for him though as he has a sensible head on his shoulders and though he will naturally make mistakes and have his rough patches, I have confidence in him.

More turmoil was felt in the relationship I have with hubby when I issued an ultimatium this summer about the course of our life. He finally got serious though and took some long called for action – we are waiting to see if it will bear fruit in the next month.

mimicking communication

After reading Gallop to Freedom (Pignon) it got me thinking about using more mimicking play in my work with the horses. Pignon writes about how he will experiment with imitating the horses to see how they respond. While I’ve done a bit with my horses, I’ve never had a lot of success.

Which got me to thinking about Eric Cussons and how he behaves when interacting with the chimps he rescues and installs in the Jane Goodall Chimp Eden sanctary.

Some things before I discuss Eric’s work. First, I am not a fan of chimps. They actually are my least favorite animal. While I’m not a fan I do not support anyone abusing these animals or “making” them foster children. They deserve to live like nature intended and are not “tame” in any sense of the word.

If you watch this show enough, you know that secondly chimps are extremely dangerous. An adult chimp has the strength of 5-7 men; your arm could be ripped off, and indeed, the head manager of the facility is missing fingers due to an incident.

Yes, indeed, these are no “pets” and a horrible chimp attack in the U.S. (don’t read the article unless  you have a strong stomach) should prove that these animals need to be under the management of trained personnel in an enclosure suited to their emotional and physical needs.

However, let’s get back full circle to how this applies to horses, training and me…

After thinking about the shows I’ve watched of Eric interacting with the chimps, I realized that perhaps I was not exaggerating my vocalizations, expressions and body language enough. Indeed, in Klaus Hempflings’ Dancing with Horses, you can see by the photos and video that Hempfling has strong and emphatic body language.

Let me be clear that I do not mean actions that would alarm the horse into flight or fight behavior. That is where the gauge of treating each horse uniquely comes into it: Z may need more “loud” requests; Dee and T-man need substantially less.

I’ve been experimenting with Z and Dee these last two weeks. If you are sharp you can catch it in the videos I’ve done recently.

When a horse exhales, I blow out – loudly and audibly.

When a horse snorts, I snort and blow out a deep breath.

When a horse flutters their lips with an exhale or snort, I ****brrrrrr*** my mouth with an exhale.

If their head lowers, I lower my head.

While I do have the horses copy me when walking or trotting, I’ve noticed that I need to make my transition into a stop much more dramatic for a horse response.

It’s been interesting and the results have been fascinating. Z knows that something is definitely up. She has almost a *shocked*WTF?*alert*are you crazy?* look on her face when I do it. She locks onto me immediately and will often repeat what I’ve done.

You can observe this same behavior in horse groups. One horse drops and rolls. Then another, then a third. It goes through the herd like a ripple. If you are really paying attention the same thing happens for fly swatting, snorting, or even drinking water – one horse starts, another copies.

One of the points of encouraging snorting and blowing, is this is a sign the horse is relaxing. A horse that blows or snorts, will automatically lower their head (perhaps it’s to just blow out the sinuses?) and his body structure relaxes.

This returns to the idea of teaching head down. If a horse has the head lowered, he would be relaxed. Ergo, a tense horse should lower the head to change the mental state which changes the physical state.

As we are blowing and snorting, mimicking each other, the horse becomes more relaxed, imitating me as if I’m a member of their herd family who is communicating to them that everything is cool and groovy.

However, it does make for a funny time at the barn…

Understanding begins…

I am standing on the brink  of great understanding. Things are becoming clearer in the work and a depth that I have been searching for is being realized.

Things that I have not grasped, that elusive star out of reach, is now a possiblity. Much to do and learn still (of course) but yet, an orgasmic intellectual joy in seeing mind and body and spirit aligning.

Many events over the last two months have conspired to start me down this path…

Gallop to Freedom has been so helpful; things that I have been believing from Klaus Hempflings, Dancing with Horses and What Horses Reveal came into focus with Gallop.

Reading What Horses Reveal this week, soaking into the first two sections which explores the symbolic and even mythological Jungian-style aspect of the horse: Horse as Chaos and Mirror. Things that I had thought I understood, were suddenly cast into a different light…

By coincidence (?) or serendipty, some of this actually relates to Julians’ latest post…that of the Shepherd (which Hempfling discusses in some depth) - and the relationship the Shepherd has with the sheep that he leads or is led by…?  and the Fool, or Child Aspect (which again is part of the approach Hempfling encourages in keeping an open mind to learning about your horse (aside – did  you Julian understand that Graydeer in the story is this aspect…?)

Hempfling talks about a series of photos of him working with a horse: is he leading the horse or is he putting himself in the place that the horse will go?

Revealing work with Z tonight in doing this Mirror exercise – putting myself in the path that Z wanted to go, (to the Centered Riding exercise Dancing Hands and paired Tantra breathing exercises).

A halter, leadrope and two beings facing each other, focused and moving back and forth with no end. It didn’t last long but is the key to the door opening the path I want to go…

Working the girls

Putting together some thoughts from Gallop to Freedom and Dancing with Horses and even Ride the Right Horse, with other thoughts on Relaxation (from Gallop and EndoTapping)… I decided to spend some time with the mares and do some experimenting:

1.) Respecting my boundaries. As I’ve said before I’ve left that slip. I enjoy Z being with me and caressing my hair but I’ve probably let the familiarity go a bit too far, since she is a dominant horse.

When I went up to the paddock today, I was on Big Guy and Dee’s side. Dee came over to check me out and Z came up on her side. I thought “uhoh!” as their challenging natures had led to a Girl Fight, taking down a cemented 4×4 post and four 2×6 boards…. I told them they could stay and get lovin’s but they needed to behave and respect my space.

While standing at the fence, I started scratching Dee’s withers, and through the fence, Z’s chest. Dee moved over and started grooming Z’s withers and Z had a look like hmmm??! However, everyone behaved nicely so they got rewarded and hopefully did some sisterly bonding too.

2.) Paying attention. Though Hempfling talks about concentration and focus when working the horse, I was really struck by Pignon’s comments in Gallop and of course the attitude of Mindulfness from Yoga and Tantra.

I thought, hmmm, maybe I need to be more aware if the horse is paying attention to me before asking for something – and how can I gain that attention in a non-forceful manner?

When working Z in the Round pen today, I used the slender long lead I use for pony – because of it’s light weight, this lead provides very little pressure; the weight of a heavy lead rope does give more pressure. We did some “dancing” – walking and trotting to body language and word command, with scratches as rewards.

Like anything, you can go overboard about the Attention thing. Several times, Z looked out to where the Freisians where grazing, and I just gently tapped her shoulder with the end of my dressage whip tassle. Also, I kept the sessions short: free grooming; then a break while I went to get some water (she rolled in the RP); then some W-T dancing, another break to graze and then up to the barn for a cooling bath.

3.) Reducing Pressure to that of a Butterfly. With sensitive horses that have natural talent in moving, such as Dee and Beautiful Boy, I’ve found that people start off with shouting when they could be whispering their cues.

With Dee my RP work was without the lead as when she starts she trots off a bit wild, head held rigidly high. I suspect that her prior training (by the person who bought her from PGFarms), involved a bit of force and a lot of ‘snap to it now!’ 

This goes back to the ideas in Gallop and Endo-tapping – a horse can’t learn when it is tense, or if it does learn anything it is more tenseness! We need to produce an element of calm-awareness instead of wary/panicked-alertness.

What I notice with Dee is some of what Big T has shown me: a pushiness that is coupled with senstivity.

1.) Both of them can use size to push in and get what she/he wants (such as through gates) but this is done without pinned ears – it seems more like an attitude of Noblesse Oblige;

2.) Both can ignore gentle requests to straighten up and fly right. Yet, when you correct them they might jig or bounce away, totally offended and over-reactive;

3.) Both will move off a cue/aid request very lightly when paying attention and may even be directed by the slightest request.

The pushiness will be dealt with in setting boundaries. For example, Dee can be too nibbly so now when she starts to lip at me, I wave my hand gently and send her back a step to be an arm’s distance away. She can come back if there is no mouth.

Because Dee can be a hard to catch horse, I don’t want to send her too far away – there is a seesaw balance of togetherness, boundaries, respect, and pushiness. Things will keep moving up and down with a horse like this and the point is to bring her into perfect balance.

When we use too much pressure, it results in one of two things happening, sometimes even at the same time: the horse shuts down and ignores people, becoming bored and emotionally hardened; and/or becomes highly reactive and goes easily over the top in behavior in relation to the request.

An example of this is the halter. Dee will now willingly approach me; she actually seeks me out. Yet, once the halter comes out, she tosses her head up, evading it. Today, was no exception.

Okay, I thought and just went back to standing under the tree, scritching Z over the fence. Dee approached again and touched the halter; I rubbed it against her face gently, which she accepted, but when I tried to put it on, she once again stepped away, raising her head.

Okay, back to the fence, and scritching Z. Dee approached again and when she touched the halter, I scritched her withers. I let her stand with us for a few moments and then tried to halter again (BTW this is done slowly and without drama). She slipped out of the noseband, yet again, so Iwent back to the fence.

After about four times, she finally came over and put the nose into the halter, holding her head down so I could latch it.

She’s a smart cookie and knows that she can’t leave with me until the halter is on but right now she is undecided if it is worth it. It’s up to me to convince her through patient persistence and reward that it is worth it.

4.) Mimicking and Communication. Again, from reading Gallop, I decided I would try some mimicking behavior in an attempt to communicate with the horses and see what the horses thought about it.

The funniest result today was from Dee: At one point she snorted with that long fluttering nostril, exhalation of breath horses do when they relax and the head comes slightly down. I did the same, making an exaggerated brrumph, vibrating noise with my own lips.

Dee fluttered/exhaled again. louder, bringing her head lower. I repeated. We must have done that like four times! So when we started doing the liberty dancing whenever she would relax in her body stance, I would lip-flutter-vibrate and might even bend my head to look at the ground… she then would repeat it back to me!

Cool huh? I am sure Dee is wondering what the heck is going on with this strange human… heehee